As the hosts of “Chaos to Calm” on Aspire TV, professional organizers Lauren Hill, Tneisha Brown and Varatip (V) Johnson, work their magic to categorize cluttered spaces for everyday clients and celebrities, to transform their homes. In their most recent episode, they used their expertise to reorganize Grammy award-winning gospel music artist Kirk Franklin’s fridge into a more functional, well-designed version that his whole family can enjoy. When it came time to orchestrating a “refrigerator revolution” for the Franklin family, The "Chaos to Calm" team was eager to bring some much-needed customization to their overflowing fridge.
The Franklin family are repeat customers of Hill, Brown, and Johnson, who are nicknamed the “Queens of Organization”. The female entrepreneurs, who are childhood best friends, launched their successful business, The Order Project, to offer ‘a roadmap to conquering clutter’ with solutions that people can actually maintain in real life. Keeping the family’s busy on-the-go lifestyle in mind, they delivered a meticulous makeover that visually made it possible to easily spot all inventory to avoid spoiled food, wasted money, and most importantly, preserve time. As the post-clean out picture below shows, they put a system in place that catered to the family’s needs.
The Order Project Team explains a refrigerator refresh is absolutely necessary for every kitchen, which is the heart of the home. “As our clients invest more time and money in fresh ingredients, they’re more thoughtful about storing them. You can waste a lot of food with a disorganized fridge. Think about items that are left in the back of the fridge and not found until they’ve expired or gone bad.” But figuring out where to start and how to tackle the problem can be overwhelming. They say, “The key is to create a space that’s not only beautiful and ‘picture-perfect,’ but a space that can actually help make life easier!”
If you’re feeling inspired to tackle your own kitchen, the ladies come are coming to the rescue by offering five decluttering tips to transform your fridge from start to finish.
Start by measuring your fridge before buying containers
“You will need to move quickly on this project because you’re dealing with food, so you should already have containers purchased and ready. But remember to buy the containers for your type of fridge -- counter depth or standard depth. This is a common mistake!”
Begin with a blank canvas for your fridge
“Empty out the entire fridge into a cooler full of ice to prevent food from spoiling. Then, like with most projects you organize by category. This includes checking your expiration dates, and tossing things the second they expire even if they look okay. Also, Wipe down the fridge before you put everything back in.”
Remember food safety is the TOP priority
“Organizing your fridge is all about food safety not just aesthetics. Items like dairy, cheese and meats need to be closest to the bottom where it’s the coldest (not the refrigerator door where it’s the warmest). Veggies and fruits don’t always play well together. Place separately in crisper drawers to avoid humidity and to keep them fresh longer as they give off different gases, making them rot faster. Items like condiments can live in the fridge doors since temperature regulation is not as risky.”
Label your containers (or fridge shelves) to maintain your system
“This is one of the most important steps to maintaining a functional system. If you don’t label, you won’t put things back in their place, and before you know it, the bins/shelves are mixed up and disorganized. Trust us...You need labels, even in your fridge.”
Clean out once a week
“Now that you have a labeled, functional system, it’ll be easy to maintain. Just clean everything out once a week, keeping trash days in mind!”
