Fridge Coaster Faker

Hey all..

So I asked some of you on the FB page as well as my personal FB page what you would like me to blog about.. I received a few responses and thought I would get right to work on them..

One of the suggestions was about keeping your fridge clean and organization to a fridge...

SOOOO I looked over my pinterest boards and found what I wanted to do.
Thanks to some random  money in my wallet I was able to complete this project, which was nice.. I needed some kind of a boost after the morning I had.

My Son decided while walking my daughter up to the school this morning that it would be the perfect time for a meltdown.. NO THANKS...

Onward with the day I went..


Decided that I loved the idea of fridge coasters. Yes their is such a thing.. There is actually a company that patented actual fridge coasters.. You can go to their site.. select the style fridge you have and order custom fridge coasters.. MY PROBLEM is the price tag.. to get my whole fridge coaster'ed it would coast me around 75$.. I personally do not have the money for that and even if I did I think its a little ridiculous.. I had seen on FB people used Glad Press n Seal on the shelving and when a mess happened they would just have to pull off the piece of press n seal and it was cleaned up.. However I don't always want to have to keep one more plastic wrap of sorts in my drawer.. So thanks to pinterest I went the other route.. PLASTIC PLACE MATS.. another great invention of our time...

I was having trouble deciding.. go to dollar tree and hope to find them, and find them in a pattern I could live with or just go to target and use my red card and save 5% on one that I knew I would most likely really like in` my fridge.. I opted for target...


I knew I had 5 shelves so I bought the last 5 place mats in this pattern.. I also in my research saw people use plastic bins in their refrigerator for storing meals or specific items.. I personally do not have a ton of room or need to have a ton of bins.. so I only bought 2.. One for Dips and one for Bagels and cream cheese..Now mind you, You can buy more place mats and trim them to fit your door bins.. the shelves are all I'm worried about. 

ALSO, this item is SOOOOO not needed for this project but Ive been desperate for one and found it on clearance, a label maker.. Its nothing fancy and was under 20$.. however ALL that is needed for this project is place mats and a few storage bins..

So here is my fridge.. Its a Maytag french door fridge.. LOVE my fridge.. was our first ever appliance purchase when we moved in.. the fridge that came with the house was a very small apt sized fridge that  could not even hold the few items I brought over from our apt when we moved in..

Thanks to sales and hubbys VA discount we got this bad boy..perfect for us..

here is the inside.. Nothing fancy.. a big drawer on the bottom.. one side is meats other is cheeses

I don't generally have the issue of having no room in my fridge unless its a grocery day and I have meat that needs to be packaged and brought down to the freezer..

1> the first thing I did was to take everything out of the fridge.. my cousin rocks.. she was over for coffee and let me be a half listener since I was into doing this project.. so.. I took everything out and wiped down the shelves.. 

2>Take the place mat and lay it on one of the shelves.. chances are you have some overhang.. I took and marked on the place mat where it overlapped.. I then took a good pair of scissors  and cut it to fit the shelf. I did this step 4 times.. The only shelf I did not have to worry about was the bottom. I just turned the place mat sideways and it fits on the bottom shelf just fine.

here is the shelves completed and me putting the fridge back together.

These were the 2 bins I bought.. Ive seen people have some really fancy buckets with fancy handles and I did see those at target but I was not spending 10$ on one bucket.. instead I spent 1.29... much more my price range.. we have dips that end up all over the fridge so I now have a bin just for dips.. and also the cream cheese never really had a home.. so bagels and cream cheese now go together... thanks to my clearance rack label maker I was able to label everything.. no when hubs helps put groceries away there is no reason it should not go in its place..also.. maybe just maybe I have an obsession with labels..lol

Organized Door..

One side of my fridge

And yes that is a lazy susan in my fridge. I keep jelly, minced garlic and other jarred items on it.. I just spin and grab

Second door

Other side of the fridge.

And a final view.. I personally do not think my fridge was all that bad to begin with.. however I am really excited at the thought that the  next spill that happens in my fridge will now BE SUPER EASY to clean up.. just take out that single Place mat and wash it.. DONE.. OVER WITH.. I did not have to remove a whole shelf and drag it to my bathroom tub to wash it since the shelves do not fit in my sink.. LIFE JUST GOT EASIER..

some tips I have for keeping my fridge clean to begin with is to always put things where they belong. Also.. we are not big leftover people.. so I generally don't have leftovers.. if I do, I keep a dry erase marker in my drawer by the sink.. IE.. made tuna yesterday. took a dry erase marker and wrote what I was storing and the date I stored it right on top of the container.. as long as your using Rubbermaid/Tupperware the dry erase will wipe right off when your done.. no tape.. not label tape.. nothing but a black expo marker..

I also clean out my fridge before I go grocery shopping.. I do not want to come home and have bags everywhere that need to be put away and I have to clean out my fridge (trust me those days happen) by tossing it before I have to put stuff away I don't run the risk of nasty cheese being pushed into the back of the fridge.. or a small Tupperware of spaghetti getting lost in the shuffle..

the fridge coaster thing is new for me.. I truly am excited to spill something in my fridge because it will be so much easier to clean up...

I hope this helps someone.. it was easy and in my eyes inexpensive..project was done over a cup of coffee with my cousin.. so maybe an hour??

here's the breakdown

TARGET

 plastic place mats $1.99 x5 = $9.95

Plastic Bins $1.29 x 2 = 2.58

TOTAL COST  =$12.53

I am not adding in the label maker because it is not essential to making this project happen.. plus I will use it for other projects..

So..  what do you think? think it will work? is it something you'd like to try???

I say GO FOR IT..