Home-organization experts say you can tell a lot about 
people by the state of their refrigerators. I hope you can tell from ours that I did a massive cleaning shortly after Christmas’s food extravaganza and have kept it in top shape ever since. I mean, this was a six-hour job — taking out and scrubbing each shelf, throwing away a whole garbage bag of expired/old/what-in-the-world-is-this food and getting into every little corner and those 
annoying ridges in the vegetable bins. And maintaining it means constant vigilance for crumbs and that Unidentified Sticky Stuff that mysteriously shows up. I can pretty much guarantee that everything in this fridge is now fresh and edible. Before this cleaning marathon, I would have to sprint to the fridge to throw myself in front of it when folks headed in that direction — I was that embarrassed to let anybody see the disgusting chaos inside. Luckily, in my cleaning frenzy I even felt moved to attack the outside, excavating years of Post-Its and lists that dated, I’m ashamed to admit, to the previous century. I kept all the artwork and notes and doodling that had decorated the door for so long — our refrigerator had long served as a sort of guestbook for my now 20-something-daughters’ friends as they traipsed in and out of the house during the Teenage Years. But with 1-year-old grandson Capt. Adorable discovering crayons, it’s time to make room for new artwork. And food that isn’t growing food of its own. My daughters’ reactions to the clean fridge were telling: Older daughter (Capt. Adorable’s mom) said, “Mom, the refrigerator looks wonderful! Great job!” Younger daughter said, “Why did you take down all the pictures? They’d been there forever!” But I’ve already started a Refrigerator-Door Scrapbook — and I guess in another 10 years I’ll have another Fridge Spring-Cleaning.
Coffee with Cathy
Pour a cup & take a break
Coffee with Cathy 
Okay, as friends and family already have pointed out, I’m not being completely honest here because, as many folks do, we have a second fridge in the garage for the beer and bags of flour and extra milk. That’s where the watermelon and corn go in the summer and the fresh fish and where, I have to admit, I still have some of the girls’ high-school corsages and some leftover wedding treats that really should be thrown away. Baby steps, though, baby steps …
I’ve found moving to be the best time to clean the refrigerator. Any sooner and you are just a over-achiever. You know, everyone hates an over-achiever. (okay, maybe that’s just me because, well, I’m not) LOL!
Pat yourself on your back for doing it! Tackle the other one when you have the same burst.
You can really tell about people by the state of their refrigerator???
Egads…keep them away from mine. I could very well be committed.
Pictures, Jan! We want pictures!
Great job. I, too, tend to throw myself in front of the fridge when guests want to help themselves! Maybe I should take a tip from you and clean my own fridge. On the other hand . . . we rarely have guests so maybe it can wait a little longer. 😉
Listen, I’ll come clean your pantry if you’ll take care of my fridge. Mine is still a bio-hazard though. You have been warned….
Take those English muffins out of the refrigerator RIGHT NOW! Refrigerating bread makes it go stale faster than leaving it at room temp. It’s either bread box (counter) or freezer. No refrigeration ever. Can you tell this is one of my campaigns? Just think of bread as tomatoes with a longer life.
I know — but they were getting sort of old and I wanted to keep them eatable as long as possible. You know that it takes me two weeks to go through a package!
That’s why you put them in the freezer, not the refrigerator.