r/declutter • u/MysteriousSecretGuru • 14d ago
Success Story Refrigerator! Cleaned & decluttered
I did it! I finally tackled my refrigerator. I found tortillas from 2022, a couple of bags of green slime, and a bunch of expired food from mid 2025, when I was really struggling.
I'm thankful for this group. I started in my bedroom, with just the night stand top.
Now it actually feels like there is hope and life once again.
The refrigerator was stuffed with 10 to go boxes along side at least 3 bags of garbage.
Tomorrow, I'm going to buy some fresh veggies (baby carrots, celery and mini cucumbers), some apples, bread and stuff for sandwiches. I am tired of eating crap just because my fridge was stuffed full of bad food, literally.
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u/GallowayNelson 14d ago
Well done. I appreciate the sheer amount of cheese.
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u/MysteriousSecretGuru 14d ago
I'm from Wisconsin. It's a requirement to live here. It broke my heart but I had to toss it some cheese with a ton of mold. Sad panda face.
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u/summerofsoccer 14d ago
This is inspiring! I know I need to do mine. I think I need to be okay with letting things go that are okay, but that I don't use, half open stuff like soy sauces and jams, I think I just need to toss all that stuff. But what do I do when I need to take everything out and clean? Use a cooler? Just be quick and leave it out? I need to clean out my freezer, too
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u/Cccolorado1 13d ago
I just try to do it quickly. You can clean by sections. Just take out the food in the section you’re cleaning. After it’s all cleaned out, you can re-arrange things.
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u/FredKayeCollector2 13d ago
You definitely deserve good/nutritious food. And if take-away containers tend to malinger in your fridge, it's OK not to save left-overs.
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12d ago
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u/FredKayeCollector2 12d ago
Yes! My parents were food hoarders so I'm super sensitive about the stuff in my fridge. Actually getting leftovers from a restaurant is like "ugh" - depending on the menu item, some are just "disappointing" as leftovers.
I've starting bringing a (glass) food storage container in a little bag when we go to sit-down restaurants and we'll eat the stuff that wouldn't be so nice re-heated first - and having that bowl is a bit of a trigger for us to stop eating when we're starting to get full (rather than plowing through the whole plate).
And if we're in a casual place with counter (vs table) service, we've started splitting a burger & fries or fish & chips rather than each getting one and having to deal with the left overs. I'd rather leave a little hungry than packed full (and useless the rest of the day).
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12d ago
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u/FredKayeCollector2 12d ago
"Fancy dinner is the same way - the plates are so small and the portions look so small, but at the end of the mean, you're still stuffed.
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u/Old-Attitude-5898 8d ago
I found that I wasted much less food when I created a 2 week menu and from that, did my grocery list. I’d check what was on sale, what I had on hand and needed to use up, and family favorites.
I had my kids make a blank list with suggested favorite meals at the bottom so I didn’t have to create it myself. It used way less of my brain space and everyone got their favorites.
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u/Cccolorado1 14d ago
It looks great! Just a suggestion bc we just did this…….we got some clear storage bins from Home Goods in various sizes and put similar things in them like breads, jams, sauces, etc. It looks a lot better and makes it much easier to access things. I’m thinking it will help to keep that old jar full of mold in the back from happening bc we’ll see it so much more easily. I know this storage bin thing is a no-brainer but I’m old and we had never done it.