During the holidays we're usually making more food for more people than at any other time of the year. So let's get ready for it.

Plus, according to Marguerite Preston, who has learned her way around professional kitchens as a pastry cook in New York, once you’ve got a system in place, keeping your fridge tidy should take a lot less time.

"The first step toward decluttering your fridge is to take everything out," Preston said. "I mean everything. Deal with the moldy meat sauce you’ve been avoiding, and take stock of all your condiments."

"When you’re ready to refill the fridge, avoid treating it like a junk drawer for food," Preston added.

She recommends designating different areas for different types of items. "Your fridge probably comes with a few predetermined zones—crisper drawers, a cheese drawer—but you can create more with trays or bins."

"Restaurants often keep smaller containers together on rimmed baking sheets, which are easy to pull out to get a better look ... For loose items like lemons, clear bins work best. I use these Rubbermaid Commercial Food Storage Containers for everything, but you can also find bins tailor-made for your fridge at the Container Store," Preston said.

Another great way to keep ingredients from getting lost in the back of the fridge is to use a lazy Susan, like this OXO Good Grips Turntable.

Preston uses her lazy Susan to keep the basic ingredients her family reaches for daily—like mayo, yogurt, nut butter, and our bin of lemons and limes—so they're always easily accessible.

"A basic understanding of food safety can help you decide what should go where in your fridge," Preston noted.

"Fridges are typically coldest toward the back and bottom, warmer on the top shelf, and warmest in the door. So the door is great for condiments with a long shelf life, like jam, mustard, and hot sauce, but try to avoid storing milk there unless you’ll drink it fast."

"Raw meat should always go at the bottom of the fridge—not only for the cold temperatures but also because you don’t want a leaky package dripping chicken juice over everything else," she explained.

Even if you have the best containers, it helps to have a system for managing leftovers. Preston said that one of the cardinal rules of any restaurant fridge is FIFO: first in, first out.

This means that new items always go to the back, pushing older food to the front of the line, where it’s guaranteed to get picked up first.

"To do the same thing at home, you’ll need to spend a little extra time putting away groceries or leftovers, but it will save time later on," Preston said.

"Rather than rummaging around for the open jar of tomato sauce, you’ll have the food that needs to be finished right at your fingertips. Using trays or bins makes it easier to follow the FIFO rule because you can pull everything out."

But if clutter starts to return even after your best efforts, just try to nip it in the bud before you have another leaning tower of Tupperware situation.

"Cook a clean-out-the-fridge meal, and use your condiments for a fancy toast-toppings bar. And when you really need to, pull everything out and start over," Preston said.

Of course, you can always take a pic of how you're doing and submit it to 'Fridge Detective'. As you can see, they don't judge no matter how good or bad it looks!