The Clever Condiment Storage Idea That Maximizes Fridge Space

Sometimes opening the fridge feels less like encountering your sauce selection and more like encountering a condiment graveyard, the place where condiments go to be forgotten. Somehow, neglected condiments have a life of their own, turning even the biggest shelf into sticky chaos. Luckily, people love coming up with clever tricks, such as using a plastic shoe storage box in the fridge. The idea is a simple one: Fill a plastic shoe box with your shorter condiments and sauces then slide it onto a shelf and just like that, you're much more organized. This is one of many creative ways to organize your fridge, and it works well because these plastic shoe boxes are clear, stackable, and very easy to pull out and see what you have inside. Plus, it's a good way to keep spills contained — if something leaks you only have to wash the box and not the whole shelf.

And if, like me, you're really short on fridge space, there's another move that may be worth trying, which is decanting bulky bottles into smaller jars — this works in fridges and pantries for better uniformity and organization. But the tip here is keeping them smaller so you can store them all together — ketchup next to mayo and mustard beside your chili crisp.

Once your sauces and condiments have been organized with the shoe box hack, and if you decide against decanting, you'll probably notice that your taller bottles are still standing around awkwardly on shelves taking up too much space. This is where bigger stackable drawer boxes come in — often found in the home section of stores and sold to be used in closets, they actually work beautifully in a fridge too. They will allow you to keep tall bottles like salad dressings and siracha upright, plus they slide out smoothly so you can grab what you need without causing a mess.

Before doing any organizing and stacking, take a moment to do a quick condiment clean-out by checking expiration dates because open condiments do have an expiry date. Plus, don't forget there are some condiments you don't need to bother refrigerating — like soy sauce or vinegar — so they can move to a cupboard instead. This frees up more fridge space and allows you to slot the rest of your condiments and sauces into your snazzy new setup, where every inch of shelf space is used and everything is in the right place.