Tuesday, September 21, 2010

When Hell Freezes Over

I know this week when I am being all loud and proud about the slattern that I am(courtesy of Picklebums challenge), one of my examples being a houseworky task that I have actually knuckled down and done seems a tad - well, airbrushy - doesn't it?



Never fear - I have not surprised the borrowers too much yet with such shenanigans. As usual, there is a story attached...

For a while now - for a very long while now, the "little freezer" has been in need of a good defrost.

For all of that while, I have had a daily mantra of getting whatever out, saying to myself "I must defrost this soon" and going on with my life. Obviously verbal reinforcement only has so much impact on my consciousness.

Weekly, I have added a "...before I do the groceries" codicil - which has as much impact as opposition policy - and weekly, I bring home groceries to fill the undefrosted freezer and added "...(expletive deleted) - next week".

No doubt, the freezer doubted my follow-through, because yesterday it took the matter into its own hands (?).

At some point, one of us accessed something and failed to give that little nudge between "slightly ajar" and "sealed".

A few hours after that point, I was traversing the kitchen and stood in a puddle. I know - there have been occasions over the last few years where I have traversed the kitchen and stood in puddles (most notably after V has attacked the washing up - so most days) but on this occasion, the puddle was quite cool.

"hmmm" I thought. I investigated. I saw the slightly ajar door - and knew my day of reckoning had come - and thought "I will deal with this later" and shut the door again.

Later did actually come - and on the same day - because I knew that once you have puddle-formed in the world of ajar-doored freezers, you are entering a world where food safety standards can become compromised (oh, and okay, you are entering a world where you can no longer shut the door without fear of the ajarity).



The first task is always to rehome everything. I did an awesome job of spatial stuffing with the upstairs fridge. I had to take a photo because it was indeed a masterpiece - especially when you consider it coincided with a massive cookup of freezer cubes of standards for Paris.

Anyhow, to round off the imperfections.. V had a spatial problem with the downstairs freezer, and so placed his charges in the fridge section. If anyone wants pies or fish fillets, they are now thawed for your convenience...

8 comments:

Debby said...

Oh, gosh. That happened once to us, with a freezer of venison. It was horrible. We had five kids at home, and two freezers in that day. Luckily, we had most of the venison in the other freezer, but still. What a loss. We gave it to a friend who's german shepherd rescue dogs had quite a feast.

Oh. And who's fault was it? Um. Mine.

jeanie said...

ha Debby - this is not my worst fridge disaster...

There was the great heatwave door-ajar "experience" of '03 as the great deal on pork I went halves with my exMIL (on the day before I went away for a weekend) didn't QUITE fit in the freezer...

And then there was the "learn which switch to turn off" lesson in the 80s, when a whole chest freezer of meat was too bad for even the working dogs and wrote off the freezer...

Jayne said...

Oooooo, we have a little freezer like that and the door is just at that almost-too-much-ice-to-close-properly-but-if-you-hip-it-closed-it's-fine stage.
Which means I should do as you did ;)

Leenie said...

I think we've all been there. That is an OOOoohhNooooOO! moment for sure. Selfishly I am just glad that you put it down so eloquently in a post. I love reading your blog! Keeps me smiling all the way on the other side of the world.

Pencil Writer said...

I LOVE you, Jeanie. I love reading your posts. Thank you, oh, thank you for the giggles you inspire!

(And for the WV: "Popec". Is that what one might accomplish when the freezer door stands ajar too long and one decides to eat the contents anyways? Just wondering . . .)

Crazed Nitwit said...

you still have a freezer that needs to be defrosted? OY!!!

Love the clean after picture!!!!!

katepickle said...

Oh we had a little moment with a slightly ajar freezer door too the other day... at least it is motivating hey!?!?

Mummy McTavish said...

oh no. So glad you could show the fixed up freezer, it gives us all hope! We have battled the slightly ajar freezer door for years too. Thankfully on our main fridge, the last time it happened, I chipped off enough ice to let me close the door and then we went out that weekend and replaced the 500 year old fridge. Our little fridge only gets cleaned when we have an "incident", it is good motivation.