Cleaning out Office Fridge

[Cherry91]

Sort of an Update-

It's been a week, and the fridge is still clean. Containers have initials, and the fridge no longer smells.

BUT- there is a ziploc baggie of cut veggies in there. Last week, during the purge, I chose to leave it because they looked freshly chopped, still firm. The baggie is still there, the veggies now have started to decay, look brown and slightly liquified. I want to throw it out, but it belongs to tuna co-worker. I know as soon as I toss it, she'll complain that I took her lunch.

I'm on vacation next week, and I'm willing to bet the bag will be there when I get back.

Why not put a post-it note on the bag saying please remove it from the fridge by *date* and then she can't claim that no one told her to move it?

[Outdoor Girl]

I'd pitch it and let her whine.  Then give her the Spock eyebrow.  'Really?  You were going to eat liquified peppers and celery?  If you'd throw out your own decaying food, I wouldn't have to.'  And walk away.

[rain]

Sort of an Update-

It's been a week, and the fridge is still clean. Containers have initials, and the fridge no longer smells.

BUT- there is a ziploc baggie of cut veggies in there. Last week, during the purge, I chose to leave it because they looked freshly chopped, still firm. The baggie is still there, the veggies now have started to decay, look brown and slightly liquified. I want to throw it out, but it belongs to tuna co-worker. I know as soon as I toss it, she'll complain that I took her lunch.

I'm on vacation next week, and I'm willing to bet the bag will be there when I get back.

I'm not sure about etiquette (help me out folks), but could you "date" it with a permanent marker?  Or just email her about them?

[RegionMom]

slap a labeled date on it, and just leave it be.

post any updates, here!
 

[YummyMummy66]

I would not put a label or post it on the baggie, as that can just be taken off and thrown away.

Sharpie on the baggie itself with a date. 

[Syfygeek]

First day back, just went into the breakroom and you guessed it, the baggie is still there and looks nasty.

At the end of today, as I leave, it's going in the garbage! But, 2 weeks after the great purge, the fridge still looks good (except for the rotting veggies)

[ladyknight1]

We have periodic events at my office that require the refrigerator to be cleared so food can be stored for the event. After we clear it, there is always someone who is looking for something that wasn't in the fridge in the first place!

My favorite is when people bring their food in on an event day, when they have been given prior notice that we are having lunch on XX day at XX time, then are mad that there isn't sufficient room. We can usually make it work.

I agree with Art that people can become very irrational about food.

[Amara]

You know what always strikes me as weird is that it appears the people who leave food for days (or longer) seem to like to waste food as long as they can use someone else's space to do it.

[---]

I don't bring in a lunch that needs to be put into the fridge, and not because of the potiental that it'll be thrown away. No, I don't do it because I don't want my food to be in a place where mold was at -- trust me, even with the fridge being cleaned out every week, I STILL can not get the image of a very moldy frozen dinner out of my head. A frozen dinner that was over THREE years old.

Management has the fridge and table cleaned out once a week, every week, and WILL throw out everything that doesn't have that day's date on it and someone's name on it. Management has a strict rule that if the food isn't going to be consumed that day, it either needs to be taken out or it'll get tossed. The reason behind it is that I had a former co-workers who went GROCERY SHOPPING and put all their food in the fridge. This left no room in the fridge for anyone else and management gave this co-worker an ultimatium: take the food home right now or it gets tossed and they get a write-up for abusing company-purchased materials.

They took their food and never came back.

[weschicky]

A coworker kept some medical drugs of an intimate nature in the office fridge, which I found during my own fridge clean out and quietly slipped back into the fridge as I'd found them.   I probably wouldn't leave intimacy drugs in the office fridge, but who am I to judge? We had an office cleanup on a day he was absent, and one of my colleagues went to town on the fridge.  She started to open the plastic bag containing his drugs, gagged at the smell (there was some plastic-y container in there that smelled like chemicals), and tossed the bag without looking inside.  Because, really, who keeps expensive medical drugs in a plastic bag from the neighborhood sandwich shop in the office fridge?

There is now a zippered, official-looking pouch in the beer crisper. 

I used to work in an office where anything not labelled with initials and a recent date could be thrown out without notice (make room for catering, someone's lunch, whatever).  If you wanted to keep your salad dressing or ketchup in there, you just kept changing the date.  It was a brilliant system that liberated everyone to toss fuzzy food with impunity.

[spookycatlady]

I worked in an office with a once a month cleaning rota.  Everyone on the floor took a turn, whether you used the fridge or not.  The schedule and rules were firmly established.

Except people were too afraid to follow the rules: sentient? No date? No label? No keeping.

I was ruthless in my disposal of foodstuffs, but I took the time to wash the plastic containers and left them on the counter for claiming.

The weird part?  No one complained about dumped food, but the last month's designated cleaning person came into the kitchen repeatedly to "comiserate" about how ruthless he was was and how much he had tossed the last time. 

Uh huh.  That's why I was finding 4 month old yogurt and 2 year old, open juice boxes.

What I did get criticized for? Washing the plastic.  I heard more than one person say, "No way I would have washed that.  I would have tossed the whole thing."  It actually felt like judgement, to be honest.

I bring non-refrigerated lunches now and leave the fridge to the amateur micro-biology enthusiasts.

[siamesecat2965]

I worked in an office with a once a month cleaning rota.  Everyone on the floor took a turn, whether you used the fridge or not.  The schedule and rules were firmly established.

Except people were too afraid to follow the rules: sentient? No date? No label? No keeping.

I was ruthless in my disposal of foodstuffs, but I took the time to wash the plastic containers and left them on the counter for claiming.

The weird part?  No one complained about dumped food, but the last month's designated cleaning person came into the kitchen repeatedly to "comiserate" about how ruthless he was was and how much he had tossed the last time. 

Uh huh.  That's why I was finding 4 month old yogurt and 2 year old, open juice boxes.

What I did get criticized for? Washing the plastic.  I heard more than one person say, "No way I would have washed that.  I would have tossed the whole thing."  It actually felt like judgement, to be honest.

I bring non-refrigerated lunches now and leave the fridge to the amateur micro-biology enthusiasts.

I would have been ruthless too, but I don't know that I would have cleaned anyone else's plastic. If its my science experiment at home, sure, but to be honest, the thought of cleaning someone eles' squicks me out. But, I wouldnt have said anything; I just would ahve done it, and if someone else chose to wash them, so be it.

[Outdoor Girl]

When I'm doing the fridge clean out, if the plastic ware is Glad or Ziploc or one of those kinds that are reusable but meant to be disposable, I just pitch the whole thing.  If it is Tupperware or other higher quality plastic ware, I'll dump it and put the dirty ones in the dishwasher.  Unless the contents are blue and fuzzy or completely liquified when it should be a solid.  Then I just pitch, even if it is expensive plastic ware.

[esposita]

A coworker kept some medical drugs of an intimate nature in the office fridge, which I found during my own fridge clean out and quietly slipped back into the fridge as I'd found them.   I probably wouldn't leave intimacy drugs in the office fridge, but who am I to judge? We had an office cleanup on a day he was absent, and one of my colleagues went to town on the fridge.  She started to open the plastic bag containing his drugs, gagged at the smell (there was some plastic-y container in there that smelled like chemicals), and tossed the bag without looking inside.  Because, really, who keeps expensive medical drugs in a plastic bag from the neighborhood sandwich shop in the office fridge?

There is now a zippered, official-looking pouch in the beer crisper. 

I used to work in an office where anything not labelled with initials and a recent date could be thrown out without notice (make room for catering, someone's lunch, whatever).  If you wanted to keep your salad dressing or ketchup in there, you just kept changing the date.  It was a brilliant system that liberated everyone to toss fuzzy food with impunity.

This is making me giggle. Is it possible the meds were needed so many hours before he um, got home? 

[POF]

When my group was in a different suite - I ( the director ) cleaned out the fridge every Friday at 4:35  ( most people left at 4:30 ). It was on my calendar and everyone knew it.  Nothing was allowed to stay over the weekend. I tossed everything and then the weekend cleaning crew cleaned it thoroughly.

It was fun for my secretary to see people scurrying at 4:15 to get their stuff.