How full do you keep your fridge?

[Anonymous]

How full do you keep your fridge? Generally it's less than half full at all times. I live alone. It's actually not even a full-sized fridge but an apartment sized one. My freezer is more packed than my fridge.
If fairly open, how often do you shop? Do you routinely use things fully up before adding more? I shop every 3 or 4 days. I use up all my chicken and fruit and veg before buying more, but I'll buy more condiments and pasta when I'm getting low.
What staples are always in your fridge? Have you changed fridge “personas” over time? Pasta is a staple for me. So is any type of chicken. Eggs, bone broth. When I first moved out I only knew how to shop for a family of four since that's what I came from, but I've learned to buy a lot less so I waste very little.

[Anonymous]

Full. With mostly dairy - milk, yogurt, eggs take up so much space!

[Anonymous]

Full.
We have 4 kids, 2 are teens, and eat meals at home/bring own lunch.
I hate going to the grocery store more than 2x/week so I stock up with Costco stuff and other miscellaneous dairy and frozen items.

[Anonymous]

Fairly empty. Bought a thin European style fridge. Separate seltzer fridge. Always lots of fruit and fresh veggies, lots of cheese, eggs, some frozen veggies, frozen leftovers, coffee/yeast/spice drawer in freezer. Having a smaller fridge encourages us to have less food waste, and to meal plan. Added a condiment lazy Susan and whatever we didn’t use in a timely way we stopped buying.

[Anonymous]

Lots of sauces and condiments in the door. Beverages on the top shelf but otherwise relatively empty.

I try to buy only what we can consume before it goes bad and my DH is the expiration police so he monitors anything past its prime.

Leftover usually get eaten pretty quickly.
My freezer is usually pretty full because I like to have stuff on hand if needed.
I do cook a lot and aim to always have the staples in the pantry.

[Anonymous]

I hate full fridges. If people have to play a game of Tetris to get to the strawberries, the most likely outcome is nobody eats the strawberries. Full fridges make me think of rotting food and expired containers.

It’s no different than any other type of hoarding situation.

[Anonymous]

I have teen boys. I can not keep my fridge full. I get groceries. It's filled to the brim, then it's like a swarm of locusts arrives, and the next day "there's nothing to eat" or so I'm told.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairly empty. Bought a thin European style fridge. Separate seltzer fridge. Always lots of fruit and fresh veggies, lots of cheese, eggs, some frozen veggies, frozen leftovers, coffee/yeast/spice drawer in freezer. Having a smaller fridge encourages us to have less food waste, and to meal plan. Added a condiment lazy Susan and whatever we didn’t use in a timely way we stopped buying.

Tell me more about this condiment lazy Susan!

[Anonymous]

I live alone so that’s partly why mine isn’t jam packed.

But, I also eschew all the commercial sauces and condiments that are packed with added sugars so that frees up a lot of space. And no fizzy drinks of any kind - but there are always two glass pitchers of home brewed unsweetened iced tea, one caffeinated and one decaffeinated.

The other reason my fridge isn’t as full as some folks is that I don’t refrigerate bread, which it terrible for flavor and quality - it stays in a bread box or in the freezer.

I also don’t refrigerate most produce because most produce shouldn’t be refrigerated for best quality. I see people putting potatoes and onions and citrus and lots of other produce in the fridge which diminishes the taste, texture and even nutritional value of certain fruits and veggies.

But I do store nuts in the fridge, which is the recommendation of nut growers for best quality and preservation of nutritional value. I also store evoo in the fridge for the same reason - it comes to room temperature quickly enough and is much better quality when kept cold until use - preserves the polyphenols that are the healthful stuff in evoo. I keep it on the door so it’s not in the coldest part of the fridge.

I really loathe food waste so that’s why there is space in my fridge. The grocery store is two blocks from my home so if I’m preparing to cook and missing an ingredient, it’s easy enough to make a quick run. Ditto the farmers market I visit, just a couple of miles down the road. Fresh is best.

My pantry is especially sparse, since I quit nearly all UPFs. Pasta and rice, tinned tomatoes, tinned artichokes, vegetable broth, tinned tuna and sardines, popcorn kernels, salsa and peanut butter are just about all that lives there.

[Anonymous]

Our fridge is usually pretty full, including things like 5 salad dressings, 2 ketchups, 3 mustards, 2 pounds of butter, 2 BBQ sauces, regular bread, gluten free bread, 2 dozen eggs, fish/soy/hoisin sauces, 3 jellies, 2 peanut butters, 2 gallons of milk, 4 cheeses, 6 cans of beer, etc. Add in some fresh vegetables and meat and things are pretty crowded.

As Aunt Joanie would say:
https://youtu.be/ol4cn5I6peo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate full fridges. If people have to play a game of Tetris to get to the strawberries, the most likely outcome is nobody eats the strawberries. Full fridges make me think of rotting food and expired containers.

It’s no different than any other type of hoarding situation.

Nah, not when you’re good at meal planning. I shop 2x week max and we rarely waste food. I’m a big fan of fresh produce and that stuff takes up space.

[Anonymous]

I never heard of keeping bread in the fridge. Ours is in the freezer, cause we like it toasted.

All condiments in mine go in the door. Once every couple of months I clear them out because there's only a tablespoon left.

I am trying to minimize fridge stuff, because it does lead to waste. DW will open whatever milk she sees, even if there's an open one 5 inches to the left.

[Anonymous]

Starts out packed to the gills on Sunday, fridge and freezer both, after I do the shopping. Gradually empties during the week until Saturday night I'm hunting for some lettuce or celery to go with dinner. Fill it up the next day. Repeat.

[Anonymous]

My fridge and freezer are jammed packed. I buy a lot of food that my family doesn’t eat, then I throw it away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty full. I like it, it reminds me of my mom’s fridge when I was growing up. An empty fridge always looks sad to me, like there’s not much domestic life in the house.

+2

I love to cook and I’m pretty good at it. I have three kids and cooking dinner is actually one of the happiest parts of my day - I listen to music or a podcast, drink a glass of wine, and whip something up. I don’t use recipes so, in addition to keeping a lot of staples on hand, rotate meats, fruits, veg etc in and out.

Was so pleased earlier seeing how stocked our fridge is. And with such colorful, fresh foods. What a gift.