I Tried the SIMPLE Organizing Method—Here's How It Works

20.01.2024 - 17:31 / thespruce.com / Ashley Chalmers

I’ll admit—I’m not usually a 'New Year, New Me' kind of person. I do my best reinventions in September, around the start of the school year, and I prefer to go all in on spring cleaning right as the weather turns in late March. 

Recently, though, I noticed that our kitchen was pushed to the limits this holiday season. We had moved our fridge shelves around to accommodate a heavy rotation of leftovers, and the aftermath wasn't great. In fact, it was downright messy.

When I learned about the SIMPLE organizing method, I had my solution. I wasn’t willing to face a full kitchen declutter, but I absolutely could tackle the few problem zones that had gotten out of control.

Here's what I learned after giving this method a try in my kitchen.

To put it simply, the SIMPLE Method is an anagram for the following:

With these steps in mind, I first set to tackling our fridge.

The Spruce / Ashley Chalmers

After a hectic holiday season and a fridge stocked with non-stop leftovers, we rolled straight into a chaotic return to school and prep for my daughter’s eighth birthday. This meant our shelves we all over the place, and they needed fixing—badly.

So, I pulled out all of the items, placed them on the table, and put them in groups. Obviously, with a bunch of cold food on the line, the key here it to move quickly.

We have a pretty small fridge, so we don’t usually end up with too many items that shouldn’t be there. But I still did a quick scan of expiration dates and tossed some suspect leftover food from the weekend that I didn’t think anyone would actually eat.

The Spruce / Ashley Chalmers

Our fridge isn't huge, but I do rely on two fridge organizers that I love. They’re long acrylic shelf organizers, and they managed to get