Confession time. I am a chronically disorganized mommy.
You heard me - disorganized. So much so that, despite my adoration of all things edible, our fridge had become a repository for fuzzy and, in some cases, slimy things formerly known as food.
So, in desperation (or was it fear?), I came up with a plan that would keep our family's perishables intact and the evolutionists at bay. Here's what I did:
The Clean-Out
First, I donned my haz-mat suit...okay, it wasn't that bad! Actually, I slapped on rubber gloves and toted heavy-duty garbage bags and removed all the contents of our fridge. Assorted bottles of salad dressing and a couple of bags of green goo later, I found the back of our appliance and, surprisingly, discovered some nifty features - like sliding shelves that I didn't know we had.
Naturally, the next step was scrubbing. Armed with a tub of soapy water, I removed every shelf and drawer and applied some hard-core elbow grease until they sparkled.
The Purge
The second step was figuring out what to keep and what needed to go. Logically, anything that had no similarity to its former shape - like a completely flat avocado - went bye-bye. And, it was easy to downsize when I had 3 open containers of tzatziki.
Allow me to offer some advice at this juncture: let go of the variety, people! Remember when a certain food company came out with different colours of ketchup? There is beauty in simplifying - stick with red! Didn't the BareNaked Ladies sing about dijon ketchup? Those days are gone, my friends.
The Restock
Next, I decided where all foodstuffs would now reside in our spanking-clean chilling machine. The door shelves are a dandy place to store all those bottles, jars and tubs (thus eliminating the aforementioned multiples problem). I've even devoted a shelf to all things dairy and one to leftovers. It is a beautiful thing.
The Final Step
Ah, the maintenance phase. Our fridge door now has a handy chart on the front to record when any leftovers go in. I record the date, item description and when to discard. I, quite simply, have evolved. That reminds me, does anyone know the number for the local university? I saved a new species of bacterium they might like to identify for me.
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