The contents of other people’s refrigerators interest me as much as the tomes on their bookshelves. After all, you are what you eat, drink and read. The other day I decided that I could no longer put off the gargantuan task of cleaning out the refrigerator. The jars and bottles that get pushed to the back and forgotten –you know the ones, right?– seemed to have multiplied like busy little rabbits. So I pulled everything out, and performed triage. Here is a sampling of the survivors. Or maybe they’re just the ones Left Behind after the refrigeration equivalent of The Rapture…

We don’t go to Ikea very often, but when we do, we always stock up on lingonberries, the Long-Suffering Husband being of Swedish ancestry. They are better than cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, and he likes them on oatmeal. I, meanwhile, am trying to figure out which cheese would pair best with them… maybe a triple-cream? Or a chèvre?

I love kimchee, and this is the only brand we have found that does not contain fish. The fridge held these two half-used jars, plus one untouched jar. I kept all three of them, because you can never have enough kimchee, and it lasts an amazingly long time. But maybe I need to institute an open-container law in the Republic of Refrigeria.

The cheese drawer speaks for itself. Sadly, hoarding cheese is not like hoarding gold. If you amass too much, some of your cheese will go over to the Dark Side.

Summer is the time for gin and tonics! The best G&T’s are made with these little bottles of Fever Tree tonic water. There were several, clogging up the fridge from our last dinner party, when it was still too cold and nobody was in the mood for G&T.

I won’t show you what the kitchen looked like once the refrigerator was turned inside out, but I was considering applying for federal disaster relief (and buying a hazmat suit). Here you can see that order has been re-imposed on the wayward containers. All the beer bottles are neatly lined up. The extra kimchee is in the back, but visible so (with luck) I won’t forget it’s there. And there is my good friend, the Black Box Chardonnay. My advice is Do Not Fear The Box. The one type of bottle that does not accumulate in my fridge is the wine bottle, because I dislike a wine that has sat open for a day or two. I’d rather just finish the bottle. The Box lets me have one glass, when I feel like it. A noble invention!

Postscript: Unfortunately, the Cellar Rats Pilsner is full of hoppy perfume that reminds me of Mr. Bubble. So I will let the Long-Suffering One drink the rest of it.