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New Office Fridge


Daniel

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Today the large fridge I purchased for my office arrived.. We have only had a mini fridge were people could store there lunches.. So as I saw the deliveryman wheel it in, all the reasons I didnt originally want to get one came back to me.

There will be about 10 people using this thing.. My major concerns are rotting food, messes,not respecting space and just people being gross.. What ground rules do people have in there office.. Do they have printed instruction on the door? Today is the first day, so I would like to start civilized..

Thank you..

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In the last few offices I have worked in, every friday, all food, except for soft drinks and water bottles, is thrown out, no matter what.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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In the last few offices I have worked in, every friday, all food, except for soft drinks and water bottles, is thrown out, no matter what.

Yup, this is what we do at my office, too.

Condiments are a trickier matter...maybe everyone has to label their own? If one of the condiments seems to messy (sticky, leaking, whatever) you let the person know that it will be removed from the fridge unless they clean it up that day...if it doesn't have a name, it gets tossed in the Friday purge.

"We had dry martinis; great wing-shaped glasses of perfumed fire, tangy as the early morning air." - Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado

Queenie Takes Manhattan

eG Foodblogs: 2006 - 2007

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Good idea, everything is out on Friday.. What about condiments.. I have a fear of just a gross door filled with peoples stuff..

We throw it all out on Friday p.m. (cleaning person does it after work). The condiments, the ones that are reasonable (mustard, etc) get left in the door, but this is a highly personal decision left to the cleaner, though I must say that most of the time she makes good decisions.

Everyone knows it's going to happen, so, there's not much for them to complain about. The thing stays fairly clean this way.

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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Our rule here is every friday at 3pm the fridge gets emptied. Period - no exceptions except for sealed bottles or cans of beverages or condiments (per the rule below)

As far as condiments the rule is you need to put your name and date on the condiment to store it in the fridge.

No name -- trashed

No date -- trashed

If the date is older than 30 days -- trashed

People have gotten angry at the cleaning people for doing this, but they quickly learned not to leave their stuff in there.

John Deragon

foodblog 1 / 2

--

I feel sorry for people that don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day -- Dean Martin

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And then there's always the obvious that you'd think would never need to be said....EAT YOUR OWN FOOD AND NOBODY ELSE'S. Gotta at least attempt to prevent thievery!

Erin

"American by birth, Irish by the grace of God"

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That seems to be a fairly standard practice, and in my experience, it's really the only thing that works. Make sure you state explicitly that the food will be tossed containers and all so people know what to expect.

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Good idea, everything is out on Friday.. What about condiments.. I have a fear of just a gross door filled with peoples stuff..

Bottled salad dressings should be fine, anything homemade needs to be thrown out. Anything in a commercial sealable container should be fine.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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Our rule here is every friday at 3pm the fridge gets emptied. Period - no exceptions except for sealed bottles or cans of beverages or condiments (per the rule below)

As far as condiments the rule is you need to put your name and date on the condiment to store it in the fridge. 

If the date is older than 30 days -- trashed

People have gotten angry at the cleaning people for doing this, but they quickly learned not to leave their stuff in there.

Really? For a condiment? I'd be upset by that, considering that, at least for me, it is not possible for me to use up an entire jar/bottle of something...no matter how small it is. Also, condiments rarely go bad, as far as I know.

How big is your office Daniel? If the group is small enough, maybe everyone could donate some money, say $5 each, and come up with a small list of condiments that could be used by anyone. Each one could be dated with the date that the product should be used by, which is often somewhere on the item, and tossed on that date.

Erin

"American by birth, Irish by the grace of God"

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I would leave out a large package of sanitary wipes with a sign instructing everyone to use them to clean up any messes they make in or on the fridge.

I'd also post "The Rules" on the side of the fridge. I like the idea of everyone pitching in to buy mayo, kechup, mustard, etc, and you could tell the cleaning person to leave them be.

We also left a roll of scotch tape out and let everyone know they could use it to neatly fold up the leftover food.

---------------------------------------

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Our rule here is every friday at 3pm the fridge gets emptied. Period - no exceptions except for sealed bottles or cans of beverages or condiments (per the rule below)

As far as condiments the rule is you need to put your name and date on the condiment to store it in the fridge. 

If the date is older than 30 days -- trashed

People have gotten angry at the cleaning people for doing this, but they quickly learned not to leave their stuff in there.

Really? For a condiment? I'd be upset by that, considering that, at least for me, it is not possible for me to use up an entire jar/bottle of something...no matter how small it is. Also, condiments rarely go bad, as far as I know.

Well we have a unique situation where the company purchases a large selection of condiments (along with other food items) monthly here, so not many people bring in their own, especially ones that require refridgeration. After just looking in the fridge now there is only one bottle of some organic mayo in there, all the others are condiments that are purchased by the office manager monthly.

John

John Deragon

foodblog 1 / 2

--

I feel sorry for people that don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day -- Dean Martin

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i have condiments in my fridge that must be 5 years old in some cases.  perhaps i need some rules, a sign, and a cleaning lady to sort that problem out.

Or you could just invite Daniel over. I'm told he works for liquor. :wink:

"We had dry martinis; great wing-shaped glasses of perfumed fire, tangy as the early morning air." - Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado

Queenie Takes Manhattan

eG Foodblogs: 2006 - 2007

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Pretty basic, but I put a sticky magnet on a Sharpie pen so there was no question as to being able to label the food. This saved people from having to scramble to find a pen that would write on labels.

We do this too!

We have two work kitchens and 4 fridges - we have a monthly clean out everything cycle, and people are pretty good about their own messes.

Eating pizza with a fork and knife is like making love through an interpreter.
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We don't have any posted rules, but once a month I put a sign warning that on the coming Friday, all will be purged, unless it appears with a name and a date within that week. Then on Saturday, I purge....wonderful feeling.

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