How to detox your fridge

3/22/2019

What is the central hub of your home? Your kitchen right? And what’s the most visited place in the kitchen?

Dishwasher? No (I wish)...

Sink? No... (unfortunately)

Fridge? Yup, the fridge.

Your fridge can can be a source of amazing fuel for your family, but it can also be a source of... germs, stress, overwhelm and potentially expired and processed food. Here’s my tips on how to “spring clean” your fridge so that it helps you along your journey of unprocessed eating!

1. get in the zone

The first thing you need to do is accept the fact that this might be a very big change for you and your family. Emptying out a fridge and only keeping the good stuff is hard and can be emotional. So, I ask you to turn up your favorite music and plan at least half a day to embark on this journey and just get excited! Yes... cleaning out the fridge is a lot of work, but it will be so worth it in the end! Being an appliance we see and use multiple times a day, it’s easy to overlook what piles up in it and just let it become the norm.

So, maybe this idea of clean eating is new to you, maybe it’s not. Either way, the health benefits you will gain from it cannot be found in any other health habit.

2. empty it out

Out with the old and in with the new right? You can’t start fresh without seeing all you have to work with. A lot of times, we get frustrated with our fridges because they just seem to fill up so fast! The reality is, they are probably just poorly organized and full of things we don’t need...

I am probably the biggest anti-food-waster out there, it makes me physically hurt to throw out food, but sometimes, it just has to happen. If you’re like me, ask yourself something like this: “would I rather have a half full jar of store bought Alfredo sauce OR space to fit a block of grass fed butter?” I think you know the answer to that one.

While you are emptying out the fridge, make two piles on your counter:

1. Food that came from grocery store aisles
2. Food that came from grocery store perimeter
3. Leftovers

That's it for now, leave the food on the counter and proceed to step 3!

3. start fresh

Now that your fridge is totally empty, it's time to deep clean. You don't want to put your sorted and nice fresh food in a dingy fridge right? Here's some tips to make that process suck a little less:

Take out all the bins: it will be easiest to clean if you take out every bin and leave the empty shell of your fridge. This shell can be wiped down easily, and the bins can be hand washed in the sink. Make sure to let the bins dry COMPLETELY. To help the bins dry you can take them outside if the weather is nice to let the wind and sun speed up the process! If it's cold out, you can set them near a vent if you have the heat running.
Use a non-toxic cleaner: pick a cleaner that won't contaminate the food you put back in the fridge. My pick for a spray on and wipe off cleaner is Branch Basics, you can read more about why I love it so much here. My pick for regular dish soap is Attitude Living because it is synthetic fragrance free!
Use paper towels & microfiber cloths: if you have any particularly messy spots on the fridge shell, wipe them down first with paper towel and toss out the majority of the gunk. THEN, follow up with microfiber. Microfiber picks up so much more than a paper towel, and you can reuse them forever!
Clean all the nooks and crannies: don't focus only on the large faces of your fridge, make sure to get the seals and door hinges too. These areas can easily trap dust and germs and tend to be touched more than you think! Spray them down with some Branch Basics and you are good to go!

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4. sort

Now that the interior of your fridge is clean and your bins are drying in the sun, it's time to tackle those piles of food. You currently have three piles (food from grocery store aisles, food from the perimeter, and leftovers) and it's time to refine those further.

Before we begin, think about the real purpose of a fridge: it keeps food with a short shelf life COLD. Again, it's for food with a SHORT shelf life. Haven't we heard the advice of staying at the perimeter of the grocery store while we shop? All the foods at the perimeter NEED the fridge right off the bat right? The following organization will help to solidify this notion:

leftovers: this will be the easiest pile to sort through because the rule here is simple... Toss what is over a week old, and keep everything else if it is still good. Just make sure to eat it!
food from the perimeter: not EVERYTHING from the perimeter of a store is good for you, but it tends to be where you find food that is the least processed. Take a look at your pile, what's in it? Produce? Meat? Dairy? Eggs? Again, throw out anything that has gone bad. Keep everything that is still good. If possible, keep only things with minimal ingredients, or at least ingredients that you understand.
food from the aisles: the items that fall into this category the most are condiments, like salad dressings, sauces, etc. and canned/bottled beverages. Please, throw out anything that contains vegetable oil or any hydrogenated oils. I know these items can make your life easier (bottled dressings/jarred sauces), but they are also extremely inflammatory to the body and the taste just doesn't compare to something homemade! Throw out anything jarred/bottled that's over a year old, and again look at the ingredient labels. Throw out the things that you can't pronounce!

5. organize

Now that you are left with only the “good food”, it’s time to organize so that you can make the most of it! You want your fridge to be visually pleasing so that when you open it up, you’re not left feeling overwhelmed. I organize my fridge similar to how a grocery store is organized, and these five categories are: PRODUCE, “DAIRY”, DRINKS, LEFTOVERS and “CONDIMENTS”. Each category has its own space and I try to keep similar shapes of items together too. I encourage you to stick to these categories as best you can and I will explain the quotes later. Let’s start from the bottom of the fridge and work up.

Produce should generally go in the big bins at the bottom of the fridge. Here you can keep things temperature and humidity controlled. In order to prevent food from being lost in there, try this trick that comes from the fact that small things tend to get lost and fall down in between bigger items. It's true right? Just like how socks get lost in the dryer? Maybe... Anyway, when you are nearing the end of an item, whether it be broccoli or an onion, take that small bag or those small odds and ends OUT of the bin and put them on a shelf right in front of your face. When the food is right there in front of you, you will remember to use it!
Moving on up: my fridge has a special drawer above the two bottom bins and this is where I keep “dairy”. I put “dairy” in quotes because yes, this is where I keep cheese, sour cream and butter, but it is also where I keep prepared meats (lunch meat), my homemade mayo, and other items that fit that general shape (short packaging). Again, the smallest items get lost the easiest, so once you are near the end of an item, put it on a shelf so that it’s right in front of your face.
Honestly, we don’t keep many drinks in our fridge because we have a second fridge in our basement, but if you keep drinks in yours, try to use height to your advantage. Arrange your shelves so that you can eliminate dead space above cans or above milk jugs. The drink space is also where I keep jarred items like pickles, homemade sauerkraut, etc because they are a similar shape.
Leftovers can be tricky... In my opinion, it is always best to transfer leftovers to containers with stackable lids. Yes, plastic wrap is convenient, but a bowl covered in plastic wrap cannot have anything stacked on top of it so you end up wasting valuable space. Also, never put a pot or pan in the fridge, transfer the food into a container! Think of all the space being wasted by the handles! Also, make sure all your leftover containers are clear because again, the more you see something in your fridge, the more likely it will be eaten.
“Condiments” is another one of those categories that is in quotes because condiments are only part of this. I keep condiments and snack items in the doors of our fridge (because they fit perfectly in the small shelves). For us, condiments are more so ingredients, like soy sauce, Worcester sauce, lemon juice, etc. The snack section of the fridge door has things like guacamole cups, avocados, snack bars, etc. I would be lying if I said we don't have ketchup, mustard and jams in our fridge, WE DO, but just like the snacks we keep in there, the ingredient lists are short and pronounceable. Again, items in the doors tend to be forgotten, so if you do have anything in there that’s on the verge of going bad, make sure to put it front and center on the main shelves so that you don’t forget about it!

6. restock

This is the fun part! Take inventory of what you have and plan a few meals using what is already in your fridge. If there is anything else you need, buy it and take a second to see if there are ways to make some parts from scratch, like sauces or sides. If that is overwhelming, just remember that the more you cook, the better you get!