14 Side-by-Side Refrigerator Organization Ideas

It's critical to start with a "clean slate." Before you begin organizing, remove everything from your refrigerator and throw away any expired items or food that has spoiled. Put the food in coolers while you work. Then, wipe down the interior surfaces, including shelves, bins, and drawers, to create a fresh foundation for your ingredients.

Once the refrigerator is clean, sort your food into categories before assigning them to specific areas. Combine duplicates and group items by use, such as breakfast essentials, lunch prep materials, fresh produce and condiments. This process can help you visualize your inventory and make informed decisions about placement.

Consider incorporating turntables to help maximize space inside your refrigerator. These handy organizers can help keep smaller items accessible, so they don’t get lost in the back.

Before investing in organization bins or turntables, take a moment to measure the shelf spacing, drawer clearance, and door swing of your refrigerator. These dimensions can affect which containers will fit comfortably in the compartments of a side-by-side model.

Organization bins can be incredibly helpful for grouping items, but it's important to leave room for airflow and tall bottles. Select containers that fit your space while allowing for proper circulation, which can help maintain optimal temperatures throughout the refrigerator.

Organizing your side-by-side refrigerator shelves into thoughtful zones can help turn a crowded appliance into an easily accessible culinary workspace. Consider grouping items based on how you use them during meal prep and cooking.

For example, you might create a dedicated zone for baking ingredients, a section for quick snacks, or an area for meal-prep components. It can also be helpful to organize based on how cold items need to be kept. You’ll often find the coolest temperatures in the lowest parts of the refrigerator. This approach can help you locate ingredients quickly and keep your creative process flowing smoothly. Select KitchenAid^® refrigerators, such as this model, offer an Under-Shelf Prep Zone, ideal for storing food prep or leftovers, marinating, chilling desserts and more.

Reserving the most visible shelves for ready-to-eat foods can help streamline your daily routine. This configuration provides flexibility to organize the most important fresh and frozen items at eye level, while keeping less frequently accessed items on the lower shelves.

Consider placing leftovers, meal-prep containers, and grab-and-go breakfast or lunch items on these prime shelves. This placement can help ensure these items are easily accessible when you need a quick meal or snack, reducing the time spent searching through the refrigerator.

Placing raw meat on the lowest shelf or in a contained drawer area can help maintain a clean and organized refrigerator, contributing to a smoother meal prep experience.

Keep deli items, such as sliced meats and cheeses, in a separate, easy-access zone. Using dedicated trays or bins for these items can help keep them organized and readily available for sandwiches or snacks. Select KitchenAid^® built-in side-by-side refrigerators feature the FreshChill™ Temperature-Controlled Drawer, which makes it easy to customize storage temperatures for different types of ingredients, helping to maintain freshness. Simply turn the dial to choose from presets for Meat, Produce, Deli and Assorted Items.

Dividing your fruits and vegetables based on their humidity needs can help delicate produce stay visible and help avoid sturdier items from crushing smaller ingredients. Fruits and vegetables should be placed in the sealed, crisper drawers to help prolong their life.

Items that are optimally kept in a refrigerator crisper drawer on a "high humidity" setting, for example, are high-moisture foods like leafy or thin-skinned ingredients. Crisper drawers set to "low humidity" are great for storing foods that thrive in low-moisture environments, like thick-skinned fruits and vegetables.

Understanding how to use a refrigerator crisper drawer can help you optimize your storage for items like lettuce and fresh herbs. Select KitchenAid^® side-by-side refrigerators feature a Humidity-Controlled Crisper that provides dedicated space for produce with the ability to adjust humidity levels to match. Choose high humidity to help vegetables stay crisp, low humidity to help fruit stay fresh or a setting in between to balance the needs of both.

The refrigerator door is an ideal location for grouping condiments, jars, and everyday beverages. This area tends to be slightly warmer than the interior shelves, making it suitable for items that are less temperature-sensitive.

Select KitchenAid^® side-by-side refrigerators feature customizable spaces, including eight adjustable door bins to help keep all of your ingredients easily accessible.

You’ve got the refrigerator organized, but what about how to organize a side-by-side freezer? Organizing the freezer can be simple when items are stacked vertically like books, instead of stacked randomly or on top of one another. This approach can help maximize space and ensure your frozen ingredients remain visible and accessible for your next culinary project. Use bins to group small items together.

Dedicating shelves or sections to specific categories, such as vegetables, proteins, breakfast items, desserts, and prepared meals, can help streamline your freezer organization. This method can help items from becoming buried and reduce the likelihood of purchasing ingredients you already have on hand.

Creating distinct zones can help you quickly locate the components you need for a recipe, making meal prep more streamlined. Exploring different refrigerator features can also provide ideas for optimizing your freezer space.

Narrow bins, flat containers, and upright file-style storage can help maximize visibility in a side-by-side refrigerator. For side-by-side freezers, you can sometimes use skinny bins inside the doors to organize and utilize that space.

These storage solutions are often useful for items that tend to create toppling stacks, such as frozen pizza, bags of fruit, broth containers, and small loose items. By keeping these ingredients neatly contained, you can help maintain an orderly and accessible refrigerator environment.

Keeping your most-used ingredients within easy reach can help facilitate smoother weeknight cooking and lunch packing. Consider creating dedicated sections for items like frozen vegetables, bread, smoothie ingredients or prepped proteins.

This can help keep your refrigerator organized for streamlined cooking, so you can assemble meals efficiently, even on busy evenings.

The most useful refrigerator and freezer organization systems are the ones that stay manageable after grocery day. Designing a setup that aligns with your personal habits can help ensure your appliance remains orderly and functional over time.

Simple labels can help households keep categories in place, particularly in shared spaces. Labels are often most helpful for family use, meal prep containers, and freezer bins, where contents might not be immediately obvious.

However, it's not necessary to label every single zone. Focus on the areas where a gentle reminder can help maintain the organization system, allowing the rest of the refrigerator to remain visually clean and uncluttered.

Adapting the side-by-side organization framework to fit your household's unique needs can help maximize its effectiveness. Families with kids might benefit from dedicated snack zones or lunch-packing shelves, while meal-prep households might prioritize space for uniform containers. Smaller grocery routines might allow for minimalist setups with fewer bins.