Describe your refrigerator.

*refrigerator

There is a “d” in fridge but not refrigerator? Who made up that silly rule? Or is there no “d” in frige either? That doesn’t look right…
Fridge diminutive.

I kicked it to mods.

I am searching for a new fridge. Maybe this Q will help me. I am between a Kitchen Aid 4 door and Samsung 4 door. I have a better association in my mind with Kitchen Aid, but the Samsung the “4th” door, or drawer (the one below the regular fridge doors and above the freezer) you can really control the temperature. You can make it below freezing, although not cold enough for frozen food, and up to warmer than you would typically keep your fridge, but not warm of course. The Kitchen Aid isn’t as specific, it just gives you an idea of what to set it at if you are storing meat vs veggies, and so on. Also, the 4th draw in the Kitchen Aid has stationary dividers, diving the drawer into the compartments. The Samsung you can move the dividers. But, the Kitchen Aid dividers would block anything that spills from getting into the next compartment, while the Samsung wouldn’t.

I need to decide what is going to be the most useful. I have had side by side almost my entire adult life and I never really liked them. The freezer is ridiculously narrow.

Big, cold, basic, dumb, with nothing particular of value inside.

Like the women I date.

My sister in law has a fridge with the freezer compartment on the bottom and it slides out for really easy access. She really likes that feature. And it’s very wide.

Top freezer, white enamel, keeps things cold and frozen. Accepts magnets. Minds its own business. Energy Star.

It came with the place. It’s probably an 80s model, that ugly off-white colour. Top freezer.

Freezer’s full of meat, since I buy meat in bulk to save money. One $100 package lasts me about two months. Fridge has a door full of dips, dressings, and sundry (we’re condiment-mad in this house) and shelves full of assorted beverages, cheeses, and fresh vegetables. The bottom is full of water, because the friggin’ thing leaks constantly, and I have’t taken the shop-vac to it in a few weeks. Probably has a break in the seal somewhere.

I miss my old Kitchenaid side-by-side, even though the freezer wasn’t quite wide enough. If I had my ‘druthers, my next refrigerator would be a three-door with the freezer on the bottom. That, or this really neat Instructable I found where someone turned a deep freezer into a ‘fridge that is super energy-efficient.

It’s white and keeps things cold. The freezer needs defrosting.

Mine came with the house, 10+ years ago. It’s a piece of crap with a mildewed gasket and a false black plastic front. I never re-arranged anything inside because it was just a make-do temporary.

Why is it still here? Mostly because it maintains a temperature that hovers between frozen and spoilage. NOTHING ever goes bad. I mean, the thing should be studied by science to create the perfect environment for storage.

Secondary is inertia. Thirdenary is expense.

Oh, and there’s little rhyme or reason to organization. The S/O resists that at all costs.

I should have mentioned my last house was side by side, but the water thingy had no filter so we never used, we just used a Brita. We never used the ice maker either, just trays. Didn’t bother me. I could easily live with an old fashioned top freezer bottom fridge and not mind at all.

I love shopping for refrigerators, too. I want a french door, freezer-in-the-bottom drawer. Stainless or black. I bought one from Best Buy, but when they couldn’t locate it after 4 days of lying about “It’ll be there tomorrow” I took a refund. LG. Nice!

Cool, sleek, handsome & full of beer on a saturday night…we have lots in common.

It’s a newer black GE Profile that came with the house. Freezer has meats, spaghetti sauces and soups I make and freeze for later. The fridge has 3 milks…2%, almond and coconut milks, juice, lots of condiments, lots of salad and veggies, salad dressings, lunch meat and cheeses, limes, lemons and some leftovers.

Standard fare stainless steel.
Came with the house.

I want a Smeg! Never thought I’d describe a refrigerator as cute until I saw a Smeg. Can’t justify blowing that much for something I don’t need though.

PS Never quite understood why the D got ditched in refrigerator either.

^ Those are so damned cute! I want the lime green one!

Smeg looks a lot like the fridge I grew up with, @fluthernutter. I think it was from the 1930’s and we used it into the 70’s. We sold one recently at the auction almost identical, and it went to the scrap yard. :(

I think that if we spelled the abbreviation as “frige”, it would end up sounding like “fry-je”. Hence adding the d to fridge, not removing the d from refrigerator. The real problem is that we can’t be bothered to use the whole word.

Bought it off a friend for $75. Has no door handle on the bottom door. It works.

I prefer the Freezer on top refrigerator, my Mom has freezer on bottom one. Today most of the refrigerators are designed to be organized a certain way. So it’s pretty easy to keep things organized.
I hate to find leftovers gobbling up the space so I always keep the leftovers in the top rack at eyelevel or else I will definitely forget about it.
I have more of vegetables and dairy products in my fridge. Most of the time the fridge is full and freezer has just few meat products which is usually cooked the day I purchase it. During summers my freezer will be packed with tubs of ice-cream and popsicles.

Mine is a year old. Last year I woke up to the sound of something that sounded like a muffled car horn…the fridge was dying. It was an old yellow Admiral, that I bought about 8 years ago from an elderly lady who had had it for like, 30 years. So yeah, it died.

Luckily it was Winter, so I was able to put all the food outside while I went and looked for another fridge. Found one, got it delivered the same day. It’s white, top freezer, contains food and someone’s fingers, and keeps things cold. Which is a nice change from the older Admiral, because although that fridge had served me well, it had a hard time keeping things actually cold. Things like milk or meat had to be consumed quickly, and the freezer was a joke.

Samsung 8 years old, four sections. Two doors one for freezer and one for fridge. Two drawers; both are multi-functional one can be a flash freezer or freezer or chiller (about 25*F) or fridge, the other drawer can be four different temperatures.
Freezer sections have vegetables, chicken fingers, steaks and hot dogs. Refrigerators have fresh fruit, vegetables, mustard, mayo, pickles, cheeses, milk and ham for Sunday.

@Symbeline I think we’re going to need some more details about those fingers.

@Tropical_Willie Oooo, a flash freezer. That sounds neat.

I’ve got a black fridge that’s about two years old (it was brand new in our house when we bought it). It’s a side-by-side with an ice/water dispenser thing on the door of the freezer. The ice gets jammed really easily, so I usually have to sit and wait while one ice cube comes out every ten seconds.

The freezer is way more empty than the fridge, which is currently pretty full. There’s more water in it than food, but I like to keep food in Tupperware, which takes a lot of space. Milk, orange juice, chicken broth, etc. on the top shelf, bottled water on the second shelf, eggs, butter, yogurt, and leftovers on the third shelf, strawberries, Cherry Coke Zero that I haven’t touched in weeks, and more leftovers on the fourth shelf, spinach leaves in the first drawer, more water in the bottom drawer, and tons of condiments, Parmesan cheese, etc. in the door along with – yep – more bottled water on the bottom shelf. The freezer has meat and not much else. And only enough meat for the week. We’ve also got some uncrustables that I really need to throw away – I’m not even sure when we bought them.

It’s pretty clean in that there’s no bad food in it.

Boring. It’s a white Whirlpool—came with the apartment. My roommates and I have it filled to the brim, although it actually isn’t that dirty. Honestly, what’s taking up the most room right now are salad ingredients and beer lol.

Now my parents’ fridge back home—that’s a Thermador and it’s really nice. :P

It’s covered with magnets and photos. The fridge is the bulletin board of the household, where the commandant posts our mandatory (no weasling out) you WILL attend social functions. I whine a lot, but the truth is that were it not for the wife, I would have no social life.

A flash freezer….is that anything like a flash mob? Is it as cool as a flash mob?

I have two cheap 2nd hand models from the 80’s. About when ice makers were all the rage. One in the kitchen and one in the garage. The older models are superior. We keep our bulk staples in the garage and fresh meat and veggies inside. The inside fridge is covered with magnets from places we have been. The one in the garage is covered in stickers from motorcycle parts and other stuff after I ran out of room on my tool chests. As far as other appliances older is also better like clothes washers. My 1990 model whirlpool actually cleans clothes in one set of cycles.

White. Freezer on top, and refrigerator below. I’m a strong believer in sticking with the basics and avoiding fads or trends. Something classic can never look dated.

Inside, incredibly neat and clean. I don’t hang on to old food, and I often wipe-down the shelves and walls with cleaning wipes. I can’t help it; I’m a CPA. After I make the refrigerator look all pretty, I just might alphabetize my sock drawer or something.

It’s full of cold air a tub of margarine and a litre of milk. Needs defrosting badly but never complains.

It’s the cave where my beer lives.

Contents? If I were to list the contents of my fridge/freezer it would go from short story, to novella, to a short novel, quickly. Plus, it would take on elements of an archeological dig. I buy/share/trade/receive food at an astounding rate.

Honestly, I should be the manager of a soup kitchen. I’d be the most popular place in town.

I had a nice KitchenAid, but it broke down about 5 years ago. We replaced it with a cheap one, since we knew we would be moving, eventually.
The one we have now is very simple, and it came with the house. It has a freezer on top. No ice/water dispenser in the door. No bells and whistles.
I do have a large freezer in the garage, with a small refrigerator on the top. I use it for Costco bulk shopping, and wine storage. It is supposed to be able to freeze things in 105 degree weather, where most freezers crap out after 85.

The contents? A bunch of crap. Rick is one of those people who think if a fridge isn’t full then we’re starving to death. Nevermind that ¾ths of it needs to be tossed! It looks full, and that’s all that counts.

@Dutchess_III Preach it, sister.

I just found an unopened quart of milk dated early Feb of this year.

Ew!

Yogurt?

I will take it into the woods before opening and dump it before inspecting.

Oh, hell, what kind of packaging, @gailcalled? If it’s cardboard, it’s probably still good. Smell it, and if it smells okay, make gravy!. It’s only April. I’ve used milk older than that for cooking and lived to tell about it.

^^^ Ol’ Iron Guts there.

February?! That’s worse than me. LOL.

I have found unopened condiments that expired ~2 years prior deep in the dark recesses of mine and still decided to cook with them. Milk a couple of months out of date though…no thanks.

I’m telling you, unopened milk packaged in a cardboard carton is like a Twinkie. You might not live long enough for an experiment to see how long it takes to spoil (swell the carton) to come to fruition. The stuff is a millimeter from shelf stable.

I bought thick sliced premium bacon today for $2 a pound because it had reached the expiration date. Puh-leese! Bacon was invented so you could keep pork edible year round. Just scrape off the damned mold!

@Dutchess_III “Ol’ Iron Guts there.” Unfortunately the value of my scrap metal is increasing quickly.
We have a running joke among our inside circle about fresh foods being a potential shock to our systems. I am the King of Closeouts.

One of the scariest things I’ve ever seen, food wise, was molded pork hocks. Egads, man, under what conditions would a smoked, salted, skin-and-bone-only piece of pork mold?? It’s haunted me for probably 25 years.

@ibstubro Actually, it is shelf stable. You can get milk boxed like Hi-C in the cereal aisle.

@ibstubro: Who buys milk in cardboard boxes? This was your standard plastic quart container and well past using for anything. (Sour milk gravy?)

@Seek I want one in each flavor color! Lime does look particularly yummy pretty.

@gailcalled Milk and juice in cardboard boxes is really common in Germany.

MIlk in cardboard is very common in Canada as well. I’ve never bought milk in a plastic jug. Plastic bags, yes, but that’s a different story.

There is a difference between milk in a box sold without refrigeration and milk sold in a cardboard carton in the fridge section. The refrigerated one has a short shelf life, usually a month or less. The one in the aisle that is not refrigerated is sealed differently and can have a shelf life for months. In Europe the milk sold without refrigeration is more common. It’s much harder to find it in America. The brand I am familiar with is Parmalat.

In America the majority of half gallon and smaller containers of milk in the fridge section usually are in cardboard, I’m surprised it would be different in any area of the US, but maybe in @gailcalled‘s area it is. It’s certainly possible, because it varies by brand. Gallons are usually in plastic; I would assume the weight of the product would be risky in cardboard. There are some brands that put all sizes in plastic.

Where I am, they are transitioning to all plastic milk containers. Prairie Farms used to be sold in cardboard cartons (like you used to open at the “V” top, but now with a plastic screw top on the side) in quart and under. Now Walmart is 100% plastic, but the regional markets still have cardboard, quart and under.

I try to keep some shelf stable on hand, @Seek, but it’s not readily available around here.

@ibstubro I buy Horizon milk in Walmart in a carton. It looks like the old V top, but it has the little plastic screw top on the side like many cartons now. I usually don’t shop in Walmart though. Maybe once every two months. I’ve never noticed what the other milk is contained in.

My Walmarts (I have 2) have both done away with cardboard altogether, @JLeslie, for milk. I had stopped buying it there anyway, after I noticed that the regional markets were cheaper, but I hate knowing that the handwriting is on the wall for cardboard.

You can’t recycle waxed cardboard. Don’t be sad it’s going away.

@GloPro Our county recycles juice boxes. I’d imagine they’re similar. Though to be fair, we have an extensive recycling program.

@ibstubro Does your Walmart carry any organic milk?

Nonsense, @GloPro. Everything is carbon based, so anything can be recycled. It’s just the cost/effective ration that varies. Our local cement plant burns toxic chemicals for fuel.

Probably, @JLeslie. I know the soy milk still comes in cardboard, likely the organic, too. I think I’ve see the Horizon milk you mentioned, too. Much of the cream and ½ & ½, too. But I still say the handwriting is on the wall.

@fluthernutter I check every cardboard liquid container I have before sadly tossing it. At this time I’ve never found a brand that has the recycling symbols. It’s a bummer. A lot of people just assume you can recycle them because they’re cardboard, right? But no. That’s why I added the link. Maybe the USA plants will catch up with you, but not yet!

@ibstubro Just look at the link. Plants don’t have the technology to recycle them yet. If your local plant does it’s a very, very rare occasion. The physical ability to do so doesn’t mean it happens. As stated in the article, it isn’t possible to remove the wax, leading to a less sturdy structure of anything created.

@GloPro I’m in California!
(I lived in Germany for a few months.)

If you read the link, at this time in the United States it is not possible to recycle waxed cardboard effectively. I am fairly confident that your juiceboxes do not have recycle symbols on them. I may be wrong, if so I would very much like to know which brands I can buy to be able to recycle them. Most people are unaware that the waxed boxes will not be processed at a recycling plant.

@GloPro Our recycling program is pretty extensive. Juice boxes, frozen food boxes, ice cream cartons and waxed cardboard are all good to go. We also have compost bins. We pay a lot to have very little trash.

Depending on where you live, I’d check your county’s recycling programs.

@fluthernutter Ah, OK. Your county is pretty extensive. Mine is still generic glass, plastic, paper, etc. That’s great. What your juice boxes are going toward is organic recycling to make compost with. They mash all of that stuff up to make mulch, basically. Milk cartons are not currently a part of this process. Maybe the ratio of wax has something to do with it? I also just learned from your linked site that pizza boxes have to be organically recycled, too, because of grease on them. I never knew that. In my county they toss those boxes back to the trash. While I still can’t recycle my juice boxes here, it’s good to know!

@GloPro I think our drink boxes actually go into our blue bins for recycling, not compost. I think recycling is the preferred method for cardboard, as it doesn’t add any ermm…nutritional value(?) to the compost. Compost is a secondary option if it’s greasy.

@fluthernutter I don’t know, I give up. I was only going by the color coded key your website had and cross referencing it with what organic recycling meant as opposed to traditional recycling. The key indicated juice boxes go into the organic bin. Greasy cardboard also into organic bin. Not greasy cardboard traditional recycling. I honestly learned quite a bit looking at all of it. You do have a pretty extensive program.

@GloPro Haha…yeah. I’ve lived here for fourteen years and still have to consult their site to know where things go. Only just found out last year that I can put pots and pans into the recycling bin. Still feels weird.

@fluthernutter They send those to the southeast for planting flowers. It’s yard art. ~

@GloPro I’ve never heard of any recycling program refusing cardboard milk/juice containers. They don’t have recycling symbols on them because… they’re essentially paper, and only plastic carries the recycling symbols. Some regions in Canada even give refunds on return of cardboard milk and juice containers, as if they were glass. I agree with @ibstubro that if your recyclers don’t accept them, it must be a local decision in your region due to cost effectiveness.

@JLeslie I’m trying to think of the last time I ever saw milk in a carton outside of school lunches….? I really can’t remember.

Maybe my town is still the only one unable to recycle them. Here is a very easy link that you just enter your zip code into and it will tell you if your area actually recycles them or just returns them to the landfill collection. Unless you actually call your local recycling plant you wouldn’t necessarily know if they are doing anything with them or not. You may be surprised. That being said you might as well throw them into your bins if you aren’t sure. Best case they are recycled. Worse case they are separated back out. No big deal. I don’t bother because my town does not recycle them and it creates extra work, and I know that. If you don’t know you might as well try.
@dappled_leaves It is incorrect that only plastic is marked. Just begin looking for the symbols and you’ll see. I just quickly went through just my cereal boxes and every one has a symbol.

@GloPro Well – again, this must vary regionally. I just checked three cardboard products in my home and none has a recycling symbol. It is just assumed that paper-based products can all be recycled.

I have the silver one to the far left. https://homeappliances.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/retro-fridge2.jpg

@GloPro Handy link!

Four year old Samsung, full of crap, have no idea what’s in the back of the freezer shelves. Freezer and ice thing are on the left; refrigerator on the right. We had a stainless Kitchenaid , gorgeous , with the bottom freezer and hated it so we sold it for a grand and bought this one.
The drawers have lettuce, a bag of lemons, bell peppers, deli meat, many bags of half eaten pre shredded cheeses and avocados that look like they were run over by a septic system truck. And a piece of ginger root. lol
The glass shelves have half a dozen cans of opened cranberry sauce, raw meat I’ll cook soon, eggs, a gallon of 2% milk, a half gallon of soy milk, two bags of croutons, many small jars of preserves and jellies all sitting in some sort of translucent, colorless goo that things stick to. What is that stuff?
The door shelves have many kinds of condiments, a few containers of bbq sauce we never eat, a bottle of honey teriyaki sauce I use a lot, a bag of yeast, salad dressings, relish, sweet pickles and half a dozen insulin pens all sitting in what appears to be dried blood.

@Dutchess_III Interesting. I guess maybe since I buy organic (one of the few things I buy organic is milk) my sightline is always focused on the organic selection and that is usually in the cartons. I know when I am in NYC I think all milk is in a carton at the stores, but, in NYC I usually shop at Whole Foods, which would be a much different market than Walmart. In FL I primarily shop in Publix, and next time I go to the market I’ll have to really take notice. In Publix I buy Horizon in a carton, GreenWise in a carton, or I think there is a Publix organic aside from the GreenWise, but I might be remembering that incorrectly. When I shopped in TN I bought In a Carton also in Kroger, but that was also organic milk.

Your half and half and cream isn’t still in cartons even if your milk is in plastic?

I suspect that organic milk is pretty well in cartons, @JLeslie. Better to recycle, less chance of chemicals leaching from the plastic jug, and older (cheaper, smaller volume) technology. Probably the same for soy and other milk substitutes. People probably tend to use less of the organic, too, so they want it to stay better, longer.

The organic stays fresher longer. It usually is ultrapasteurized.

I can’t stand ultrapasturized milk. That is about all you can get in France and it tastes horrible.

I love it. I am not a big milk drinker, I just use it in cereal and hot chocolate. I love that the skim tastes more creamy than regular skim milk.

Mmm. Have you ever had milk straight from the cow? When I was in college I dated a guy who grew up on a dairy farm. When he visited home his mom would send gallon jars of pure, whole, untouched milk back to school with him. It’s just heavenly!

@Dutchess_III You can buy raw milk, but there is a lot of controversy surrounding it.

Nearly everything raw is controversial, @JLeslie. I have better access to raw honey than milk, but that’s tricky, too. Even the pesticides on fruits and vegetables are a problem, and it may be that the monitored foods at the grocery are better for you than the unmonitored foods at the farmer’s market.

Of course, I still prefer the market.