Kitchens are high traffic areas and I’m sure we all have a refrigerator door adorned with notes, pictures, Christmas cards, reminders, paperwork and more.

One of the ways that clutter builds up is due to collectors’ items. Everyone has their niche; and in my family, we collect fridge magnets. My parents are obsessed with them, and they make sure to snag one at every single gas station, hotel, or shore shop we visit.

While I was home this weekend for the holidays, I noticed how overwhelming and cluttered our inside and outside refrigerators were from years of magnet collecting. Magnets were taking over the door so much that every time you opened the fridge to grab something, they would fall to the ground and crack.

My project for the Christmas break was immediately secured; I would tackle the fridge doors. Here are the steps I took to organize the two refrigerator doors at my family’s house:

1. Remove everything from the fridge door

I started off by taking everything off the fridge door to begin sorting. As we learned before, it is imperative that when you begin organizing that you separate your items into categories (known as macro organizing.) I separated all items into the following categories:

1. Keep
2. Throw Away
3. Consult with Mom

These piles made it easier to decide what to keep and what to toss. And of course, any items that I thought were questionable, I made sure to ask my mom for her opinion.

I began sifting through old, yellowed photos, broken magnets, and outdated paperwork. Together, my mom and I decided what should stay and what should go.

It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t have to toss everything just because it is old. It is perfectly fine to keep any mementos that bring you happiness or a fond memory. For example, my mom decided to keep all the magnets from her trip to Europe. Each magnet represents a memory of her time on the trip and made her feel good every time she looked at them.

My mom also kept an inspirational magnet which reminds her daily to “breathe and enjoy life.” This simple quote is something our whole family can keep in mind as we are rifling through a refrigerator about to embark on a busy day.

2. Decide what you want/need to keep

I made sure my mom knew that it wasn’t necessary to keep a magnet or picture unless it meant something to her. We all appreciate (and love) the 50 Christmas cards and 20 graduation photos we receive each year from family and friends, but it’s not necessary to display every single one on the fridge door. My mom selected a couple Christmas cards and a few graduation photos that she enjoyed, and threw out the rest.

We found plenty of broken magnets still firmly attached to the fridge door. My mom claimed that she could easily fix a couple of the magnets, so we set them off to the side in her craft room for her project for another day.

We also made sure to toss any old paperwork that have accumulated over the years. Doctor’s notes, old report cards, and sticky-note reminders were expired and therefore tossed. This, as a result, gave us much more room to work with.

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  3.  Begin organizing your items

Once we figured out exactly what we wanted to keep on the fridge, we decided on a game plan.

Since more guests and family members used the fridge in the kitchen for day-to-day needs, we decided to remove almost everything from the inside fridge. My mom kept her favorite magnets (a sports team magnet, a crab magnet and a dog magnet) as well as some important paperwork and removed everything else to be placed on the outside fridge.

The outside fridge is located in our garage and not seen by most household guests or visitors. We decided to make this into a collage with all my mom’s magnets, photos and Christmas cards.

We hung each photo across the fridge with some overlapping and used magnets that reminded us of either the person or memory from the photo. For example, we used a baseball magnet to hang up my little brother’s old baseball photo, and a wine magnet to hold up my mom’s photo of her trip with her girlfriends.

We arranged each photo with funny, corresponding magnets which not only helped the process go by faster but also gave my mom and I a fun activity to do together.

The project as a whole took about an hour; which is little time for such a crucial task. You see your fridge door every day; if you are experiencing the same overwhelming fridge door as I did, simply set aside an hour of your time this week so you can tackle your own fridge with a family member. If not a family member, then the Me In Order team is here to help! Schedule an appointment with us for a consultation today and we will help with all your organizing needs; including your fridge door.