Making the most of a tiny fridge

One thing we gave up when we bought our new (to us) 179 was a decent sized, well arranged Norcold fridge.  It had at least 1 more cubic foot of space than the 179, a freezer twice the size of the new one and shelves that actually are wide enough to hold a lot of food.  Any tips for making the most of this little fridge with shelves so narrow that anything wider than a yogurt carton will fall off and even a quart of milk is too tall (only exaggerating a little bit! ). 

Refrigerator bars (spring-loaded, rubber tipped bars that are placed across the front of the shelves help to keep things from falling off. That way, you can stack some items and still have them stay in place. I also put a couple of them behind the upper shelf so that things would not fall off the back side. I do wish they had made the shelves a bit wider also, but have used the bars to help use what we have more effectively.

We do have an extra cooler we purchased that is a Free Piston Sterling Cooler that runs on 12V but unlike a thermoelectric cooler, actually does cool reliably while using less power than the thermoelectric models. We got it at our local ReStore after it was donated by a pharmaceutical company (not used to transport hazardous biological materials or organs). These are set to run at 4 degrees C, which is about 39 or 40 degrees F and will hold within a degree or two of that temperature. They are very expensive new, but ours was used and came with both a 12V cord and 120V power cord  with transformer. This usually rides in the TV with us. We have not checked to see exactly what the power draw is as we got it after last summer's travel.
On those times we did have it and stayed in a motel room, it was nice as it is also very quiet, much more so than the thermoelectric ones we have. I don't know if we could run it on 12V without running down the batteries (dual 6V in series). I think we could get an overnight okay, but don't know how much beyond that would be possible.

We also use a cooler as an added space to keep drinks and vegetables cold.  We use the refrig for meats, cheese, eggs, milk and things that need to be kept cold and somewhat constant temp.  the cooler has the rest.  It lives in the back of our expeditioin and is readily accessible.
Vann

Originally posted by Pod People We also use a cooler as an added space to keep drinks and vegetables cold.  We use the refrig for meats, cheese, eggs, milk and things that need to be kept cold and somewhat constant temp.  the cooler has the rest.  It lives in the back of our expeditioin and is readily accessible. Vann

+1

Originally posted by StephenH Refrigerator bars (spring-loaded, rubber tipped bars that are placed across the front of the shelves help to keep things from falling off. That way, you can stack some items and still have them stay in place. I also put a couple of them behind the upper shelf so that things would not fall off the back side. I do wish they had made the shelves a bit wider also, but have used the bars to help use what we have more effectively.

+1. They also come in handy for packing the pantry in our 179. We have shelves in the pantry and the bars keep items on the shelves.