Lately, I have been rather content to “let a few things slide”. That includes the state of my refrigerator, which could use the loving touch of a canister of Lysol wipes.
My husband, knowing how proud I am (and fully realizing that sometimes it is the only thing that motivates me sometimes) told me that he noticed the fridge was getting a bit gummy and he would clean it out for me. In the recent past, I would be ticked off enough and tell him to butt out and I’d do it myself. In other words, he would shame me into such tasks. This time I said, “Sure.” He was totally perplexed.
My poor “dear” in the headlights was not expecting such a prideless wife. It got to be 6 o’clock that night and he still hadn’t done it yet. As it was true that it needed cleaning (I am having 18 people over for Thanksgiving and some will undoubtedly at least one will just have to go into the fridge), I decided to take matters into my own hands, but not get them too dirty. I began to wash out ONE, count ‘em, one drawer. I knew that he hates a job half-done and it would kill him. Worked like a charm. 
He’s up there now going through the old loaves of bread with one crust left that I couldn’t toss out, the chocolate from two Easters ago, the freezer-burned hot dogs that were terrible but I got because they were on sale but that no one would eat and wiping away things that were once edible but are now unrecognizable. I think the blue stuff was peach yogurt that has slowly begun to sport a growth of some kind of penicillin. Whatever.
I knew he didn’t want his family to see what was really in our refrigerator, which is what got this whole thing started. His pride. Mine is waning in my old age and my guess is that this is probably good for my heart or reduces stress or has some other wonder health benefit.
That’s my story and I am sticking to it. Better than sticking to the stuff in the bottom of my fridge.
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“It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.” ~ Anonymous
5 responses so far ↓
1 Joel Klebanoff // Nov 27, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I wouldn’t worry about it. I was going to clean my fridge a few months ago, but before I got started Greenpeace threw up some picket lines and stopped me. It seems that a new life form evolved from some green goop I left in the back. (I’m pretty sure it didn’t start out as green goop, but I’m not sure what it was in a previous life.) Consequently, cleaning my fridge would lessen biodiversity. And that’s MY story, and I’m definitely sticking with it.
2 suburbancorrespondent // Nov 29, 2008 at 1:23 am
What? No pictures?!
3 Mary // Nov 30, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Joel- I won’t worry. Love the Greenpeace line. I might borrow that someday.
suburbancorrespondent – no, no photos. Too lazy to take them. Ho hum.
4 diesel // Dec 1, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Yeah, I can’t get my wife to clean out the fridge either. Once in a while she throws out the really old stuff in tupperware containers so that nobody eats it and dies.
5 Damama T // Dec 7, 2008 at 10:04 pm
My Girl came home the other night and yelled that something had died in the fridge. I thought she was just wisecracking about the turkey carass still being in there since I missed the Friday trash pickup. Saturday morning I went to get the butter for some toast and sure enough, it smelled like something had been dead in there. FOR A YEAR! Turned out to be a bag of frozen broccoli that I’d forgotten about which had popped and spewed it’s now nasty green guts all over the back wall and the bottom shelf. All that to say, HEY, My fridge is clean now, too! LOL!