My small fridge organized

I’m just popping into my blog to let everyone know I’m alive and well. I’ve been to the foodbank a couple of times because there is no person to person contact. Drive through only. Its the same with the senior USDA commodity boxes. No personal contact. The lines in the foodbanks have grown and the amount received is much less. I take whatever given and thankful for it.

I’m really happy with my new small refrigerator. Thanks to a very generous reader offering me a gift certificate and an additional military discount I managed to buy it back in June. You can read about it on this post: Christmas in June.

After living without one for so long its taken me awhile to get acquainted with using one again. I did fine without a fridge and could do so again if necessary but gee they sure are handy to have around.

It’s small. Not as small as I had been dreaming of but is close enough. Its just about 55″ high and 22″ wide outside. As you can see the inside is somewhat smaller because of the thickness of the walls.

Below is how it looks today. I still use the chest freezer for the majority of my cold food and the fridge for daily use. I home can and dehydrate too.

That is the freezer part. I had bought these baskets from the Dollar Tree store back during Christmas when there was lots of red items. I had wanted white but those were all sold out and I didn’t want green. I was making plans and buying items for my annual January and February organizing which of course got side tracked by the CV19 virus lockdown.

One red basket is for all that I plan to cook in the current week. I take from the chest freezer all at one time and put into the fridge freezer which means I only open the chest once a week. Unless I get lucky at the foodbank and must put something into it. The second red basket is for loaves of bread I bake, slice, and freeze. Its just the right size for a loaf of bread and a few homemade biscuits.

The two trays are actually two baking pan tops I’ve had for several years to use as flash freezing trays. The pans gone long ago. I’m using four empty serger thread cones to hold them apart. If I can find 8 shorter regular size thread spools at a thrift store I’ll use those to put three trays in there instead of two. I may find some at a thrift store eventually.

Here’s the fridge part. Yes, more red. Bought during Christmas too. Even though I didn’t have a fridge in December I happen to buy just the right size baskets to fill the shelves. The “defrost” basket is for thawing something to cook for the evening meal. When the basket is empty its a visual reminder to take something from the freezer above and put into the defrost basket. I usually do that at the same time I empty it.

I did put shelf liner on the top shelf just to hide the contents of the baskets under the glass. Visual clutter bothers me. I also plan to put a turntable on the top shelf to hold my drinks.

The “breakfast” basket holds anything to do with; of course, breakfast. That would be stuff like sausage, eggs, bacon, donuts, mush, etc.

Lunch is anything I would eat for my mid-day meal. Sandwich fixings, leftovers, microwave meals, and so forth go there.

Any kind of cheese goes into this one. Including cottage cheese and my homemade pimento cheese when I make it.

The last basket is for anything waiting to be divided and flash frozen or canned or requiring more than just putting into the fridge. These are pounds of butter waiting for me to make ghee this week.

Of course, the bottom of the fridge is the produce drawer. Right now it has potatoes from the foodbank because I didn’t want them setting on the floor possibly attracting creapy crawlies before I get them eaten.

What about snacks? Well, I believe any snack I have will fit into any of the baskets or in the produce bin. Except gelatin and desserts. Any desserts of the not frozen variety get put into containers and kept on the top shelf for now. I do plan to buy a piece of plexiglass as another shelf since none of the actual shelves are available to purchase. The hardware has curbside pickup.

So now I’m going back to my life in this pandemic. I don’t know how often I’ll be posting. The life I live is more important than the words I write. Y’all stay well and stay safe. Hugs from Kentucky.