Kathi Burns discussing how to organize your refrigerator on NBC morning show.
News Anchor: Let’s talk about spring, shall we? Spring cleaning, do you have the bug yet? So where do you start? How about with the refrigerator? Joining us this morning with some tips on how to do just that we have Kathi Burns, board certified professional organizer, image consultant, and paper flow specialist, and founder of Add Space to Your Life. And now Kathi we are on time, so what a title! Thank you so much for joining us this morning. So we were talking about having a really small refrigerator so it’s very hard to get organized but you say I can do it.
Kathi: Absolutely, I have a very small refrigerator and a lot of this came from that. Liberation.
News Anchor: Yes, it is. I tell ya. Number one, organize and clear your fridge before you go shopping.
Kathi: Yes! If you go ahead and get rid of all the old nasty leftovers, if you make space, if you decide what…shift things around, get everything back in there you know more of what you want to buy when you go to the store, but when you come home you’re rewarded because you can easily take the stuff from the shopping bag right into the refrigerator because you have space.
News Anchor: Does it make you buy less if you have a small refrigerator?
Kathi: Yes it does. Well you know what to buy see, you don’t end up with dupes. You know you already have ketchup sitting there in the back.
News Anchor: Good point. Alright, number two. Place quick snacks and leftovers on front of the shelf at eye level.
Kathi: Ta-dah. It helps for dieting, it also helps for those hungry little grubby fingers that come into the fridge, root around looking for snacks. You have the snacks right there at eye level in front and center.
News Anchor: Perfect, I like that idea. Okay, arrange your refrigerator items by function instead of by category. What does that mean?
Kathi: Take for instance breakfast. Here’s breakfast. Here’s what my family eats – bagels, cream cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese. They can just pull this out and there’s breakfast. Then they put it all back in and you put it back in the fridge.
News Anchor: They do?
Kathi: Yes, they do!
News Anchor: And your husband puts it back?
Kathi: Yes, he does.
News Anchor: He does? Good job! Okay, and number four use square and rectangular storage containers to fit as much as possible in a small amount of space.
Kathi: A lot of people don’t think about this and that’s okay. They use round. Round is not functional. If you buy square, it’s practical and saves space every time. Because look how well they stack, they play very well together, you can stack them side by side. You’re not wasting any space so you can really maximize what you have going on in your fridge if you use square and rectangular.
News Anchor: Good point. Okay, how do you customize your fridge?
Kathi: Okay, this is my sample of the small fridge with not enough drawers and not enough…okay.
News Anchor: You have no idea.
Kathi: Well check this out, this is a drawer It’s my sandwich drawer. It’s long and narrow, it fits from front to back right in the door and everything’s in here. Again they can pull it out, they have their mayonnaise, they have their pickles, they have their cheese, everything’s in here minus the bread. They just pull this out, make their sandwich and put it back in.
News Anchor: So you wouldn’t put all your mayonnaise and your mustard like in the door.
Kathi: A lot of people do that, I’m talking about function as opposed to category. That’s by category and this is by function. Another prime example is say for instance tonight the corned beef, the cabbage, the potatoes. If you come back from the grocery store with everything to make that meal why not just leave it in the bag and stick it in the fridge so when you get ready to make the meal don’t pull the whole bag out and use it. It’s very non-traditional but it’s very effective and very quick.
News Anchor: I’ve learned things today.
Kathi: I’m glad!
News Anchor: Thank you so much Kathi. I’m going to do that. I’ve got to make sure my husband and child put them back in that little container. That’s going to be a problem. Allright Kathi, thank you so much. And for more information about keeping your refrigerator organized go to ABCSanDiego.com and click on News, then Morning on ABC 739. And Steven, let’s toss it back to you. Is your refrigerator all organized and clean just like your desk is?
Steven: Sadly, it’s not, it’s a mess. So I could use that advice…
