What are some things you keep in your refrigerator or freezer, that other people don't?

Eschew making a prawn stock with the heads, shells and de-veined delight just wrap it up and freeze it until garbage night.

Flour and sugar are in the fridge to keep them from getting buggy. I live in the tropics.

I keep an empty water glass in the freezer most of the time—a large tumbler I’ll use for icewater at suppertime. I like my water really cold. After I fill the glass, I put it back in the freezer (with ice cubes) to freeze up a little before I take it to the table. Then I put a fresh glass in for next time.

A time or two, I’ve also hidden prescription meds in the freezer, disguised as spaghetti sauce.

In the freezer: Clothes (to remove laundry-resistant smells). Bags with garbage I don’t want to rot in the garbage before i toss them. Bird feathers (to disinfect).

In the fridge: Bags from bread, cheese, etc., to re-use as disposal bags, to keep from getting funky.

@Hawaii_Jake, is that just because the refrigerator is sealed off from critters, or does it actually make a difference to keep them where it’s cold?

@Zaku, bird feathers?

Frost. My refrigerator is not frost free. Dad bought it new in 1968.

Freezer:
– A chunk of honeycomb that came from the inside of a large basswood tree that needed to come down.
– Leaves from an Elm tree that fell about 20 years ago. Sadly they are so rare now I thought they should be saved for the future if and when cloning becomes widespread.

Refrigerator:
– Oil for treating cast iron pans
– I recently threw out a roll of Infrared film that had been in there for about 20 years.

In addition to the body parts?

@Jeruba I don’t honestly know beyond a shadow of a doubt, but I’ve never got bugs in them since I started keeping them in the cold. I must also add that I don’t cook much from scratch, so it’s ages between uses. I also realized I’ve made a mistake; I actually keep them in the freezer.

Way back when I smoked cigarettes, I would buy them by the carton and put them in the freezer so they wouldn’t get stale.

This isn’t a non-food item, but it’s likely unusual—my freezer currently holds about 25 cups of vegan broth.

A couple of days ago, I made an enormous batch of broth. I enjoy cooking fresh soup and having it on hand; when my supply of frozen broth runs low, I get my huge stockpot and create a supply. I’m feeling good about being set for a while.

For this past weekend, we had vegan carrot-ginger bisque. Tomorrow, I’ll make some vegan “cream” of mushroom soup.

A dead pet fish.

If we can extend the question to parts of the fridge, I used to keep candy I bought in the vegetable bin to hide it from the kids. I think they were about 20 before they found out the secret!

Batteries in the fridge. Water glasses in the freezer for super cold milk. I used to keep open box of baking soda in fridge too. Large mug in freezer for ice cream!

@Jeruba Yeah, bird feathers. Nice ones found in the wild, such as big raptor (vulture, hawk, owl…) or wild turkey feathers, etc. They’re not necessarily entirely sanitary when found, and they’re delicate, so freezing and forgetting about them for weeks or months tends to be a decent way to sanitize them. They can be used for decoration, re-attaching to injured birds (see your local wildlife rehabilitator, or other purposes).

That was very naughty of you, @janbb

^^ But it ti worked so well!

Edit: Eliminate the “ti”

@LuckyGuy

What kind of oil do you use for treating your pans?

@Zaku, how do you know they’re sanitized when you take them out? And how do you know they haven’t been contaminating other refrigerated items?

I had no idea feathers could be recycled on live birds. Is that really true? Could we see a mismatched feather on a bird, like an old blue Chevy with one white door?

@chyna, way back when I smoked cigarettes, I would buy them by the carton and smoke them up long before they had time to get stale. Ugh, I hate to think about that now. But one time a guy left half a pack of cigs at my apartment, and I put them in the freezer to save for next time. By the time he came back, they were stale anyway.

I make a number of home remedies that I keep in the fridge. A cooling spray, bug spray, an astringent, a homemade type of BenGay, and they are all more comfortable, soothing, and refreshing to use when cold than when warm.

Oh and I forgot to say I keep eye gel in the fridge. Cool and feels good.

Place a photograph in glassed frame in fridge then wait about a week and the photograph should slide off the glass undamaged.
Old antique books in fridge for about a week or two to get rid of the old vintage smells. ( works!)
This week place potatoes, turnip,sweet potatoes in vegetable crisper until I was ready to use them in the oven with chicken dinners.

@canidmajor, tell us about your BenGay, please.

@Inspired_2write, I’ve tried and failed to get that musty smell out of old books. If the fridge (or freezer?) removes it, does it come back later? Is something really eliminated, or does it just go dormant for a little while?

I’ll PM you the recipe. :-)

@Brian1946 It is Flaxseed oil Kuche Chef Cast Iron Oil.

I don’t know if it needs to be so fancy but the stuff came with the pan so that is what I use.

@Jeruba
I have done that successfully in the past on old antique books ( 400 years old)
Can’t remember how long it was in the fridge but not long and the smell never returned as I have the books displayed on my bookshelf presently. With no problems.
I have also hear of using baking soda ( used in the fridge to eliminate odors) sprinkled in-between the pages, but I have never tried this method ( too messed) and didn’t want to damage the delicate pages.

Eye gel in the refrigerator, vodka in the freezer. Also, put water in two plastic bags, seal them, tuck them into tight shoes and freeze. The water expands and makes the shoes less tight.

@smudges Some friends of ours kept their vodka in the freezer too. They noticed it started forming ice crystals and eventually froze.
Their son was drinking the vodka and replacing it with water. Caught!

@LuckyGuy The son gets an A for the concept, but a D- on execution.

Freezer: bag of rice to use as an a cold or hot compress.
fridge: Peony buds will keep for months and bloom a few hours after removing.