Cooking and eating at home is one of the best ways to save money and eat nutritiously, but you need a clean and organized kitchen to do it effectively. Having a neat and tidy fridge and pantry makes it easier to see exactly what you have, meaning you’re able to craft better meals, and waste less food and money. Here are our best tips for getting your kitchen in fighting shape for the new year.




Clean Out the Fridge

First, take every single thing out of your refrigerator. Literally. Every. Single. Thing. From there, sort it all into three piles: “definitely okay,” “iffy,” and “sketchy af.”


You know what to do with foods that look “definitely okay” and “sketchy af,” but for stuff that looks “iffy”—such as cheese with mold or condiments you’ve had maybe a little too long, we have guidelines:

Since you already have an empty fridge, now’s a good time to give it a nice, deep clean. The video above visually walks you through the whole process, but it goes a little something like this:

Remove all of the shelves and drawers and wash them with hot, soapy water (or, if you have a super stinky fridge, a mixture of bleach and water.) Take a cup of baking soda and a gallon of water, mix it together and use this mixture to scrub down every surface in your refrigerator and freezer. If needed—as in, you’re dealing with a very smelly situation—unplug your fridge and let it dry out overnight, but if everything smells okay, go ahead and put your food back in.


You could put all of your food back in now, but you might want to take this opportunity to set your fridge up for smoother operation. Some smart steps you can take include:


Now you’re ready to re-stock, but you don’t want to just throw everything back in all willy nilly. Certain items do well in certain regions of the icebox. This article breaks it down fully, but here are some general rules:

Dairy Products: Milk, cheese, and yogurt are best on the top shelf, where the temperature is most constant.

Milk, cheese, and yogurt are best on the top shelf, where the temperature is most constant. Eggs: Keep eggs on a shelf, not in the door, which is the warmest part of the fridge.

Keep eggs on a shelf, not in the door, which is the warmest part of the fridge. Vegetables: Unless they belong in a “cool dry place”—think potatoes, alliums, and winter squash—vegetables should be kept in the crisper drawer, away from ethylene-producing fruit like apples, pears, and kiwis.

Unless they belong in a “cool dry place”—think potatoes, alliums, and winter squash—vegetables should be kept in the crisper drawer, away from ethylene-producing fruit like apples, pears, and kiwis. Fruit: Melons, citrus fruit, bananas, and tomatoes should all be kept on the countertop and out of the fridge entirely, but all other fruit can be kept in the other produce drawer (you know, the one without the vegetables.)


To get the most out of your produce drawer, make sure you have the humidity controls set correctly. Different plant parts last longer in different environments, and the simple mantra of “rot-low, wilt-high” can help you remember how to set each drawer. The saying is pretty self-explanatory, but basically anything that will wilt—such as leafy green—should be kept in a drawer with the humidity set to “high,” and produce that is prone to rotting should be kept in a drier environment.

Going forward, you’ll want to put a system in place to make sure everything stays as fresh as possible. Keeping a whiteboard can help you keep track of perishables, but the best way to keep your fridge under control is to have a nightly once over where you get rid of sketchy food and potentially smelly offenders. This is a good time to wipe up any spills and sticky spots. Finally, a bowl of activated charcoal or a vanilla-soaked cotton ball can help absorb or mask inevitable odors.


Tackle the Pantry


Now that your refrigerator is in order, it’s time to get your pantry up to snuff. Once again, I’m going suggest you remove all of the things, so as to get a clear view of what you have and the state of the pantry itself. If you keep your dry goods in a cabinet, go ahead and dust it out, wipe up any sticky messes, and set out ant and roach bait if needed. Then it’s time to turn your attention to the food.




First, make sure that everything you’re storing in the pantry actually belongs in the pantry, and not the fridge. If you’re not sure where something is supposed to live, there is a whole series of graphics to help you figure out where and how long to keep your most common kitchen sundries.

Also, make sure that your pantry is, in fact, a “cool and dry space.” It should be at 70℉ and have a humidity of 60% or less. (You can get a humidity gauge online for less than ten bucks.) If your cupboard or pantry is a little moist, you can throw some silica gel packs in there (if it’s a small space) or plug in a dehumidifier (for a larger, walk-in pantry).




Once the environment is ideal, make everything a little easier to access with a few lazy susans, group similar items together, or cascade items with the largest ones in the back, so everything is visible. I also highly recommend getting your spices out of the cupboard and onto a spice rack, because being able to locate your spices makes them easier to use.If you want to build your own, try this minimalist one, this cupboard door one, or this magnetic version.

Show Your Appliances a Little Love

Once you have the food storage situation under control, it’s time to pay a little attention to your favorite kitchen tools. If you do nothing else, please, please, please sharpen your knives. A sharp knife is—in my opinion—one of the most important things for a home cook to have. It makes cooking easier, more pleasurable, and so much safer. The above video can teach you how to expertly sharpen your blades with a whetstone, but there is absolutely no shame in taking them to a professional, especially if it will ensure they actually get sharpened.


Speaking of blades, if you have a Cuisinart food processor, check your model number to make sure yours isn’t one of the millions being recalled due to a cracked blade. If your model number starts with FP-, or ends in Y, or is model DLC-6, you’re in the clear, but contact Cuisinart if it begins with any of the following:

CFP-9, CFP-11,DFP-7, DFP-11, DFP-14, DLC-5, DLC-7, DLC-8, DLC-10, DLC-XP, DLC-2007, DLC-2009, DLC-2011, DLC-2014, DLC-3011, DLC-3014, EV-7, EV-10, EV-11, EV-14, KFP-7 and MP-14.


Of course there is more to a kitchen than knives and blades, and you need to pay attention to your workhorse appliances that don’t get a ton of TLC on a daily basis.



Now that you have a clean fridge, an organized pantry, and appliances that are so fresh and so clean, you’re ready to cook and eat your way into the glorious new year.



Art by Sam Woolley. Photo by Robert Howie .