Best Refrigerator Styles to Reduce Clutter and Stay Organized
Living in a clutter-free home takes work, but the end result is worth it.
Our homes are more lived-in than ever before. In addition to providing shelter, our residences serve multiple functions. During the pandemic, family members had to transform their homes to take on new roles.
It is said that the kitchen is the heart of the home. For many families, the kitchen serves as the new living room. In the past year, residents had to carve out space for home offices, daycare, fitness routines, and schooling. Living in a clutter-free home takes a little work, but the result is worth it. Keep your old coffee table or kitchen counters clear from school projects, toys, dishware, and pantry items.
We have no choice but to adapt to the circumstances. All this extra commotion naturally comes with clutter. A well-designed kitchen can account for your belongings and a larger group of people. We are finding remodelers prioritizing fresh and dry ingredient storage. People are taking fewer trips to the grocery store and stocking up on more items each visit. Large-capacity refrigerators and freezers have been popular wishlist items for renovations since 2020.
Refrigerator Styles for Optimal Food Storage
There are many different styles of refrigerators on the market, so your selection will come down to your personal preference. Think about your food-buying habits. If you shop infrequently and stock up on frozen foods, you'll need more freezer space. If you buy a lot of fresh foods, you'll want easy access and storage space in the refrigerator.
Think about your family. Do you have children or family members in a wheelchair that need access at a lower level? Is bending down a problem? Are you on a tight budget? Answers to these questions will help determine the best style for your home.
Top-Freezer Refrigerators
Top freezer fridges are a traditional style with lots of storage space up to 24 cubic feet of capacity. Top freezer models are the least expensive so they are a great solution as an extra capacity fridge or if you are on a tight budget.
Since this style has the freezer compartment stacked above the refrigerator compartment, you might notice that you are bending down to access fresh ingredients. Hence why the bottom freezer models are the more popular choice these days.
Side-by-Side Refrigerators
Side-by-side refrigerators are two separate full-length split compartments for fresh food on the right and frozen food on the left. Freestanding side-by-side models usually come with an external ice maker and filtered water on the door.
This style is great for organizing ingredients since additional shelves make it possible to see everything. Since the shelves are narrower, it can be a challenge to store wide items like platters, pizza boxes, and sheet cakes.
French Door Refrigerators
French door refrigerators are a leading style, with two doors on the top and a pull-out bottom freezer drawer below. You will find the largest variety of French door models with up to 32 cubic feet of capacity. This style offers a waist-level fresh food compartment with easy access to veggies and perishables.
The French door design conserves energy as you only open a small portion of the fridge to access a single item. Explore cool new features like the door-in-door design for even easier access to your favorite items. French door fridges come in three or four-door styles in many finishes including trendy black stainless steel and trendy fingerprint-resistant options.
4-Door Refrigerators
Four-door fridges are relatively new but are growing in popularity for good reason. These refrigerators are like a French door model, in that there is a large wide refrigerator compartment at the top. Underneath, there are two smaller freezer compartments. The freezer section offers shelves with an easy-to-access design.
Four-door models combine the easy access and wide storage of the French door fridges with the organization in the freezer area of side-by-side models. Some of these fridges even offer a convertible fridge-to-freezer zone for even more versatility.
Column Refrigerators (All-Refrigerator, All-Freezer)
Columns allow you to customize how much space to allocate for fresh food, frozen food, or even wine storage. Every kitchen is different, in some spaces, it's challenging to commit to a wide built-in refrigerator. Columns can either be installed together or apart. Columns are also fantastic for delivery into tight spaces. Since these units ship separately, you might be able to assemble a massive refrigerator on-site without the challenges associated with delivery.
Counter-Depth Refrigerators
Counter-depth fridges come in many styles including French door, four-door, and side-by-side designs. Counter-depth refrigerators are freestanding models with a shallow case depth. Regular kitchen counters are 24" deep, so these fridges are designed to extend just slightly beyond the counter for a high-end look.
Although counter-depth models have less capacity than traditional full-depth models, you will find the shallow depth is great for keeping everything organized. With a counter-depth fridge, you are far less likely to lose items in the back of the unit.
Under-Counter Refrigerators
Under-counter refrigerators provide extra fresh and frozen storage space beyond your main kitchen fridge. Shop a wide selection of models and customize your selection based on your needs. Wine coolers, beverage centers, kegerators, and fridge freezer drawer units are trending. We are seeing more under-counter fridges installed in areas outside the kitchen, such as a home office, game room, or exercise area.
Best Refrigerator Organization Features
Adjustable Shelves
Adjustable shelves offer increased storage capacity as well as better visibility for stored items at all levels. Sliding shelves allow easy access to items typically out of reach or make room for tall items like liter bottles. Look for spill-safe shelves designed to catch spills and sticky messes.
Large Crisper Drawers
Look for large roomy crisper drawers. Full-extension drawers make it easy to access their contents. Full-width pantry drawers keep large trays of food cold for entertaining.
Large crispers are ideal for storing produce, especially leafy greens that can take up lots of space. Look for transparent drawers to make it easy to see what you have stored in your fridge.
Climate Controls
Climate-controlled fridges enable you to specify the temperature and control the humidity. Look for models designed to elongate food freshness. Dual evaporator and dual compressor models are ideal as they work to maintain a consistent temperature and humidity level for longer-lasting ingredients.
Large Freezer Baskets
Oversize freezer baskets and sliding drawers to make organization easy.
Final Thoughts
Keeping your refrigerator organized is key to fostering easy meal prep, clean-up, and socializing for people of all ages and abilities. Organized kitchens make meal preparation, clean up faster, and encourage more home-cooked meals. Better organization leads to greater storage capacity, less stress, easier maintenance, time-savings, and a healthier environment for inhabitants.
