Friday, March 11, 2011

Functional Fridge

So, this isn't on my list of things to do in 52 weeks, but it needed to be done and replacing our appliances was the motivation I needed. We'll see how long it looks like this. We went from a standard fridge/freezer combination to a freezer on the bottom model.

So this is what it looked like before - see my lovely FridgeSmart containers from Tupperware. Melynda suggested I buy them. They arrived just before Christmas and I've already saved over a hundred dollars because of them...and they cost me less than $100.

old fridge inside

Notice there is no light...I didn't replace it when it died last MAY because I thought it would motivate us to go shopping for new appliances. We waited so long, that it turned out to our advantage. We were only going to replace the fridge and stove, but we managed to save enough to replace the dishwasher too. I'm so happy with our purchases! Anyway, back to the fridge.

Now it looks like this (and can I say, I'm so glad our fridge was going to the scrap yard and I didn't have to clean it before it left):

new fridge inside
The FridgeSmart containers fit so well and I love that I don't have to kneel on the floor to get in the crisper drawers. We even have a designated lunch shelf (under the cheese/meat drawer). It doesn't happen often, but occasionally when a hungry person comes home from the night shift, lunch for the next day is mistakenly eaten. So the rule: if it's on that shelf (second from the top on the right) it's not to be touched. And if it's elsewhere, it's game unless it has a do not eat label.

Leftovers live on the top right and they are game for middle of the night eating.

This is the old fridge. The door drove me nuts. The bar for the second shelf was a bit too low and most things just fell over.

old fridge door
The new fridge is awesome...it even has room for the juice and milk in the door.

new fridge door
Our freezer drove me nuts because I felt like whenever I needed something, it was in the very back and I had to unload the fridge completely.

old freezer
Stuff in the door often fell on the floor when the freezer was opened. UGH!

old freezer
But the new freezer is awesome...lots of space and with two sets of drawers that pull out there's room for everything AND if it's at the back of the drawer it's still accessible.

new freezer
And, as always, there was stuff to get rid of.

expired condiments
All of this had expired:

  • Two bottles of Little Creek Dressing (different flavours), each with about 1/2 inch of dressing left
  • Two bottles of Kraft dressing, one with 1/2 inch left and one full one (UGH)
  • Two bottles of lime juice, each with about 1/4 cup of juice
  • Slivered almonds
  • Coconut
  • Maraschino cherries - these have been in here for ages. Like I think maybe I moved from the Hobbit Hole with them. I moved over five years ago!
  • About 1/4 cup of dried out dried cranberries. I'm not even sure why they were even in the fridge
  • Thai red curry paste - it was solid. Not paste-y, solid.
  • And the best thing ever...Dijon mustard that had changed colour and expired in 2004. WHAT? That's how often I eat mustard, obviously
So my goals for my new fridge are to keep the finger prints off as much as possible (but I'm only allowed to clean it once a day - max) and keep the inside organized. Which is much easier when I plan my meals.

7 comments:

  1. Your fridge looks amazing!! One suggestion I have given about the Fridgesmart is to actually take out the crisper drawers and put the containers there to open up more room in your fridge. Or fill up the drawers with condiments.

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  2. Ooh...that's a great suggestion - there's not a lot in our fridge right now, but that will change when summer comes! There's a bag of apples in one crisper and a bag of oranges in the other right now, so they're not empty. I love those container...I'm lazy with my lettuce and I hated how quickly the boxes went bad...but when I dump them in the FridgeSmart instead, they last almost a week past the expiry date...when I left it in the original container, I found it usually started to go slimy and gross a couple of days BEFORE the date!

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  3. We bought a new frig too and I love it. So much easier to see leftovers, and easier on my back. Congrats!

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  4. Great job on the fridge. I just recently did that too & our 'lunch spot' is under the cheese/meat drawer too.... funny. I found these things called Fridge Binz that help even further keeping things organized. (http://www.amazon.com/Interdesign-Fridge-Binz-Tray-Clear/dp/B003JHPFXS)

    Keep up the good work!!

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  5. Oooh...those Fridge Binz look cool! I feel like the space under the meat and cheese drawer is usually wasted space (at least in my fridge) so being able to put our lunches there makes me happy! It helps too that the shelves in our fridge pull out...

    ReplyDelete