Shameful Secret Saturday #2

This one is probably not much of a surprise, but it's been YEARS since I cleaned out my refrigerator. YEARS. Sure, I pull out the leftovers every few weeks, but I haven't truly gutted the thing in a really long time. After being snowed in most of the week, I started really looking at some of the bottles and jars on the backs of the shelves, and decided it was time, so I tackled it this morning.

I have a really hard time throwing away something that might be useful, especially food and cosmetic type products (sometime, I'll show you my stash of "natural" beauty products that I don't use but can't bear to just toss in the garage.) When I looked in the refrigerator, I realized there's a bottle of flax seed oil that's been there since I was pregnant with E. That's four years ago, folks. 

When we had WIC, we used to get bottled juice, which we never drink. After a while, I stopped buying it, but at first, I thought I should get it to use for something. That something has turned out to be taking up room on my top shelf. 

The BEFORE picture.

 I wish I had a picture of what the outside of this refrigerator looked like a few weeks ago, before I cleaned the stove. While I was waiting for the stove to soak, I noticed how truly disgusting the vent plate on the frig was, so I vacuumed and scrubbed, and now our fifty year old refrigerator doesn't sound like it's on its last legs. It's actually spooky quiet now. I also cleaned the bottom edge, where E frequently stands, so it looks deceptively clean in this 'before' picture.

The highlights of my findings: two nearly full jars of chow chow made in 2011. A bag of Craisins (about 1/4 full) with an expiration date of Mar 2012. Three jars of salsa. Two bottles of red wine (I don't drink red wine). A rouge string cheese stuck behind one of the drawers. Five empty (or nearly empty) ziploc bags.

AFTER.

You'll notice a few things if you look closely... I didn't throw those two bottles of red wine away, because sometimes friends come over who do drink red wine. That's probably who left it in the first place, you know?

I didn't throw away that bottle of flax seed oil. I can't find an expiration date, but it still smells fine, and I feel certain that oils start to smell rancid when they go bad. It only has a little left in it, and I want to use it! I did promise myself that I would throw it away if I haven't used it by April.

There's orange GatorAde from when we all got sick a few weeks ago. As a rule, we don't drink things like that (especially E and me), but I can't bear to throw it away, because what if DP gets sick again and he wants to drink GatorAde?