Lucie: It's time for a fridge reorganization. Do you ever just open your fridge and look
inside and feel totally lost? Confused... Wondering why everything is all over the
place... Wondering how you could better organize things... And just feeling like
the entire setup is not functional at all? That is how I used to feel before I
reorganized my fridge and completely transformed it into #FRIDGEGOALS. I don't
know where I got this inspiration, but I was one day thinking "I want to see what
someone's fridge looks like that just has everything pulled together..." They got
their life in order, they're organized, they've meal prepped...
and their fridge is ready to go. So I went on Pinterest and I typed in "fridge
goals". I don't know where that word popped up either, but it came to me from
the heavens. And I type in fridge goals... and all of a sudden I see some beautiful
fridges... organized like crazy, things are in color order... Just seems like something
that, every morning or every evening, when you open it would make you really happy
and bring a lot of joy. And I thought "I want my fridge to make me happy and
bring me a lot of joy"... And that shouldn't be too difficult to achieve, right?
Whenever I take on a project that is reorganization focused, I always call
Horderly. You might remember that I worked with them years back to
reorganize my entire old apartment... and I mean every single room. So, bedroom,
bathroom, kitchen, living space... the whole shebang. And more recently I did a video
with them in this new apartment where I reorganized my entire kitchen right
there, and they helped me make the place sparkly, beautiful, organized, labeled...
Horderly is just the best, and the two owners, Jamie and Phillip, are two of my
really good friends. So when I had this idea about fridge goals, I immediately
sent an email to Jamie and I asked her if she was interested in helping me out.
Nobody knows how to organize things better than Jamie and Philip. Thankfully,
she was interested in working with me on this project, so I collaborated with
Horderly to make this dream come true. So let me tell you what was wrong with
my fridge to begin with. When I opened it up, I felt like things were just
everywhere... There's no rhyme or reason to why the carrots are over here... to why the
greens would be over here, or the juices would be over here, or the milks would be
over here... I just felt like looking in the fridge made my mind feel more
chaotic. And I've got a lot of craziness going on all day, so I don't need snack
time to make me more stressed out. But it was. And I would open my fridge and I
would stare and I'd think "I don't know where anything is..." I have a lot of stuff,
but I don't know what is good and what has gone bad already, and it's not in an
organized arrangement to help my brain come up with meal ideas... So, now if I want
to whip something together with the ingredients I have, I really have to
start digging... I have to lift things up, I have to check for expirations... And one of
my goals has been to cook more foods at home because I tend to order in a lot,
and I feel like that would be a great way to save money and eat healthier
things. But it's difficult to do that when you're just not prepared. Being
prepared and being organized can help you achieve any single goal that you
want to achieve. You'll notice in our fridge, there was no meat... and that's not
because we don't eat meat. We actually do eat meat, we just rarely eat meat at home.
Michael and I both don't like handling raw meat, so if we do want to add some
sort of protein to our dish, most of the time we'll go pick up the protein
separately, already cooked, and then we'll eat that with our vegetables. But our
fridge is mostly vegetables. So when I finally decided to take the plunge and
reorganize this entire space, the one thing that was very important to me was
doing so in a sustainable and plastic-free way. I know that this entire idea of
being sustainable and being package-free starts with the shopping process, so it
really is about not buying things in plastic and starting to buy things in
bulk or to refill things into a glass jar to begin with... but I'm gonna be
honest, I just wasn't quite there yet, and we did have a few things in this fridge
that we purchased in plastic because they were the easiest way to buy things.
And, from my perspective, undergoing this whole transformation is now gonna make
it a lot easier to start buying things in glass, or to now actually take the
glass jars that we have, bring them to stores, and buy things in bulk. And, any
transition to completely zero-waste is going to take some time and adjusting,
and I'm absolutely not fully there yet. So, I'm not plastic-free, I'm not waste-free...
But I did want my fridge to be as sustainable as possible. The second thing
that was really important to me here, is that I want the fridge to be functional.
So, yes, I want it to have beauty. I want it to visually inspire me when I
open the fridge... But above all, if it's not actually helping me achieve the goal
of cooking more food at home, then it's not worth it at all. So, instead I came to
the conclusion that I wanted to set my food up in my fridge in a way that's
really conducive to cooking. And when I asked myself: What's the hardest part
about cooking? It's the actual process of chopping and prepping. So my goal here
was to put things into the fridge pre-chopped and pre-prepped, at least
where possible, so that when it comes to actually roasting vegetables or making
something... I can skip the entire step of chopping things up. We started out the
way she always starts when organizing something, and that is pulling everything
out to look at what you have. Sort of similar to when she was organizing my
kitchen cabinets, she wanted to get a sense of how I used everything in the
fridge. How often do I use chia seeds? Do I drink milk every day? I think, similar
to organizing a closet or any type of cabinet... it is important with your fridge
to make sure that similar items or items that you use together are close together.
And, previously, my fridge was not like that. So that's why she was here to help.
So with Jamie's help, I cleared everything out, and then we went ahead
and we cleaned all of the shelves of the fridge. A lot of times, sauce can drip... or,
just... it gets GROSS inside of a fridge! It's food, and the food is going bad every
single minute that it's sitting there... and if you don't clean your fridge
regularly, I can promise you that opening it up is not going to be a pleasant
experience. So once we cleaned everything out, Jamie actually did this genius thing
that I never thought of... which was to readjust the shelf heights. You can do
this in most refrigerators, and I just don't know why I didn't think to do this...
but, the bottom shelf... I thought it was too short to fit most things, so, for
instance, I was sticking my iced coffee carafe in the door because I didn't
think it would fit on the bottom shelf, and it kept hitting the middle shelf... But
once she adjusted the height of that middle shelf, things fit perfectly on
that bottom shelf. And same thing with the doors. All of the shelves could be
adjusted, and all of the heights could be changed. So then you don't have to worry
about what fits where. Instead, you could put things where they're most functional.
Since I wanted to do this in a sustainable and mostly plastic-free way,
I knew that I needed a lot of glassware. I did have some glasses at home, but I
did want them to look uniform and to look nice... So I got a ton of glass jars
from Package Free Shop. I ordered a couple of other things from them as well;
fabric produce bags as well as silicone bags... And I'll show you how I
use these a little further down the line, but the Package Free items were really
great, and I love the glass jars. They have a nice wide lip on the top. Perfect
for what I wanted to use them for. And then a lot of the other glassware that
you're seeing kind of came from random places. I'll try to put links in the
description box for some specific ones, like the jars that my sauces are in... the
cute drink jugs that you're seeing with those really cute, white, silicone tops... as
well as the other jars with that orange, rubbery piece around the lip, and then
those snap-on clamps. So, with my whole sustainability goal here, let me tell you
what my thought process was. There are some items that I buy that come in
plastic, and it's really difficult to actually get them, in the form that I
want them, NOT in plastic... So, because of that, you know, someone could say "It's
kind of counterintuitive that you're buying it in plastic and putting it in
glass... like, that's not really sustainable." If I buy something like a bundle of, say,
peeled garlic that comes in a plastic container, I can choose to just put that
plastic container right into my fridge as is. Or I can do what I did, which is
where I took all the cloves out and put them into glass. And my reason for doing
that is that as soon as I transferred them... like, the moment I purchased them
and they went from the plastic into the glass...
I remembered and it was top of mind for me to recycle the plastic that they came
in. Whereas maybe if I would have just purchased them in plastic and then kept
them in my fridge in plastic, somewhere down the line they might have started to
rot or get bad, and then at that point I'm just a lot less likely to recycle
the plastic packaging properly. And I think that goes for a lot of different
things. So if you're one of those people who maybe buys lettuces in plastic
packaging, or if you bought a container of literally anything that came in
plastic, but you wanted to store it in your fridge... I would recommend
transferring it immediately to a fully sealable, airtight, glass container, and
that way you can go ahead and properly take care of that plastic that you
purchased, immediately. But I know for a lot of people out there, they're just not
going to stop buying some of the stuff that they buy in plastic. So I think a
really decent solution is to at least set your fridge up in a way such that
you are enticed to take things out of the plastic immediately and put them in
the glass, and that way you can at least be more responsible about how you
recycle your plastic, and more aware of the amount of plastic you're using. After
we sorted everything out, Jamie took a little bit of time to sort of
map things out in her head. So, she wanted to see where things fit. She was testing
jars in different areas... All the while, we were chopping vegetables and
transferring things into different containers. Another question that someone
might have is: Why, if you're purchasing something that's in glass, transfer it
into another glass container? And that is a valid question, because I did that with--
for example--my pickles... And my reason for that is purely aesthetic. I didn't
dispose of the glass jar that the pickles came in. I kept it and I cleaned
it. I peeled the label off, and then I set it in my counter for future use. But the
only reason I wanted to do that is because I really want my pickles to be
in a clear glass jar that resembles all of the other jars. I didn't want it to be
in a jar with a green top, because it looks different. But don't get me wrong,
that pickle jar is not going in the trash. So I'm reusing it, I'm upcycling it.
I will probably be using that for my iced coffee in the future. If you follow
me on Instagram, you know that I love giant cups of iced coffee... So, honestly, a
pickle jar seems like the right size for me. And after Jamie took a little bit of
time to map things out in her mind and make some changes, we finally had my
finished fridge. So here is the before shot of my fridge, and then HERE is my
final #fridgegoals fridge...
So, what you're seeing in the top of the fridge are some foods that I've
pre-cooked. So I have quinoa in two containers,
brown rice in two containers, and then a gluten-free chickpea pasta. That food is
all prepped, and now it's really easy for me to just reheat it, either on the stove
top or in the microwave, or just eat it cold. Things like rice can sometimes take
45 minutes to cook, so I'm more likely to eat it if it's pre-prepped and in my
fridge. A little bit further to the right are some of the fermented foods that I
love, so you're seeing a lot of sauerkraut's as well as my pickles and
olives... And in the middle on the top shelf, there's pre-chopped onion. In the
back it's purple onion, and the front is yellow onion... As well as those pre-peeled
cloves of garlic that I can now easily dice up to put in anything, or even just
roast whole. In the middle left, you're seeing some Brazil nuts in one of those
silicone bags from Package Free. Michael went on this kick where he bought Brazil
nuts, and he was trying to eat three Brazil nuts a day, so we keep those in
the fridge and we snack on them occasionally... Just to the right of it,
you're seeing almonds and then cashews, both soaking in water... And that's because
my plan in the next couple of days is to make some fresh, homemade almond milk and
fresh cashew milk, and you gotta soak them before to do that properly. To
the right of that, I have organic dates, and then a big tub of yogurt, and then
organic eggs on the side. And then down below, this is where I put a lot of my
pre-chopped veggies. So I've got a whole giant container of chopped-up eggplant,
some chopped peppers in all different colors... some sweet potatoes in the back...
cucumbers, chopped-up carrots in the back... And I did leave some carrots whole, and I
put them in a little bit of water... and same thing with the scallions. To the
right, on the bottom shelf, you're seeing a lot of our liquids. So, I've got two
little containers of almond milk, two larger containers of oat milk, our water
filter, our coffee carafe, and then also a couple bottles of wine back there. And
then in the two drawers right under the top, that's where we've put most of our
fresh produce. So, on the left side you're seeing greens... I used that fabric bag from
Package Free Shop to put our kale in... I put some extra sweet potatoes in the
back... Broccoli and ginger in two of the silicone bags... And some extra greens in
some glass storage on the bottom. Then in the right drawer, I put a lot of my
fruits. So, lemons, oranges, apples, pears... as well as pre-cut-up berries in glass
storage. If we move on to the left door, at the very top
I have my butter dish. A little bit lower down, I have my apple cider vinegar, some
organic and unsweetened applesauce, and maple syrup. Also, on that shelf on the
very left is that biodegradable produce wash I told you about... And then, on the
very bottom left shelf, these are all my sauces. So, I have tamari, some teriyaki, my
favorite sauce which is Soy Vay... And then also mustard and my capers. I'd say that
left door is more of the savory door. The right door is a little bit sweeter. So
on the top of the right door is where I have my chia seeds and my flax seeds,
which I put in yogurts and smoothies. The middle shelf has a giant container of
chocolate. I used to keep this chocolate storage in the actual bars, but I decided
to just break it up and put it in a sealed, glass container. I have some more
chocolate in the middle, and these are some chocolate hearts wrapped up in tin
foil... And on the right side, I put my Smart Sweets... which are just my favorite
candy ever. And on this lower shelf of the right door, you're seeing a lot of
juices. So, on the left is actually homemade apple cider that I made for an
episode of Lucie For Hire... And then you're seeing ginger juice, some pomegranate
blueberry juice, as well as a green juice that Michael and I made ourselves the
other day. And don't be fooled by these white, silicone tops. They look like maybe
they're not keeping things fresh, but they are sealed on tightly. You can
actually take the whole bottle and shake it, and nothing spills anywhere. So that
is our brand new fridge! And I know you probably want to know "Well, did it work?
Is it functional? Is it helping? And the answer is YES! Majorly.
So, I actually have videos here of a couple of meals that we made pretty
quickly after this fridge was done... and you can just see in these videos that
I'm actually really easily prepping dinner for myself, and prepping meals at
home, and these pre-cut up veggies are working exactly the way we wanted them
to. So, the day after I shot this video, I made this for dinner which included the
pre-cooked kale, (that was actually stored behind the pasta, on the top shelf of the
fridge...) the three different colors of pepper, and then our chopped up eggplant
and yellow onion. I just took these jars out of the fridge, I unscrewed the top,
and dumped them into a sauteeing pan, sauteed everything together... and dinner
was served! And I've been doing the exact same thing for breakfast, for lunch... So
really it has transformed the way I'm eating, and the amount of times that I'm
at home versus ordering something in from the outside world. I hope this video
was entertaining, and I hope it inspires you to make some changes to your fridge
at home... Even if that just means cleaning things out a little bit, getting rid of
expired food, or just, like, wiping the shelves. But if you do decide to fully
transform your fridge too, to make things more sustainable and to make it so you
cook more at home... let me know, and please send me a picture on instagram @luciebfink!
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram, because if you like videos
like this, I'm pretty much always sharing behind-the-scenes content like this on
my stories and in my feed posts. So go to @luciebfink, and hit that follow
button. If you're not subscribed to my YouTube channel already, please subscribe
right now, and click on the little bell to be alerted when new videos go live. Oh!
One other thing about Horderly: They're not just in New York! So they're now in
New Jersey, Connecticut, Boston, and Southern California! I'm gonna put a link
to their contact page in the box below, so if you want to get in touch with
Jaime and Philip and inquire about an upcoming project, they are all ears.
And let me know what else you want to see on my YouTube channel. I have some
really fun content coming your way... So STAY. TUNED. Bye, everyone!