Time To Clean The Fridge

If there are actual laws governing this, then I wanna know.

But as far as I can recall, Emily Post never did a chapter on Etiquette Regarding the Company Fridge.


This morning, I happened to be standing in the kitchen here at the office, waiting for coffee, when a couple co-workers & I started tossing stuff that looked old (i.e. carton of creamer bearing the numbers "2009")... and pretty soon this turned into a full-fledged emptying of the fridge.

Granted, it was not a cleaning per se, just a tossing-of-stuff-with-old-dates.

Now, I get a little antsy when it comes to the subject of THE FRIDGE HERE AT WORK.

Anyone who's ever worked here knows what drama I've gotten into regarding this fridge. Tossing out non-Tupperware-plasticware or maybe regifting an unclaimed Snapple bottle.... But we've always had a basic rule here: "PUT YOUR NAME ON IT".

When we used to have a "regular cleaning day", your name on an item is what saved it from a Tribal Council-like elimination on Friday afternoons. It was a hard & fast rule we stuck by, in order to ensure next week's leftovers & lunches had room at the inn. Basically, NO NAME equals NO FOOD. By not putting your name on your stuff, you guarantee that it either gets tossed or reclaimed by someone else.

As my ancestors have said for centures: "Finders Keepers!"
(And that, friends, is how Spanish conquistadors staked real estate claims. But more on that for another day.)

But aside from the No Name/No Food For You policy, what about for the person cleaning out the fridge... what about moldy food inside expensive (looking) containers? What to do about that?

Do you empty the food in the trash and put the container in the sink? Are you responsible for cleaning it?! Or is it ok to just leave it there? Or is it okay to throw out the entire container altogether?

Ugh, I hate this subject because I somehow always manage to upset someone.

So now that this painful topic was resurrected today, I'm just curious -- are there rules for using/managing/cleaning the company fridge?

I'm certain someone will be marching up to me today, pissed off that their leftover quiche, decorated in fuzzy green & pink mold that they've been saving since March of 2008 has suddenly disappeared.