I’m lucky in that I have an large upright freezer in the basement in addition to the side-by-side fridge in the kitchen with a freezer side. I keep most long-term things in the basement. I use the upstairs mostly for breakfast things, ice packs, nuts, and vegetables. It doesn’t sound like much, but lately it has been a jumbled mess. Which has led to people in this family writing things on the shopping list that I KNOW we have. I couldn’t stand it a moment longer and I emptied the whole thing out.

Up until now things sort of got stashed wherever they looked like they would fit. I sorted everything into piles on the counter: vegetables, nuts, ice packs, meats, gluten bread and gluten-free bread. I purged some old stuff and I consolidated everything. Instead of 20 plastic bags with one bagel in each, I combined them into several ziptop bags. I did the same with the nuts. Then I took a hard look at the shelves and baskets and decided what would best fit where.

I got my trusty PTouch labeller and put a label on each shelf and basket so that no one could wonder where they would find what they needed and also so there could be no shoving things in randomly.

So far the system is holding up and it’s making my life SO much easier!