Your Refrigerator: "We need to have a talk."

rebeccalando:

urbanfoodie:

Unless you tend towards the obsessive-compulsive and take an interest in kitchen organization, chances are good that your refrigerator’s needs are not being met. This article from the Wall Street Journal describes some of the ways that people neglect and abuse the kitchen appliance that we seem to love the most and care for the least. For starters, most people tend to clean their fridge only once a year (and that’s when there’s some kind of spill or explosion). When it comes to my apartment’s fridge, it only gets a thorough cleaning whenever there’s a roommate change. Although cleaning and organizing my own fridge doesn’t rank high on my leisure activities, I do take a strange amount of pleasure in cleaning out my parents’ fridge whenever I visit. (Feel free to psychoanalyze that).

The most interesting part of the WSJ article is the description of all the inefficient ways that we pack the refrigerator and our general lack of knowledge of how to care for them. Did you know that the door of the fridge is the warmest part, therefore the worst place to put your milk? Yeah, me neither.

“What we found is that most people don’t know what they are doing when they pack the refrigerator,” says Paul Leuthe, [refrigerator manufacturer Sub-Zero]’s corporate marketing manager.
… 
Indeed, when consumers are told how to organize their fridges, they tend to tidy up. In a 2005 study, Pennsylvania State University researchers inspected fridges in the homes of 28 consumers in Centre County and Huntingdon County, Pa. They found temperatures were on average about three degrees higher than the recommended 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Fridges were also packed so tightly that air flow, which is necessary to keep food cold, was impeded. And then there was the “ick” factor: In one home, researchers found that a study participant’s dog was licking the bottom shelf when the door was open.

Check out the rest of the article for some fridgumacation. And don’t forget to show your kitchen appliances some love.