31 Days to Slash Your Grocery Spending
Today is Day 3 of the challenge and your assignment: Clean and Organize the Refrigerator and Freezer.
YAY!!! I know you’ve been waiting for this day 😉 …trust me, you’ll thank me later.
When was the last time you cleaned out your refrigerator. If I don’t keep up with mine, it turns into a nightmare quickly. And that’s when problems arise. Food is forgotten about and becomes a science experiment. Good food, too. The Sunday dinner leftovers from 3 weeks ago that would have made a delicious lunch–slimy. Or the expensive organic yogurt that got lost in the back corner behind the Sunday dinner leftovers–better not do the smell test!
And when a half eaten carton of ice cream goes bad due to freezer burn, I have been known to sob real tears.
Throwing ice cream away is sacrilege. The pain is real, and it needs to stop!
So blare some fun music to get you motivated, because TODAY, we’re cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer.
Steps to Clean & Organize your Refrigerator/Freezer
We are going to use the same steps that we used yesterday to clean and organize the pantry.
1. Remove everything from the refrigerator. You will need to work fast on this challenge so foods aren’t sitting on the counter too long. Sort all of the food by category. Discard out of date foods.
2. Clean the inside of the refrigerator with warm sudsy water. Be sure to rinse well. Dry with clean cloth.
3. Place everything back in the fridge. Organize like foods together.
According to the USDA, the temperature of your refrigerator should be set at 40 degrees F or lower. The door is the warmest part of the fridge, so do not store perishable foods and instead use the door to store things that aren’t prone to spoiling, like condiments. Eggs should actually be kept in the carton and stored on a lower shelf where it is the coldest. Also, on the lower shelf, pick one spot to keep your raw meat. Clean that area often. If you don’t think you’ll use the raw meat in time before it spoils, place in the freezer. For more storage information, check out the USDA’s website.
4. Repeat this process with your freezer.
5. Now that your refrigerator and freezer are cleaned and organized, you should be able to see what you have on hand. Take an inventory of what is on hand. You will be using this inventory on day 4.
To follow along all month, follow daily on Facebook. I will be cleaning my refrigerator and freezer today. I’ll post pictures of my progress. Let us know how you’re doing too.
Also bookmark the 31 Days to Slash Your Grocery Spending category page so you can check in daily.
