Jun 20, 201208:24 AMCup of Joe
Your weekly dose of strange parenting news, trends, and polls
Forget pink slime
Did you know that families in North America waste over 200 pounds of food each year per person on average? I was feeling pretty bad about that statistic this past week, and it all started with a funky smell in the kitchen.
The faint odor began to surface about a week ago. It had a pungent garbage smell that suggested something needed to be thrown out pronto. I put my nose to the task, and began scouring the kitchen like a bloodhound. After multiple sniffs I determined the cabinets were the culprit.
Upon moving in to our new apartment, my wife and I noticed that the cabinets had a slightly tacky feel on the outside. Kind of gross, but now I deduced that whatever was coating our cabinets was the cause of the foul odor. Out came the degreaser.
I lathered up the first section of cabinets and began wiping them down. It was working. The cabinets were no longer sticky, and now yielded a strong scent of cleanser. Better than the smell of garbage I figured, and went to the second cabinet.
I climbed up on the sink and began moving items we had stored on top of the cupboard due to a lack of space. Down came dish pans, a skillet, a hot plate and then I froze—A bag of potatoes.
I nearly fell off of the sink upon lifting up the bag. It had rested atop our cabinet for the past month and a half hidden from view. Brown liquid oozed from the bottom, and had already leaked onto the wood forming a small circle of sludge.
After informing my wife over the phone of my discovery—good news: the cabinets don’t smell anymore, bad news: I won’t be eating potatoes for the rest of my life—I devised a plan of attack on the tainted residue.
Being the guy that I am, I opted for an assortment of every cleaner I could find, plus some vinegar (I’m pretty sure I heard that works somewhere) to detoxify the top of the cupboard.
We now have a large stain to remind us of our potato blunder, and after throwing out over 5 pounds of potatoes, I think I’ll stick to non-perishable food for a while.
Do you often find yourself throwing out extra food? Share how you avoid being wasteful in our comments section below:
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