Cleaning out Office Fridge

[WonderWoman]

Uh - she got the days-old tuna out of the trash? And presumably ate it??

So much wrong with that.

[Amara]

I worked for a while--this was some time ago--at the DA's office here as a temp. I made an offer to the office manager to clean out the refrigerator because I had noticed and become disgusted by the stuff in there. Some of it had obvious mold! So two weeks before the scheduled date of the cleaning I began notifying everyone via e-mail and by signs on all around the lunchroom and on the refrigerator. This continued up until the Friday afternoon around 2:00 when it was to be done. That day I also announced it twice via the intercom.

So ... there were complaints. Multiple ones. The office manager shrugged, pointed out the repeated notices, and told me not to worry about it.

Here, where I am now, the refrigerated things don't have mold, thank god, but some of them are seriously old. I mean they could probably apply for Social Security. She wants to have the refrigerator cleaned out, something I support. But I also have no doubt there will be complainers. I won't be among them; I have been skipping lunch but will be searching Amazon shortly for collapsible coolers and such. I don't like the state of non-cleanliness either so it's just easier to bring my own "refrigerator" each day (since we cannot have our own mini ones).

[Syfygeek]

Uh - she got the days-old tuna out of the trash? And presumably ate it??

So much wrong with that.

Out of the trash bag that had been outside for an hour. And she's the only one who complained.

...Friday morning the fridge will be cleaned out. Anything not marked with an employee name, or anything that has grown fuzz will be tossed. All half empty drinks, suspicious containers, and anything with an expiration date that is in the past will be tossed.

...Is there any way I could have been clearer? 
...

Yes, you could have been more clear, with both procedure and wording.  By cleaning out at the end of day instead of at lunch, you could have avoided the 'Anything not...' exemption.  By not listing the things that were to be thrown (which sounds more like a rant than clarification), you could have kept the message shorter.

The fridge will be cleaned out Friday at 4:00.  All food and food-related items will be thrown away.  Thank you.

Trash had to be outside for pickup before cleaning staff went to another building. Other employees used the fridge in the other break room (one hallway over) for their food today. 

[Please pass the Calgon]

we usually clean the fridge out AFTER lunch.

Our office waits til after 2pm.... Less chance of throwing out someone's lunch. We also have a pen/paper holder attached to the fridge w/ a couple sharpee's and post it notes. We had a lot of "I was running late and couldn't find something to label my stuff" complaints.

[shhh its me]

we usually clean the fridge out AFTER lunch.

Our office waits til after 2pm.... Less chance of throwing out someone's lunch. We also have a pen/paper holder attached to the fridge w/ a couple sharpee's and post it notes. We had a lot of "I was running late and couldn't find something to label my stuff" complaints.

Oh thats a good idea.

[mandycorn]

One of my coworkers suggested a fridge cleaning schedule that I think sounds brilliant, although we haven't been able to get facilities to agree to it yet. Hopefully it can help somebody, though, if I post it here.

We have two fridges, so she proposed that one fridge a month get totally emptied, that way people need to physically transfer their condiments and frozen lunches to the "safe" fridge (and hopefully check the expiration dates and look for fuzz) but they don't need to worry about being lunch-less or taking things home. It would be easy enough to label the "safe" and "to be cleaned" fridges with signs that could include the cleaning date/time.

I love the idea of hanging post its and markers near the fridge for labeling purposes also.

[artk2002]

Something to remember: Just because someone else gets upset, it doesn't mean that you've done anything wrong. You gave plenty of notice that this would happen. She chose to ignore that information. It's all on her. That said, issues around food come from our lizard brain, so people frequently become irrational about it.

[Oh Joy]

And one bit from a tactical standpoint rather than etiquette; I once worked somewhere that everything left in the fridge was thrown out every Friday night.  It was such a routine that it wasn't even worthy of mention, and no one grew accustomed to storing things in there.  Plus, it took only a minute since things didn't accumulate.

[YummyMummy66]

I also think it should have been done after lunch, not before.

I would stick a notice on the fridge and have a set schedule as to clean out of the fridge. 

Example, every Friday afternoon, the fridge will be cleaned out, or it could be Monday afternoon, as some can forget to take something in their excitement to leave for the weekend. 

I would clear out anything that does not have a name, looks like it could grow mold, etc. that is in throw away containers.  Anything in a plastic tub of some kind, take tape, mark it with a date (and throw it away by whatever method you determine.  Example, on notice you state a one week or two week period). 

Ketchup, mayo, things like that, I would keep in fridge until they expired.

[RegionMom]

maybe bring a cardboard box with no lid, and place the unlabeled plastic "tupperware" containers in there for an hour or so, with a final e-mail-
"ok, clean-out was a success, if you want to claim your sealed, non-moldy container, you have two hours till trash can."

But you do not have to.

I can just see someone complaining that there's was an heirloom collectible one-of-a kind container, how dare you toss it!

(Years ago, in a summer camp, one teacher wrote a child's name ON the lunchbox.  Mom threw a FIT.  It was borrowed, from a neighbor, from DisneyWorld, so the school forked over $20 to replace it, and all the staff/teachers were cautioned to write names on a piece of tape-blue tape or masking tape, and never
directly on an item.) 
Oh, and yes, an identical lunchbox was spotted a few weeks later, after camp had closed, at...Walmart.  For maybe five bucks.
 

[kckgirl]

Oh, and yes, an identical lunchbox was spotted a few weeks later, after camp had closed, at...Walmart.  For maybe five bucks.

That doesn't really matter, though. No one can predict what will be for sale a few weeks later in a different store.

[snappylt]

Cleaning the office fridge - the stuff nightmares are made of.

You could post notices in letters a foot high, send e-mails every day for a month, put fliers on everyone's desk, wait until dark oh-thirty on a Friday night, and someone will come to you and and pitch a hissy about you tossing their (fill in the blank).

It's a thankless task, but someone has to be the scapegoat do it.

I love your reply, BarensMom! I think you are right, however you announce it, some special snowflake is going to complain.

Two quick stories to share:

1.)  At my last office, once our breakroom refrigerator was cleaned out with five days notice to us all.  I forgot that I left a brown paper sack in there with two fresh apples and my good paring knife.  I didn't think of it until I was halfway home that night.

Did I have a hissy fit about losing my apples and my good knife?

No, I realized that I had been warned and it was my own responsibility that it slipped my mind.  (Hey - I'm not a snowflake, at least about refrigerators!) 

2.) About notifying people until you are blue in the face, and they'll still complain:

Almost 30 years ago I was a teacher for several years.  I remember the teacher ("Jane") whose room was next to mine came in one afternoon after school and said she just had to tell someone what just happened because she couldn't believe it.

A mother had come in for a conference and was very upset because Jane had given the woman's son an F in English with, the woman complained,  "absolutely no warning".  She complained, if only Jane had told the woman and her husband that Junior was failing, they would have helped Junior do better in Jane's class.

Jane said to me, But Snappy, I did tell them!  Over and over again!"

Jane pulled out her file folder about Junior and showed the woman where Jane had sent home a "completed work" folder every Tuesday for the whole marking period.  Every week, the woman or her husband had signed and dated the folder page where it said that they had reviewed Junior's work and grades - and where Jane had documented Junior's grades each week.  Jane had also noted in her file that she had called home twice and had spoken with Junior's father each time about Junior's progress.

Junior's mother's comment to Jane?  "Oh that?  We didn't think you were serious!"

[RegionMom]

re: uber special lunch box-

True, sales happen, but what we think really happened was that yes, the lunchbox was borrowed, but originally was from Walmart by the neighbor, and the mom made up the over-the-top "It is from DISNEY, irreplaceable, how DARE you mark it up!  You OWE me! $$!!"

Because Walmart is so Disney Couture, ya know!

We did take to heart the lesson about never writing directly on a child's possessions.  I agree that is important, and I cringe when I volunteer at church nursery and see no labels, or the paid worker writes in sharpie.  I always share that cautionary tale, and pull out the roll of blue tape. 



As for teacher Jane and the clueless mom of junior, at least she had documentation!  Yikes! 

That is a Bang Your Head in Despair moment, for sure!!

[rose red]

Is it your job to clean the fridge?  If not and you were just being nice, I wouldn't bother after this and just invest in a cooler/ice packs.  It's very peaceful to have nothing to do with the community fridge .  If it is your job, I like the idea of posting the exact date and time on the sign (This fridge will be cleaned out on Tuesday, August 6 at 10am).

[JustEstelle]

OP, the only mistake I see is that you did the purge early in the day rather than after lunch or at the end of the day.  When we did the "fridge purges" at my school, they were always done well after lunch so that there could be no question about anything left in the refrigerator.