Where should I put things in the fridge?
Condiments, jams and drinks in the door; cooked food, leftovers and dairy on the upper and middle shelves; raw meat and fish on the bottom shelf in a sealed container; fruit and vegetables in their separate drawers. The guiding principle is that nothing raw should ever sit above something you will eat without cooking, and nothing you drink daily should live in the warmest spot.
How often should I clean the fridge?
A ten-minute reset once a week, ideally the evening before you shop, keeps the whole thing manageable: pull out anything past its best, wipe the shelves you can reach, and move the survivors into the eat-me-first box. A deeper clean, with the shelves and drawers removed and washed in warm soapy water, is worth doing every couple of months or whenever something has leaked, and it is a much smaller job than it looks once the weekly habit is in place.
Shop for the fridge you actually have
The final piece is buying less in one go. A fridge crammed to the ceiling does not circulate air properly, which makes everything spoil faster, and it guarantees that items disappear behind other items. Two smaller shops a week, or one shop plus a top-up of fresh things, keeps the fridge readable. And a readable fridge is the whole point: you should be able to open the door, see everything you own, and know within five seconds what you are cooking tonight.
