The fridge, bless its heart, is a box full of hidden treasures and unexpected surprises. In our modern existence, it’s hard to imagine living without certain items – and a fridge is one such appliance. Early forms of refrigeration involved digging holes and packing them with ice or snow, which makes me rather glad we are significantly more civilised these days. Can you imagine having to bury your food in the ground and then dig it up every time you are hungry? What a schlep! It’s so much easier to open that big, shiny behemoth in the kitchen and just grab what you want.

Of course, the problem with sharing a fridge with other household inhabitants is that they also just grab what they want, which may lead to conflict at times. It’s particularly annoying when you suddenly get a yen for a juicy little morsel, but when you get there, the fridge is bare! This never fails to remind me of poor Old Mother Hubbard’s dog and how it must have felt. (Incidentally, this is probably the only nursery rhyme that I still remember, which clearly indicates where my priorities – or disappointments – lie.)

Yes, sharing a fridge requires some survival techniques – and women, being the wily creatures we are, have mastered the art of fridge packing. Sure, you can toss things into the fridge in a haphazard manner if you like, but if you want to preserve certain “treasures”, you should think carefully about where you place them. A fridge is full of secret corners and little holes that are apparently – and delightfully – invisible to the male species and women have learnt how to exploit these overlooked spaces. Put anything below eye level, right in the dark depths at the back of the fridge or buried deep in a drawer and you can be sure that it will be safe from the ravenous wolves in your home.

That said, there are times when we hide things so well even we forget about them. This usually results in unidentified frozen objects coming to light weeks – if not months – later. Apparently, what you put into the fridge or freezer is not always the same thing that comes out. Eek! Needless to say, this can be quite disturbing, as forgotten food items are certainly no treat!

Ironically, when you first spot an overlooked Tupperware container, you can’t help feeling a little bit curious. “Oh, I wonder what this could be,” you innocently think to yourself. For some unfathomable reason, we always assume the best when we spy something mysterious in the fridge. Perhaps, this is because we are pleasantly surprised by a delightful treat on the rare occasion. However, more often than not, the opposite applies. I’m talking about those leftovers that have gone mouldy, separated from their liquids and become unrecognisable, green, putrid parcels. Yuck! And don’t even get me started on the smell… it’s enough to make anyone lose their appetite.

I suppose this is payback for our deceptive fridge antics, but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do. All women know that our men will eat us out of house and home if they are left to their own devices. This is a fact of life. In most households, when it comes to food in the fridge, it’s each man for himself. If you snooze, you lose – and that’s all there is to it!

So, can you blame us for using a little ingenuity when we pack the fridge? Short of locking the fridge (which I’ve no doubt most women have considered at some point in their lives), there’s not much else we can do besides hide things in plain sight. After all, it’s not our fault if our men couldn’t be bothered to bend or search. A fridge is simply a great big treasure chest waiting to be explored. You can open the door and grab the first snack you see, but if you don’t dig deep, you’ll never see what’s really hidden inside.

© 2017 Audrey Whyte   All Rights Reserved