Out of Sight = Out of Mind, Fridge Edition
Jun. 1st, 2026 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOn each of our last two visits to Hawk's parents we've spent time clearing old & expired food out of their refrigerators and freezers. Yes, those words are plural. This pair of 80-something empty nesters have a large kitchen fridge/freezer combo (bigger than the one owned by the family of 6 I grew up in), a large commercial stand-up freezer, and two mini-sized (about 3' tall) dorm/office fridge/freezer combos. And all four of these devices were packed full.
Not only did Hawk and I throw out 3-4 bags of food during our April visit but we started our recent visit clearing out another 2 bags of food— including things that had been left to rot since our April visit. Then, late last week as our visit was winding toward an end, we cleared out yet another 2 bags of food into the garbage.
Part of the problem IMO is "out of sight, out of mind". Their fridges are not just "full" the way most people use that term.... They are literally packed so every cubic inch is occupied. Every shelf is filled 5 layers deep. And you cannot see any of the deeper layers until you peel off what's on top of them. As we dug through the topspoil into the permacrud in the commercial freezer we found food dated from 5 years ago. Nobody remembered it was in there. Once it got pushed behind 2 layers of newer stuff it became an artifact for archaeologists from the future to discover.
We sifted through the layers to figure out what to keep and what to toss. What we didn't toss, Hawk reorganized. She sorted things onto different shelves by theme. For example, "Frozen dairy products". She even took pictures of the freezer and diagrammed them with zones numbered 1-12 (yes, twelve) so FIL could figure out what's where. 🤣
While Hawk was doing some of the reorganization I patiently explained to FIL what freezer burn is and why it makes food unsatisfying to eat. Apparently he thought putting things in the freezer was like casting Time Stop on them. I showed him examples of bags with air in them that resulted in moisture being leached out of food in just a few months, while carefully vacuum-sealed foods might last a few years. I don't know if the lesson stuck. He seemed to be looking for a simple rule like, "Freezing any food makes it good for n months/years."
Another thing we did during the 11 days we were out there recently was focus on eating through food already in the fridge/freezer. We went out for dinner as a family exactly once, the first night we were there. And we did go grocery shopping for a main dish to have the second night, but after that it was all, "Hey, this thing we found in the freezer from [mumble] years ago looks good still, let's cook it." And we made sure leftovers got eaten, too. Eaten within 2 days later, or tossed out. Because leftovers that got tucked away and saved for months or years until they looked disgusting and nobody was sure what they were anymore, made up a big part of those 7 bags of food we trashed.
By the time we left Saturday, between throwing out multiple bags of food, eating through some of the stuff, and reorganizing the rest, we got to the point where a person can actually see what's in the fridge. Hopefully that will help them actually eat the stuff they've got, instead of constantly buying new stuff because they can't see 80% of what's in there.
Not only did Hawk and I throw out 3-4 bags of food during our April visit but we started our recent visit clearing out another 2 bags of food— including things that had been left to rot since our April visit. Then, late last week as our visit was winding toward an end, we cleared out yet another 2 bags of food into the garbage.
Part of the problem IMO is "out of sight, out of mind". Their fridges are not just "full" the way most people use that term.... They are literally packed so every cubic inch is occupied. Every shelf is filled 5 layers deep. And you cannot see any of the deeper layers until you peel off what's on top of them. As we dug through the topspoil into the permacrud in the commercial freezer we found food dated from 5 years ago. Nobody remembered it was in there. Once it got pushed behind 2 layers of newer stuff it became an artifact for archaeologists from the future to discover.
We sifted through the layers to figure out what to keep and what to toss. What we didn't toss, Hawk reorganized. She sorted things onto different shelves by theme. For example, "Frozen dairy products". She even took pictures of the freezer and diagrammed them with zones numbered 1-12 (yes, twelve) so FIL could figure out what's where. 🤣
While Hawk was doing some of the reorganization I patiently explained to FIL what freezer burn is and why it makes food unsatisfying to eat. Apparently he thought putting things in the freezer was like casting Time Stop on them. I showed him examples of bags with air in them that resulted in moisture being leached out of food in just a few months, while carefully vacuum-sealed foods might last a few years. I don't know if the lesson stuck. He seemed to be looking for a simple rule like, "Freezing any food makes it good for n months/years."
Another thing we did during the 11 days we were out there recently was focus on eating through food already in the fridge/freezer. We went out for dinner as a family exactly once, the first night we were there. And we did go grocery shopping for a main dish to have the second night, but after that it was all, "Hey, this thing we found in the freezer from [mumble] years ago looks good still, let's cook it." And we made sure leftovers got eaten, too. Eaten within 2 days later, or tossed out. Because leftovers that got tucked away and saved for months or years until they looked disgusting and nobody was sure what they were anymore, made up a big part of those 7 bags of food we trashed.
By the time we left Saturday, between throwing out multiple bags of food, eating through some of the stuff, and reorganizing the rest, we got to the point where a person can actually see what's in the fridge. Hopefully that will help them actually eat the stuff they've got, instead of constantly buying new stuff because they can't see 80% of what's in there.
