Before and After: A Refrigerator Makeover

Real Simple cracked this case of cold-clutter chaos. 

The Refrigerator, Before

“It was out of sight, out of mind." says Rachel Weinblatt, a stay-at-home mom in Cooper City, Florida. "You couldn’t see the mess with the doors closed, thank goodness. Nothing smelled funny, and food wasn’t spilling out, so to me it was an island unto itself. But I could never find what I was looking for, and it just seemed to be getting worse and worse.”

Found In (and Tossed From) Rachel’s Refrigerator

• 32 ketchup packets
• 30 soy- and duck-sauce packets
• 12 bottles of salad dressing
• 4 tubs of spreadable margarine
• 1 empty bottle of ketchup
• 1 head of (brown) lettuce
• 1 container of (very brown) chopped lettuce
• 1 container filled with “either some type of chocolate sauce or gravy,” says Rachel
• ½ glass of soda (in a two-liter bottle)
• 24 fish sticks bearded-over with freezer burn
• 22 three-month-old Popsicles
• 9 heels of bread, knotted in their bags (“to feed the ducks”)
• 3 six-packs of English muffins (from a 2008 gift basket)
• 1 near-empty box of soy “chicken” nuggets (one left)
• 1 near-full box of soy “chicken” nuggets (one gone)