A Place for My Stuff

Fridge Clutter Includes What's On Top

In cleaning my refrigerator, I realized I overlooked another place where clutter can build up: on TOP of the fridge itself.

If your refrigerator has cabinets or something directly above that prevents you from using it as a shelf, then you don't have this problem.  Though maybe you want to consider dusting the top once in a while.  Otherwise, I've seen the top of the fridge become a magnet for clutter.  I guess the reason for this is pretty simple: it's easy to put stuff on there because it's a flat surface in a common area, but it's not something you often look up and notice often enough to sort through it.

In my own case, I found at least 3 bags of long-since-expired chips of some variety.  I was happy to toss them.  And from now on I'm going to try to keep this area in mind.  I'd insert some poetic comment here about "not seeing the forest for the trees" and trying to relate that two in interior and exterior of the refrigerator...but I can't think of anything clever.

(On a side note, why does "fridge" have a 'd', but "refrigerator" doesn't?  I checked several spell checkers and dictionaries on this, and that's how it is.  Other people don't understand it either.)

Unearthed from the Depths of the Antarctic (my freezer)

Speaking of freezing food, I've looked at the enormous piles of stuff in my freezer, and said to my wife "You know, we probably have some stuff buried way down in there that we've had since we moved in."  She said that no, that simply wasn't true, because she keeps the stock rotated.  I was still a little skeptical.

Recently, my wife took on the challenge of penetrating into the freezer even deeper, throwing out many things along the way.  She came into the room and said "Kidding.  There WAS something we've had in the freezer since we moved in."  I saw it and grabbed the camera, "Ooh!  Let me take a pic for the blog." "No!" she screamed, "People will think that we're disgusting!"  I pleaded with her until I could finally snap the pic.  Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.  Just don't think of my wife as disgusting or lazy in any way.  She really isn't.  I mean it's not like we left this thing in the living room.

How long should you refrigerate/freeze food?

My wife showed me a rather beat-up paper which she said was one of the most informative things she's ever found on the internet.  It was two lists on various foods and how long they should be kept in the refrigerator and/or freezer before tossing them.  Obviously a lot of food these days comes with an expiration date stamp, but that's not always the case.  Thus, her reason for having this document.

Ironically, the list itself was need of recycling.  So at my wife's request, I hunted down the original articles so that I could print out a copy for her and a copy for her sister.

Thousands of other people have seemingly copied the same contents to their blogs.  I'm just going to give the original links instead.

• http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/food/how-long-can-you-refrigerate-freeze-food-10000001210757/

• http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/freezing/how-long-food-last-freezer-10000000687907/

Of course, it helps to actually put a label on these foods and write the date on them in the first place!

 

Getting to those pots on the back-burner

For those of you who aren't familiar with this English idiom, keeping things "on the back burner" is another way of having a task or project that's on a rather lower priority.  Or at least that's how I end up using it. 

I've talked before about procrastination, which Tony Robbins aptly calls "the silent killer".  In my experience, procrastination is not an uncommon theme with pack rats.  And I don't just mean putting off the decluttering.  One of the biggest reasons for keeping things that aren't really needed is the concept of "someday".  I think I've come to hate that word. Look through the items of a hoarder, and you'll quickly find something that's being saved for something they'll swear they'll find a specific future use for.  It's certainly not the sole reason why some people are pack rats, but I'd say it's more often than not a big one, and like I've said, I've already talked about it here.

When you finally get something done that you've been putting off since forever, it's quite rewarding.  Some recent tasks I've done:

• Setting up the wireless server.  When I moved in to my current apartment, the cable/internet provider also gave me a wireless router so that I could have wireless in my home.  Needless to say, I never got it set up.  I guess in my mind (and in my wife's mind too), it was presumably going to be a long and tedious process that would also take up more room that we didn't have.  Well, I finally went ahead and did it.  And now I'm wondering why the hell I didn't do it sooner!  If you're in this situation yourself, go ahead and do it tonight.  Just follow the directions they give you.  You'll be proud that you did.
• Upgrading memory on my laptop. This is something I'd try doing off an on for the past few years, ever since I bought the Mac laptop used from somebody on CraigsList.  Trying to find just the right memory card that would actually work, was a total pain the ass.  I'd find one at Best Buy, then have to return it because it didn't work.  I'd meet out with somebody on CraigsList who had one, only to find out there that it didn't work when I tried it at their home.
  Finally, I asked a local computer store.  It was already a minute or two past closing time, but they had one.  The manager reluctantly said that he wasn't 100% sure if it would work, and that if I had to return it, it would be for store credit only.  But I brought it home, installed it, and...it worked!  I've now maxed out the RAM in this thing.  It didn't resolve the problem that I thought it was going to resolve, but now I at least don't have the memory quesiton hanging over my head!  And it sure beats breaking down and dropping some insane amount of money at the Apple store.

• Fixed the iPod.  A couple of months I tried using my iPod as an external hard drive to back up some stuff.  It wasn't really going the way I wanted to, so I tried cancelling the process, and ended up corrupting a folder.  Long story short: the iPod still worked, but I couldn't get my computer to recognize it and add the newer music I had bought.  I read everything I could find on-line, trying countless different things. 
  (On a side note, I swear that this is one of the biggest things that separates an alleged computer expert from somebody who claims to be a computer illiterate: the geek actually takes the time to read the help files, search the web, etc. to see if he or she can find an answer to the problem at hand.  99% of the time, this strategy works.  Really. )
  At some point I did get it to work the way I wanted to, but shortly after ran into the problem again.  Finally, I tried working at it again using advice I found from a YouTube clip.  And now, all is well.  That makes another several hundred dollars saved by not paying Apple to fix it or give me something new!
• Breaking out the Carribean coffee.  A few weeks ago I went on a cruise, which included a stop in Jamaica.  I got to taste some really excellent Jamaican coffee there, and bought a pound or two at a fraction of the cost of what I would have to pay back in the states.  I broke down and bought a coffee press.
• Bought the new Van Halen release.  Hell yes!  And I'm glad I didn't settle for the digital download, but went all out and got the CD/DVD set.  Ah, printed lyrics...a former norm that is becoming such a nice novelty these days.
• Dusting, moving, cleaning.  I'm starting to wonder if there are such things as dust pixies which magically leave thick dust in my bedroom when I'm away at work.  Because I'm baffled as to why there's so much dust.  I really don't get it.  I run an air filter too.  Is it just a matter of doing it every day, or what?  But dust, I did.  I dusted.  And dusted.  And dusted.  Then moved furniture and dusted some more.
• Book cases and bureaus.  At this stage, I'd say my ultimate goal is to get the remaining stuff off the floor.  This invovled getting a new book shelf, rearranging the living room set up (which of course is easier to do when you've already managed to clear away a lot of the clutter, otherwise it's impossible), a trip to the trift store (unfortunately closed), a trip to Target (which didn't have what we were looking for), a trip to Big Lots (which DID have a cheap book shelf I bought and screwed together -- despite the fact that the directions had something printed wrong), and a trip to the in-laws to pick up a much needed bureau.  Busy day.  My only regret is not taking enough "before" pictures.