I suppose November is a good time for this activity since it is at the beginning of the season when a lot of people have company for the holidays and need more space in the refrigerator to store food.
But on a recent July day when the temperature was in the mid nineties (again) and I had just found my third bottle of taco sauce in the fridge, I decided the time was now to clean out the fridge. I will admit that every month or so, I do rearrange things in there. In spite of the fact that each shelf and door pocket is supposed to contain similar items…it does not always look like this is the case. Top shelf for beverages, next shelf for jelly, pickles and salsa, the next for dairy products, etc. OK, so it might be a little rigid for some of you, but I practice what I preach because it works. Like things together, and put them back in that area when done. Simple! If you don’t adhere to this then you are likely to purchase items that you already own because you cannot find them.
Before going on, I must say how thankful I am that members of my family actually do put things away in the fridge—-I know that not everyone else is that lucky. And I really have stopped complaining about it…..but here is what I find when I don’t reach into the back as often as I should:
- a bottle of something red that was congealed and unrecognizable
- a tube of wasabi that we used once for a recipe, then never again
- a bottle of hot mustard that was leaking and creating a mess
- two containers of opened salsa, that were tried, but not enjoyed
- an expired bottle of salad dressing
- items that fell behind the shelf, when other items were shoved around to make room: small yogurt, hoisin sauce and tofu
- a container of blue cheese that was now blue and green cheese
- a tub of strawberry cream cheese that was two-thirds empty, had not been touched in a while and the expiration was approaching
- three taco sauce bottles in various states of fullness that were consolidated to two
According to the guidelines of Throw Out Fifty Things, all of these items actually count as one, so my grand total is now 36. Almost to the goal, but before I blog any more, I need to find some creative ways to use the taco sauce. Please let me know if you have any ideas,
JoEllen
