Fridge Follies

Okay, so I went a bit crazy on Tuesday. It all started with my trip to Costco, where I spotted this: 

Lifechanging...maybe

Readers, I bought it. My years-long struggle with lots of tiny little jars in my refrigerator continues unabated (I blame my condiment-loving family), and I felt that maybe - just maybe - these storage bins might provide a less expensive solution than, say, buying a custom-designed fridge with specific places for 4 jars of salsa, umpteen jars of various types of jam, and 3 opened cream cheese containers. Seriously, it had gotten to the point where I no longer bothered to clean out my fridge - I just waited until stuff fell out and broke.

 You'd think I would have learned from that unfortunate vinaigrette incident of years past, but no...

 So! Armed with the renewed hope engendered by these 4 plastic refrigerator bins, I dove into my fridge and discovered that I had a Noah's Ark thing going on in there:

Two of every sort shall come unto thee...

After I took that picture, I discovered even more pairs of condiments: cream cheese, ground ginger, etc.  Look - the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one, right?

Yes, we DO have a jam problem

I managed to fit all the open jam jars (5, if you must know) in one container and all the cream cheese (only 3!) into another.  I devoted the biggest container to our mustard/ketchup collection, and the fourth was reserved for salad dressings, because it was tall enough to keep a bottle of vinaigrette from toppling over.  Hope springs eternal, people; and I closed that fridge door serene in the knowledge that I finally had control over my condiment issues.

I opened that door a mere 2 hours later to find a large jar of roasted red peppers on its side in the middle of the ketchups and mustards. Aghast, I snatched it up, only to discover that it had disgorged its liquid-y marinade all over my pristine plastic bin.  Later, when I checked again, some member of my family (who shall remain nameless, LARRY) had shoved the entire bin the WRONG WAY into the back of the fridge, so it couldn't be pulled out like a handy little drawer, the way God and the manufacturer intended it should be.

Am I wrong to believe that my family is intentionally sabotaging my efforts to restore some order to our icebox?  Do you think that perhaps they resent my getting rid of the months-old bag of pepperoni minis I found in there?

Yes, these DID used to be red.  No, I don't know exactly how old they were.  But I posted this photo on Facebook and a friend immediately dubbed them the Michael Jackson of foodstuffs.

Too soon?