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Am I the crazy one?

DrezDrez Registered User regular
edited September 2020 in Help / Advice Forum
New roommate. Doesn't really cook, and suddenly my freezer (which I also use for some things even though I personally prefer non-frozen/fresh food) is literally jam packed with frozen stuff. Which is fine, I'm not here to judge anyone, but a secondary effect of this is that food is EVERYWHERE in the freezer like with no space at all between items including on top of the ice created by the ice maker in my freezer. I find this unsanitary. I use that ice in drinks and for other things. I asked my new roommate about it and told him that have to throw away the ice and that the freezer can't look like this again - he agreed and apologized but he also said that "in some freezers, that's not meant for use in food/drinks, it's there for keeping food cold" (or something along those lines). He basically had TV dinners shoved on top of the ice tray.

Is that...at thing? Am I the one that finds that crazy? I have never heard that before, people shoving food into or on top of the tray that collects the ice from the ice maker and that people don't use the ice in food/drinks?

This was actually the exact issue that triggered the end of my relationship with the crazy previous roommate of ~2 years ago. Of course, it wasn't that one thing, it was a long string of things and that was the straw that broke the camel's back. The primary issue with my old roommate was his attempt to gaslight me. I come out of my room one day to get ice for a drink and I find a mini wine bottle shoved into the middle of the ice in the ice tray. And my roommate was not a clean person, with all the implications that carried with me finding his wine bottle in the ice tray. He accused me of "staging" him doing that, of me planting the wine bottle in the middle of the ice tray, which was really the incendiary thing that led to our relationship permanently dissolving overnight.

Anyway, someone please help me understand this trend because it seems bonkers to me.

Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
Drez on

Posts

  • LucedesLucedes might be real Registered User regular
    edited September 2020
    some people legitimately do not use the ice tray, and for them it seems a vestigial thing, purposeless, a relic of tradition, standing between them and additional freezer space.
    i may or may not be one of these people.

    just explaining that you do, in fact, use the ice tray should clear it up, though.

    edit: if it doesn't, you could get an additional mini-freezer or something?

    Lucedes on
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited September 2020
    Drez wrote: »
    Anyway, someone please help me understand this trend because it seems bonkers to me.

    Wish I could, but the idea that this 2-3 pounds of ice is supposed to contribute to keeping the contents of the freezer cool (when the freezer made the ice in the first place) is kind of breaking my mind right now.

    see317 on
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    Lucedes wrote: »
    some people legitimately do not use the ice tray, and for them it seems a vestigial thing, purposeless, a relic of tradition, standing between them and additional freezer space.
    i may or may not be one of these people.

    just explaining that you do, in fact, use the ice tray should clear it up, though.

    edit: if it doesn't, you could get an additional mini-freezer or something?

    I did that and I feel like we’re okay, I just felt weird. In large part because of what see317 just said. I don’t understand the logic.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    It sounds like this roommate isn't actively trying to antagonize you, so there's that. If you're renting I have always just taken the plastic bin out of the freezer for better space conservation. Buy one or two covered silicone ice cube trays and just be done with it.

    One of the things I learned with living with roommates is there's just some hills not worth dying on, and it seems like agreeing on the germ levels in your ice is not worth it at all. Unless you are just using a ton of Ice every day, a silicon tray easily covers your ice needs.

  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    We don't use the ice tray in our house, but what we did was remove it from the freezer to give us more freezer space. The idea of "using the ice" is either some goofy idea he came up with or might be something his family did without really thinking about it too hard so he thinks it's normal. Either way, yeah, don't do that if you're using the ice for drinks.

    "If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    I actually use a lot of ice. I was confused because I never heard of anyone nerfing their own ice maker in favor of a manual process that admittedly takes up less room but I guess I understand. Was just surprised.

    And yeah he wasn’t trying to antagonize me which is great. He’s seems bad at organization though with stuff literally randomly crammed everywhere I actually cleared out a lot of space before he moved in specifically so he wouldn’t just cram things in haphazardly but, well, there you go. He arbitrarily moved some of my nicely organized items In the freezer to facilitate some of his cramming which is a pet peeve of mine.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    Cambiata wrote: »
    We don't use the ice tray in our house, but what we did was remove it from the freezer to give us more freezer space. The idea of "using the ice" is either some goofy idea he came up with or might be something his family did without really thinking about it too hard so he thinks it's normal. Either way, yeah, don't do that if you're using the ice for drinks.

    Yeah that’s what I figure.

    Thanks all for the perspectives. It helps.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    edited September 2020
    I can’t wait until my lease is up. Unless I somehow get married in the next year I will be moving into my own place by this time next year.

    Drez on
    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • WhiteZinfandelWhiteZinfandel Your insides Let me show you themRegistered User regular
    You're not the crazy one.

    Water has a high heat capacity and closing an insulated container with a bunch of ice inside along a food/drink item will work to keep the item cold, hence the icebox, but modern powered refrigerators and freezers aren't iceboxes. They use heat pumps to chill their contents. Theoretically the ice would slow spoilage a bit if your power went out and the heat pump stopped functioning, but that's about the only time when it would matter.

  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    You're not the crazy one.

    Water has a high heat capacity and closing an insulated container with a bunch of ice inside along a food/drink item will work to keep the item cold, hence the icebox, but modern powered refrigerators and freezers aren't iceboxes. They use heat pumps to chill their contents. Theoretically the ice would slow spoilage a bit if your power went out and the heat pump stopped functioning, but that's about the only time when it would matter.

    Thanks.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    edited September 2020
    I have a fridge that makes its own Ice, provided water. A few years ago we had an issue with the plumbing of the sink and had to disconnect the tube that fed water to the fridge. Have been using the bucket where ice would be made as storage every since. Until I just read this thread right now going "you mean it can slide out?"! Sure enough, slide the bucket it, moved the topmost rack up, oh look, a ton more space!

    Smrtnik on
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  • ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator mod
    If he doesn't use ice how will he leave the tray in the freezer with only one cube remaining because he didn't feel like refilling it and as long as it's not empty it's fine?

    What kind of roommate is he, jeez

    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
  • dispatch.odispatch.o Registered User regular
    My favorite is people who use the ice, put it back and jam it under something that generates crumbs. So you get bits of sawdust and filth in your ice.

  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    Yeah that’s happened too

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    see317 wrote: »
    Drez wrote: »
    Anyway, someone please help me understand this trend because it seems bonkers to me.

    Wish I could, but the idea that this 2-3 pounds of ice is supposed to contribute to keeping the contents of the freezer cool (when the freezer made the ice in the first place) is kind of breaking my mind right now.

    There's a germ of truth to this, in that refrigerators/freezers work more efficiently when they have actual mass in them, because air is actually really hard to cool down (it's a pretty effective insulator.) So you don't want to run a refrigerator or freezer completely empty - when I got my chest freezer a few weeks back, it had a hard time holding a chill when I got it started, but after a shopping trip and moving some things from the kitchen freezer to the chest, it's now maintaining a solid chill with little effort.

    That said, all this means is that you should keep some mass in your chilling device (and yes, ice cube trays work in a pinch) to help it run efficiently.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • Amy5821Amy5821 USARegistered User new member
    Have you tried talking to your roommate?

  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    Yeah we squared everything. I was asking in general terms.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
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