Working on my resolutions #1

My sister has always complained that the fridge in my house is overloaded most of the time. She reminded me again a couple of days ago.

Today, a small voice told me that it’s about time I have a look at the fridge. Beckoned by the small voice inside my head, I ventured into the domain which I’ve neglected most in the past year. The kitchen seemed to look crowded as well. Empty containers at the kitchen table top left unwashed. Bowls and plates all dried up and waiting to be placed back into their respective rows in the cabinet. Half empty mugs in the sink, looking forlornly at me. Dusty bottles of condiments which I bet were probably expired by now. Sigh! The list goes on.

Half closing my eyes, I bravely reached for the handle of the fridge and yanked it open.

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Amazingly, I could only catch a faint glow of the fridge light. It was so stuffed with things that no wonder I’ve been hearing the fridge making whirring noises and lately, the noise comes more frequently. Perhaps the fridge is hinting to me that it’s overweight.

 

I rummaged through the fridge and was appalled by all the stuffs I found inside. I just realized that we like to collect sweets and candies. After I counted, there were almost 30 pcs of all kinds of candies and sweets. I don’t even wanna think of how and where these came from.

 

Maybe we kept them initially to scam the kids who come to our house so that they stop bugging us? I dunno. We used to have kids from downstairs who always asked us whether they could come to our house to play. All the time. Why they liked my house? I have no faintest idea at all.

 

But their whole family had migrated to Belgium two years ago. Hmm…with the deduction in my mind, I think these sweets have been sitting in my forsaken fridge for about that long. Aiks!

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Anyway, I continued dissecting the items I found. A box which contained small pieces of mooncake, leftover from eons ago. A bowl of sambal which now looked over-chilled. A bottle of expired Marmite. Four bottles of Mayonnaise, all half-empty. No idea why there were four. Probably been buying and forgetting that we still have some at home. There were all sorts of medicines and pill from various clinics, Dr. Ho, Dr. Lee, Klinik Medijaya etc. a bottle of pickled dill which obviously had expired long time ago in 2004. And guess what? I even found a bottle of tomato paste which had developed a huge spore colony and should be attacking the nearest enemy base (Er..excuse me, my imagination is running a bit wild today. Been playing Starcraft. Hehe!)

. . .

One thing which blew me over was when I reached the bottom of the fridge. When I opened the compartment, I was engulfed in a smoke of greenish dust. I choked over it a little and peered into the plastic bag. What I found was a couple of oranges. No, let me rephrase that. I saw a couple of powder coated oranges which seemed to have undergone a massive makeover. They no longer look orange-y. Instead, they have turned into a greenish powdery entity which dissolved into the air when held. YUCKS!!!

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Alright, looking at the brighter side of things, it was not so bad after all, right? I didn’t encounter plump maggots or whatnots. So, I’m rather relieved about that. Phew! *wipes sweaty forehead*

So, after I dumped the expired foodstuffs and whatever I found inside, I ended up with three big bags of rubbish. It was a tough battle, cleaning the overloaded fridge and all.

It made me realized one thing though. We have been extremely wasteful. We kept buying stuffs which we only use once, say, the Mango Flavouring for jelly. And after used once, we chucked everything into the fridge and forgot about it till the next time we clean the fridge (which we hardly ever do).

I feel really bad for having such a bad habit. I realize that we have thrown out so many food over the years and yet, so many unfortunate children are going hungry everyday. We actually can make a small difference by changing our mindsets and cherishing the food given to us so easily. How can I teach my kids in the future and set a good example for them when I keep throwing away food? It’ll be like slapping my own face, ain’t it?

So, this year, I’m making it a clear conscious effort to buy necessarily when stocking up my grocery. Also, I’ll make more effort to check the items in my fridge more often. If there are fruits in the fridge, I’ll make more effort to cut and serve them so that they wont go rotten and turn into powder green. I’m not a chef at some restaurant, so I don’t really need all sorts of condiments if I’m only gonna cook once a while. Just make sure we have salt, sugar, pepper and soy sauce, enough for simple meals.

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It has been an hour since I worked industriously in the kitchen and now, the fridge seemed happier. It’s no longer making whirring sounds.