Thursday, June 12, 2014

Fridge Follies

Okay, so I went a bit crazy on Tuesday. It all started with my trip to Costco, where I spotted this: 

Lifechanging...maybe

Readers, I bought it. My years-long struggle with lots of tiny little jars in my refrigerator continues unabated (I blame my condiment-loving family), and I felt that maybe - just maybe - these storage bins might provide a less expensive solution than, say, buying a custom-designed fridge with specific places for 4 jars of salsa, umpteen jars of various types of jam, and 3 opened cream cheese containers. Seriously, it had gotten to the point where I no longer bothered to clean out my fridge - I just waited until stuff fell out and broke.

 You'd think I would have learned from that unfortunate vinaigrette incident of years past, but no...

 So! Armed with the renewed hope engendered by these 4 plastic refrigerator bins, I dove into my fridge and discovered that I had a Noah's Ark thing going on in there:

Two of every sort shall come unto thee...
After I took that picture, I discovered even more pairs of condiments: cream cheese, ground ginger, etc.  Look - the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one, right?

Yes, we DO have a jam problem
I managed to fit all the open jam jars (5, if you must know) in one container and all the cream cheese (only 3!) into another.  I devoted the biggest container to our mustard/ketchup collection, and the fourth was reserved for salad dressings, because it was tall enough to keep a bottle of vinaigrette from toppling over.  Hope springs eternal, people; and I closed that fridge door serene in the knowledge that I finally had control over my condiment issues.

I opened that door a mere 2 hours later to find a large jar of roasted red peppers on its side in the middle of the ketchups and mustards. Aghast, I snatched it up, only to discover that it had disgorged its liquid-y marinade all over my pristine plastic bin.  Later, when I checked again, some member of my family (who shall remain nameless, LARRY) had shoved the entire bin the WRONG WAY into the back of the fridge, so it couldn't be pulled out like a handy little drawer, the way God and the manufacturer intended it should be.

Am I wrong to believe that my family is intentionally sabotaging my efforts to restore some order to our icebox?  Do you think that perhaps they resent my getting rid of the months-old bag of pepperoni minis I found in there?


Yes, these DID used to be red.  No, I don't know exactly how old they were.  But I posted this photo on Facebook and a friend immediately dubbed them the Michael Jackson of foodstuffs.

Too soon?





10 comments:

  1. I'm laughing pretty hard over here so it must not be too soon at all!

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  2. Noah's ark in the refrigerator! You even have a Mommy ketchup and a Daddy ketchup, just like Noah did.

    You have my extreme sympathy on the family's abuse of your new system. My family would do the same.

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  3. AnonymousJune 13, 2014

    Oh man, it's good to know I'm not alone in the fridge wars. And what your family does with jam, my family does with barbeque sauce. Bottles of it opened and half-used sitting in our fridge.

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  4. Oh my gosh! Noah's ark of condiments! I feel your pain!

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  5. My family has refrigerator/pantry blindness. They would be going "where is the..." while staring right at it. They wouldn't ever open a second one because they wouldn't be able to find the extra!

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  6. Good. It's been far too long since one of your refrigerator posts. with picures!!

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  7. Ick that's so gross!

    I guess it's good that I'm kind of a minimalist and I'm like gotta use this up before we can buy another one..

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  8. I thought it was just me who battled the misplaced condiments. Your Noah's ark comment cracked me up. :)
    And I suppose the bins have already saved you one fridge disaster, since it is easier to clean out a bin than an entire shelf (or more!) of the refrigerator... right?

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    Replies
    1. True! And so far, so good - I can actually find things again.

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