I printed three of these sheets – one for each of the two garage fridges and one for the basement fridge.
I put one on each fridge, except the kitchen fridge, and circled what goes in that particular fridge and freezer.
I told Vince . . it isn’t hard. Just let me put everything in the fridge as it comes into the house and when you take something out, put it back in whichever fridge you got it from. If you forget and can’t figure it out from the list, stick it in the kitchen fridge and tell me that you did it and I’ll put it where it belongs.
The Jeremy fridge is supposed to have cheese. There are two big drawers and one smaller drawer. I filled all three of those drawers with cheese. There was more I couldn’t even put in the drawers so I left it in grocery sacks on a shelf. There were four grocery sacks overflowing with cheese. You know we won’t eat that much cheese and some of it is probably already bad but I didn’t have time to go through it all last night.
I will have to make some changes. The freezer in the Jeremy fridge (side by side) is so small. When I buy groceries for two or three weeks, there’s not a lot of room in that freezer for as many frozen veggies as I buy. I also had planned to store butter in that freezer but there’s not a good place in there to store butter. I didn’t want anything stored in the basement freezer because I use it for freeze dryer trays but the shelf on the door should hold as much butter as I like to keep on hand so I think I’ll move the butter to that freezer. Vince isn’t one to use butter so it’s ok if the butter is in the basement.
There will be some changes along the way but I’m so hoping that plan will work.
Cindy F says
Good luck!! I hope it works!! I’m trying to think about organization too when the new fridge comes. I had planned on going to the grocery store today but now I’m thinking I won’t. There is nothing I have to have and I need to use up some of what we have before Monday….lol
RuthW in MD says
I am sure that you will figure out a way to train Vince not to shop/buy so much. It will just take time to make tweeks and 1% differences (check out Britain’s Cycle Racing team) that will eventually help the grocery store in your home have less outdated stuff. I know that you didn’t tell us about having Vince help you for one hour to go through the bedroom closet bins. Must have been a difficult hour. Still, any beginning is better than none!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
It was an experience! 🙂
Lynn D in NC says
Why don’t you freeze dry the frozen vegetables you buy?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
It costs quite a bit to run the freeze dryer. When I buy veggies from the grocery store, it’s something I’ll use during the next two to three weeks so it isn’t worth the time or cost. I don’t buy frozen veggies to keep long term.
Tracy says
When we got a new freezer for the garage, I found magnetic white board sheets for the front of it. That way I can see what’s in there, quickly erase what I take out and mark in what I add. There are also magnetic markers, so there is always one on the fridge.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
That’s what I had to use when I was here by myself and remembering when to put two cars on the battery minder to keep the batteries from discharging because I so seldom left the house.
That’s a great idea for the freezers.
Emilie Bauer says
Have a jar and a stack of quarters. Every time you/Vince must throw out food, put in a quarter. Our brains like the visual.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Forget quarters. With the cost of food, I say put in $10. 🙂
Linda+Garcia says
I buy cheese when it is on sale and freeze it. The secret to freezing cheese is to thaw it out very slowly in the fridge. In the fridge, i have one block of cheese that I currently using, one block that is thawing, and all the rest of the cheese is in the freezer. When I rotate the thawing block to the being used block, I move another one from the freezer to the fridge to be thawing. I think colby/jack is the best for freezing and thawing well. Mozzarella doesn’t like being frozen, it gets crumbly. But after it’s melted, tastes the same.