When we got married and were planning our future, we decided one would be enough, although many of our friends had two. Two was never in our plans, but things happen. We ended up keeping the older one in the basement.
Yes, we have two refrigerators. One in the kitchen, one on the lower level.
This would seem like more than enough space for foods that needed to be kept cold, right? We also have a pantry stocked with soups and cereals and pastas, and some shelves downstairs for assorted non-perishables. There are only two of us living in the house, but we never seem to have room in the kitchen fridge. And so, we are always arguing over which edible items should be kept where.
“Dick, I am rearranging things. I’m putting your sauerkraut and your three different kinds of mustard in the downstairs fridge so I have room for my fresh spinach and my giant Naked Juice bottles.
“Wait! I don’t want to go downstairs every time I need mustard and sauerkraut for my hot dogs.”
“Why not? You’re going to have to go downstairs anyway to get those hot dogs. I moved them yesterday.”
“What? You moved my Hebrew National hot dogs? How would you like it if I moved your almond milk to the other fridge?”
“You try that and you can say adios to your huge jar of salsa.”
Mary Ellen and I then had a cordial discussion about rearranging some of our other personal favorites. She agreed to move her head of broccoli downstairs so I could keep my barbeque rotisserie chicken upstairs, and I agreed to transfer my frozen White Castle burgers to the downstairs freezer so there was room for Mary Ellen’s frozen yogurt bars in the kitchen.
But then there was more trouble. Mary Ellen wanted to move all my chilled beer downstairs. “Six beers take up an entire shelf,“ she said.
“Yes, and they take up most of my Sunday when I watch football on the big screen TV. Upstairs.”
We wondered why we always have so little room in our fridge. One of the problems is that since there are only two of us, we often have a lot of leftovers, which get pushed to the back and forgotten about. I got very excited the day after Christmas when I was rummaging through the shelves. I found a yummy piece of leftover corned beef. I hoped it would taste as good as it did on St Patrick’s Day.
It was clear that Mary Ellen was simply in a rearranging mood. While I was in my downstairs office, I saw her struggling with her arms full of coats as she descended the staircase.
“Now what are you doing?”
“I’m rearranging all our spring jackets, moving them from the hall closet to the basement clothing rack. After I bring the winter coats upstairs, I want you to help me move the leather reading chair to the guest room, and let’s put your grandfather’s desk back in the corner of the master bedroom.”
“I hate moving things around. Unlike you, I am a creature of habit. How did we ever end up together? Do you think it was by chance?”
“Heavens no. It was arranged.”
