How is your fridge?

wandajune6

The recent posts have got me thinking about the state of my fridge. I clean it out every week or so but it only gets scrubbed when something gross happens. Here's what I'm wondering:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Every weekend when I put away the new groceries.

How often do you scrub it down? Rarely. I'll spot clean after incidents like last week's liquified cilantro.

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? We keep a lot of food around, though that includes a lot of beverages and condiments. If we have options, we're much less likely to eat out.

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? I'm terrible about checking if the mustard is in date. I also find that not everyone checks for an open bottle before opening a new package, leading to multiple open bottles of BBQ sauce, ketchup, etc.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? I also wash things before using them but I was recently told that was wrong.


ETA pictures. And to note how much I hate our fridge.

beachyone15

wandajune6 said:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Every weekend when the new stuff goes in, sometimes in between too.

How often do you scrub it down? Eh...sometimes...when I deep clean...like, maybe once a year??

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? We always have a full fridge because we cook a lot. I usually bring food/leftovers for lunch and we cook for dinner too during the week.

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? Rarely, but I am usually good about keeping an eye on salad dressing since we use it quite often. We usually have 4-5 kinds at one time.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? Yes, and always in a vinegar bath. I had no idea how much grit is on fruit/veggies until I started using vinegar. Plus it helps the fruit last longer, and I'm more likely to take it to work if it's already washed/cut/ready-to-go.

lovegood90

wandajune6 said:

The recent posts have got me thinking about the state of my fridge. I clean it out every week or so but it only gets scrubbed when something gross happens. Here's what I'm wondering:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Every weekend

How often do you scrub it down? Woops, this is a thing I should do...haha but seriously, I should do this more often./

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? Minimalist- most of our food consists of perishable fruits/vegetables so since there's only 2 of us we don't like to stock up in case it goes bad. We  also don't need to keep it packed because we grocery shop multiple times a week; we live ridiculously close to a grocery store.

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? Not that often- we don't have a lot and the stuff we do, we go through pretty quickly.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? I wash them before I'm about to use them

luckya23

wandajune6 said:

The recent posts have got me thinking about the state of my fridge. I clean it out every week or so but it only gets scrubbed when something gross happens. Here's what I'm wondering:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Leftovers, I do a sweep after a week or so on garbage day

How often do you scrub it down? I just got this fridge in July-ish, and that was the only time

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? Packed fridge - I have an extra in the basement, so the upstairs one isn't chock full though

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? When I run out?

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? No... I usually don't wash them at all TBH

lovemesomemonster

This is a fun one!

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Daily, there is only two of us an only me most of the year so when I make dinner I will throw out anything that is bad.

How often do you scrub it down? Rarely, spot clean mostly, maybe twice a year take all of it out and clean it. the freezer is another story, I HATE deep cleaning it!

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? Packed freezer, but minimalist fridge.

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? After a terrible experience at my mom's house I check ALL THE TIME.. I got a pickle out of hers, bit into it and realized something was very wrong.. they expired in 2005, it was 2014.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? After, generally when I'm going to use them unless I cut the fruit up before putting it away.

novella1186

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? usually once a week... sometimes less often though 

How often do you scrub it down? Never. We've lived in our house for 2 years and it has never been totally emptied and cleaned out. Although we did scrub out the veggie bins and bottom shelf last spring cuz something leaked all over 

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? Packed fridge. I need all my various cocktail mixers (tonic, cranberry juice, etc), and FI needs his soda to be in there, and then we have far too many condiments, pickle jars, etc. So that stuff alone keeps it somewhat full. Plus leftovers. Then the weekly groceries. Right now our entire middle shelf is giant bundles of differnt types of lettuce for different recipes. It looks really cool when you open the fridge. 

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? Only when I pull one out to use one and realize I haven't used it in forever. Most of them, though, we use them so fast that there's no way they'd expire. And a few of them never go bad (like the jar of tahini I used to make hummus) 

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? After. I wrinse them right before I use them/eat them, but that's it. 

redheadbride15

wandajune6 said:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? At least once a week. Usually more often than that.

How often do you scrub it down? Not as often as I should... Maybe a few times a year?

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? Minimalist. We live in a city and I tend to grocery shop 2-3x/week so there is less to carry on a crowded train. So, I tend to buy what I need and don't keep more than that around. We have a CSA pickup in the summer/fall months and otherwise pretty much the only things I ever buy are milk, bread, meat, and cheese.

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? We only ever have one bottle of each and we always use it up well before the expiration date. We're pretty simple when it comes to condiments: we only have mayo, mustard, ranch dressing, ketchup, and soy sauce.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? Never heard of doing this. I wash before I eat (usually, unless I'm feeling lazy).

ashley8918

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Lol, uhhhhhhh... pretty sure you can still find leftovers from Thanksgiving in there if you look back far enough,

How often do you scrub it down? Only if some weird gross mess happens. Otherwise, never,

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? SUPER packed

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? Oh Jesus, I am probably eating way expired shit.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? I don't, generally. Like, at all.

amelisha

wandajune6 said:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? I check everything out at least weekly before I go buy new groceries.

How often do you scrub it down? Once a month I pull everything out and seriously scrub it down.

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? Our fridge's crispers are packed with vegetables and the doors are packed with condiments, but there's usually plenty of space for roomie's beer and leftovers and stuff on the shelves. We always have a lot of food in general though. Lots of frozen meat, lots of pantry staples.

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? When I clean out the fridge once a month for stuff like mustards, salad dressings, etc, but I check anything dairy before I use it.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? I wash it first and sometimes prep it too so it's easy to grab and use.

levioosa

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Every weekend, and periodically I'll check to make sure stuff is still within date.  If it's getting close I'll rearrange my menu plan to accommodate it.

How often do you scrub it down? Every 3-6 months, but I'll spot clean and take out a drawer or a shelf if there's an accident.

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home?
I have a few staples, like butter, eggs, and (of course) cheese.  Overall I'd say I'm probably in the middle.  Not packed, but it's not an empty fridge either.  I just moved so right now all my fridge has is beer, a bottle of wine, eggs, butter, and marscapone. 

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? I have a pretty good idea of when stuff expires.  I'll make it easy on myself by writing it on the back or bottom with a sharpie.  I hate when the expiration date rubs off. 

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? No, I'm lazy and wait until it's time to use them.  I also think doing it that way helps preserve them longer?  Am I wrong?  I feel like I remember reading that the other day. 

lovemesomemonster

levioosa said:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Every weekend, and periodically I'll check to make sure stuff is still within date.  If it's getting close I'll rearrange my menu plan to accommodate it.

How often do you scrub it down? Every 3-6 months, but I'll spot clean and take out a drawer or a shelf if there's an accident.

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home?
I have a few staples, like butter, eggs, and (of course) cheese.  Overall I'd say I'm probably in the middle.  Not packed, but it's not an empty fridge either.  I just moved so right now all my fridge has is beer, a bottle of wine, eggs, butter, and marscapone. 

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? I have a pretty good idea of when stuff expires.  I'll make it easy on myself by writing it on the back or bottom with a sharpie.  I hate when the expiration date rubs off. 

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? No, I'm lazy and wait until it's time to use them.  I also think doing it that way helps preserve them longer?  Am I wrong?  I feel like I remember reading that the other day. 

I love this! At least the important stuff is taken care of! Beer, wine, and eggs are the three things you can ALWAYS count on in our house. 

novella1186

lovemesomemonster said:

levioosa said:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Every weekend, and periodically I'll check to make sure stuff is still within date.  If it's getting close I'll rearrange my menu plan to accommodate it.

How often do you scrub it down? Every 3-6 months, but I'll spot clean and take out a drawer or a shelf if there's an accident.

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home?
I have a few staples, like butter, eggs, and (of course) cheese.  Overall I'd say I'm probably in the middle.  Not packed, but it's not an empty fridge either.  I just moved so right now all my fridge has is beer, a bottle of wine, eggs, butter, and marscapone. 

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? I have a pretty good idea of when stuff expires.  I'll make it easy on myself by writing it on the back or bottom with a sharpie.  I hate when the expiration date rubs off. 

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? No, I'm lazy and wait until it's time to use them.  I also think doing it that way helps preserve them longer?  Am I wrong?  I feel like I remember reading that the other day. 

I love this! At least the important stuff is taken care of! Beer, wine, and eggs are the three things you can ALWAYS count on in our house. 

Our count-ons are cheese, vodka, tonic, and bacon 

amelisha

levioosa said:

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? No, I'm lazy and wait until it's time to use them.  I also think doing it that way helps preserve them longer?  Am I wrong?  I feel like I remember reading that the other day. 

I think that's true. We don't usually keep any produce long enough for it to matter though, so I just do it when I bring it home.

lyndausvi

How often do you empty your fridge of old food?  Most Thursday mornings as we are taking out the trash.

How often do you scrub it down? Rarely.

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home?  some where in the middle.  We have a lot of condiments.   We shop once a week and try to keep foods at a minimal as to not create too much waste.

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge?  Meh, things that we use often I never check as we will use them before the exp date.  Things we do not use often I normally check before using just to make sure.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge?  I was when it's time to use the item.

thisismynickname2

wandajune6 said:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Not often enough. We've had standoffs before. Like, "You left the old gravy in that container? Ew... So are you going to throw it out? No? You don't want to touch it now? Well neither do I!" 

How often do you scrub it down? Rarely. Honestly, I have to be highly caffeinated and avoiding some other horrible task in order to get motivated to scrub out the fridge. 

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? Minimalist. I hate wasting food, so we just buy enough for a week at a time. 

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? Only if I have any reason to believe it may be outdated. We have really awesome sauce that was used last Thanksgiving... I think it's keeping ok.... But maybe I should check that. 

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? Not before the fridge, but before eating them, yes. 

afox007

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How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Usualy when I do a big grocery trip. Occasionally I notice a funky smell and do it between shopping trips. I was bad last time and I think there are leftovers from a month ago

How often do you scrub it down? I wipe up spills as they happen, but only do a good cleaning when I do my twice yearly deep clean of the house. FSS on the other hand spills crap places a paper towel over and then it turns into a paper mâché mess.

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? Packed. I like doing two huge shopping trips a month. I plan out meal but also pick up random extra stuff that's on sale so that if the grocery shopping has to wait a few days I can still come up with something.

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? We go through a lot of stuff to fast to bother checking. Other things I'm awful and do a sniff test versus looking at the expiration date.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? to be honest I rarely wash produce period. Most stuff gets peeled so I don't bother. I do rinse of lettuce and things that are served raw and unpeeled.

princessleia22

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Maybe once a month (or whenever it starts to smell or we see fuzz growing on things) we go through everything to make sure all junk is cleared.  But, I clean out obvious critical items (produce, meat, etc.) probably once a week.

How often do you scrub it down? Generally just spot clean as needed.  Otherwise every 2-5 years it may get a good scrub down.

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? Fridge usually contains basics (eggs, cheese, milk) and a lot of condiments (I swear we have at least 20 different kinds of BBQ sauce in there right now, not exaggerating).  Freezer is usually packed and we have a small chest freezer that is usually packed. The freezers usually contain large quantities of chicken breast, hamburger, bacon, French fries, and waffles.  Our pantry is usually quite packed also, but even then half of it is baking ingredients, not immediately edible food.

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? When I go to use the condiment.  I have had several times where I go to use something, realize it's no good and get disappointed that I don't have that condiment available.

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? Usually before.  I'm the type to want something I can easily grab and eat.  So, when I'm hungry and searching for food, if I need to prep the fruit/veggies I'll usually bypass it and go with something easier (and usually less healthy)... and often this results in buying fresh produce which goes uneaten and spoils.  I'm lazy when I'm hungry.  So, I usually will clean and prep everything as soon as I get home from shopping, so it's easily available when I want it.

lovemesomemonster

Thought I would add a cautionary tale about cleaning out the fridge.. Ours wasn't smelling so good and it was smelling like fish, so FI threw out my smoked salmon I brought back from Alaska. Smell still there, so he dug some more and finally found his freaking fish bait that he forgot to put back in the freezer!!! So my salmon is gone for no dang good reason.. After throwing out his bait, it still smelled and we finally found his DAD's fish bait (were're talking squid etc.) that he had put in there before he left and didn't tell us.. 

larrygaga

wandajune6 said:

The recent posts have got me thinking about the state of my fridge. I clean it out every week or so but it only gets scrubbed when something gross happens. Here's what I'm wondering:

How often do you empty your fridge of old food? Every time I buy groceries, which is about once a week. 

How often do you scrub it down? Never. That will change when I actually own the fridge, though. I'm never in an apartment long enough to care about scrubbing it. 

Are you a packed fridge kind of home or a minimalist home? I am a minimalist when I'm home alone, which is about half the time. When FI is home, however, I got that shit packed full!

How often do you check the dates/status of condiments in your fridge? I only check dairy. If it smells/tastes/looks weird I might check out the date. I can usually tell by sight if it's going to be okay to eat. 

Do you wash your veggies/fruits before or after putting them in the fridge? I wash them as I use them. I found out that they keep longer that way.