TCIH: Our Refrigerator

A few weeks ago I started what I hope to be a once-a-month True Confessions of an Imperfect Homeowner feature about the little imperfections that pop up as we discover what it's like to be grown-ups and homeowners, and remind us that it's OK to not be Martha Stewart. (Rick was relieved when he heard that, for obvious reasons.) I hope you'll join in! :)

Today's focus is our refrigerator, which might seem like a weird topic, but it can be a very scary place in our house, and there are things we can get better about doing in order to make it not such a scary place.

For some reason, we like to make science experiments in our refrigerator. Meaning the corn that we ate two months ago is still sitting there, but has now morphed into some blue hairy thing. (Why is the corn that you ate two months ago still sitting in your fridge, uneaten, you ask?) Well. I don't know. Maybe because it's blue and hairy? (But what about one day after you ate it? Was it blue and hairy then?) Well. No. No, it wasn't. That would be weird.

So what's our deal? I don't know. I do like to frequently purge other areas of the house. But I guess the refrigerator gets neglected because I don't have to look at it all day. I simply notice the furry corn, shut the door, and continue on my merry way. And no one is the wiser about the Moldy Little Secret that we have growing next to our milk. Until now, of course.

Are you ready for what I had to shove down the garbage disposal after I cleaned out the fridge--finally--last week?

The Longevity Award goes to the sour cream and mayo. I packed that last summer when we took a trip to southern Pennsylvania. Don't judge. I know it's inexcusable.

Since I'm confessing, I also have to admit, though, that all of that moldiness and stinkiness sort of makes us laugh. It's been our running joke for, well, several months now that when we don't know what else to eat, we can have that broccoli and cheddar soup.Yummmm.

via

But here's the problem, even though we are guilty of finding it amusing: all of that food was wasted. This is not to say that we waste all of our food; what you saw up there was representing a few months, I'd say. But still. There are a couple reasons, I think, why this happens to us: 

1. There are just two of us. We make a big batch of something, eat it for several meals, then get tired of it, and it just sits and...goes stinky. The soup is a perfect example of this.

2. The full fridge factor. Sometimes, when we're rearranging to make room for new items, we end up carelessly shoving containers of stuff to the back of the fridge, and then we forget about it because we can't see it.

3. We're a little lazy. Really, nobody else sees the refrigerator. There are other things in the house that I'd rather clean, like the toilets. (I'm not being sarcastic.)

4.  We're secretly hoping to find a new mold a'la penicillin so that I can quit my job and stay home cleaning the house all day.

Here's what we're going to try to do about it:

1. Freeze leftovers that we're tired of before they go bad. Or just don't make such a big batch to begin with.

2. Keep the fridge organized so that food isn't just shoved willy-nilly. Cheese in one place, fruit in another.This will also prevent us from buying too much of something we already have.

3. Keep the tall stuff in the back and the short, flat stuff (like many of those containers above) up front, so that we can see what we have.

4. Actually clean--not just clean out--more frequently. I do periodic wipe-downs, but making time to actually do a thorough cleaning will prevent food from residing in our refrigerator for months on end.

5. Have children ASAP so that they can share our leftovers. (Hi Mom.)

Any other suggestions for how to maintain a non-wasteful fridge? Anyone else have this problem? What's the most disgusting thing you've ever pulled out of your fridge? Go ahead. Confess. You know you want to. :)