“New Girl”'s Max Greenfield Shares the Way He Channels His Inner Schmidt at Home (Exclusive)

Ashley VegaSat, February 28, 2026 at 12:00 AM UTC

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Max GreenfieldCredit: Rubbermaid -

Max Greenfield partnered with Rubbermaid’s EasyStore containers for its “Neat Freaks” campaign

The actor says organizing his fridge is one of the few things he can control as a busy dad

Greenfield jokes that he keeps his kids out of the fridge so his stacking system stays intact

Max Greenfield may be best known as Schmidt, the impeccably groomed, neat freak from New Girl, but at home, the actor says the impulse to organize is entirely his own — and long predates the sitcom.

Those instincts are what made his new partnership with Rubbermaid’s EasyStore food storage containers feel less like a brand deal and more like an extension of his real life.

“When Rubbermaid reached out, I was like, ‘Yeah, of course. How has this not happened sooner,’” Greenfield, 46, tells PEOPLE. “These are products that I already used in a very real way in our home.”

Max Greenfield in 'New Girl'Credit: FOX Image Collection via Getty

Greenfield also appears in Rubbermaid’s EasyStore “Neat Freaks” campaign, highlighting the sense of ease that comes from keeping spaces neatly in place — something he says resonates deeply with his own habits.

In fact, his meticulous tendencies were already influencing Schmidt years ago. Greenfield recalls a New Girl writer once catching him reorganizing trash at a shared kids’ gathering — after it had already been thrown away — a moment that quickly made its way into the character.

“I went, ‘Oh no,’” he says with a laugh. “And then I think it ended up on the show.”

Now, as a father of two, he says maintaining an orderly refrigerator has become more than just a preference — it’s one small pocket of control in an otherwise unpredictable household. Between parenting teens and the pace of daily life, he’s learned to embrace the comfort that comes from visual order and consistency.

“The world is so crazy. My life is crazy — I have a 16-year-old, a 10-year-old,” he says. “There’s so little I can control in my life aside from my refrigerator. I’m like, ‘Okay, all right, I’m gonna take this.’ And it makes me feel good.”

That attention to detail extends down to exactly how containers are stacked — something he found himself explaining to the Rubbermaid team while filming. What began as playful on-set bits turned into proof that his enthusiasm wasn’t scripted at all.

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Rubbermaid EasyStore ContainersCredit: Rubbermaid

“I was like, ‘Yeah, no, I know — and you stack them this way,’ ” he says. “I stack them sort of like a tiered pyramid.”

The system also serves a practical parenting purpose. Greenfield admits he often acts as gatekeeper when his kids head to the fridge, partly to help them find what they want and partly to protect his carefully maintained order.

“They’ll come in and be like, ‘I’m hungry,’ ” he says. “And I don’t want them going into the fridge and messing everything up. So I’m like, ‘Okay, what do you want?’ ”

“When the fridge is a mess, I don’t know what we have,” he adds. “But when it’s stacked and in containers and separated and where it’s supposed to be — really easy to tell.”

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Ultimately, he says, the satisfaction comes from preserving that sense of order and calm each time the refrigerator door opens. In a busy family home, the fridge becomes a small visual reset — and he’s determined to keep it that way.

“I’m the last person to close the fridge and the first to open it,” he says. “And I like it when it looks the same.”

If you’re looking to channel your own inner Schmidt, Rubbermaid’s EasyStore collection is designed for the same kind of secure, space-saving order Greenfield swears by and is available now on Amazon.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”