How full do you keep your fridge?

[Anonymous]

Too full for family of two. I got compost bucket and now I can see now how much food I throw away.
I simply need to organize grocery shopping and make a list. I'm not a picky eater and can easily live on salads, home made soups and oatmeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find what takes up a lot of space are sauces/condiments/dressings, etc. We usually make our own versions of these when needed, so we don't keep many of them in our fridge. Otherwise, our fridge is holding mostly fresh items that will be used up during the week. By the weekend, it's pretty empty.

I think this might be the secret! So many jars of condiments/ sauces/dressing.

Agreed here...buy the end of the week we might be down to some apples and cheese to eat but still have mustard, ketchup, soy sauce, couple salad dressings, some jam, butter (does anyone really make these), more that I am not recalling.

[Anonymous]

I keep bread in the fridge because it will mold in 4 days on the counter in this climate.

I keep my fridge pretty well stocked. Backups of some items -- cheese, butter - lots of jars of pickles and other condiments for cooking with. We like a broad variety of foods, so not uncommon to have e.g. 4-5 different kinds of pickles, 4-5 different flavors of jam (plus marmalade and lemon curd), lots of different sauces, pastes (miso, tahini), and other high-impact flavorings.

[Anonymous]

I like the concept of eating down the fridge or the freezer. Before we went on vacation, there wasn't much left. We waste less when the fridge isn't too full.

I rearranged the freezer yesterday to check what I have. It leads to some interesting meals.

We get too many power cuts so I don't have a giant freezer.

[Anonymous]

SO full! But our fridge is abnormally small because of the space it needs to fit into. We really need a second fridge but DH is dragging his feet and just keeps saying we need less stuff in the fridge. Which, sure, but I’m not seeing YOU making this happen…

[Anonymous]

Refrigerator and freezer and basement freezer full. I will never run out of protein: chicken breasts, thighs, ground turkey, apple chicken sausage, steaks, ham bones for soup, amd ground pork. My weekly shopping is mostly fruits and vegetables, and household items (cleaning supplies etc), plus some seafood

[Anonymous]

I keep it light. I go shopping every few days and restock as needed. Keeping a perennially full fridge is expensive….and wasteful!

[Anonymous]

I hate a full fridge, except the days before a party or holiday. I don’t care what anyone on this thread says, if you have a jam packed fridge and do not have a huge family, you end up wasting food (or you’re eating too much).

My mom filled our fridge growing up (5-6 people in the house) and it stank and there was never anywhere to put things. So many half filled jars and bottles of random foods.

I live a mile from a grocery store and a farmers market half a mile away on weekends. I buy just enough for the week and make additional trips if necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate a full fridge, except the days before a party or holiday. I don’t care what anyone on this thread says, if you have a jam packed fridge and do not have a huge family, you end up wasting food (or you’re eating too much).

My mom filled our fridge growing up (5-6 people in the house) and it stank and there was never anywhere to put things. So many half filled jars and bottles of random foods.

I live a mile from a grocery store and a farmers market half a mile away on weekends. I buy just enough for the week and make additional trips if necessary.

Same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find what takes up a lot of space are sauces/condiments/dressings, etc. We usually make our own versions of these when needed, so we don't keep many of them in our fridge. Otherwise, our fridge is holding mostly fresh items that will be used up during the week. By the weekend, it's pretty empty.

Yeah, we cook lots of different cuisines. The condiments and sauces from all of those take up too much space. I try to make my family wait until something is finished to buy another, but then one of us will find a cool Korean or Ethiopian dish or something and it goes out the window. Oh well. We also have a separate fridge for beverages and extras (e.g., we go through multiple tubs of cottage cheese and milk a week)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep it light. I go shopping every few days and restock as needed. Keeping a perennially full fridge is expensive….and wasteful!

It’s only wasteful if you don’t eat your food.

[Anonymous]

Jam packed until I loose my mind and everyone has to eat leftovers and weird combos until there is space again or they mutiny.