In every college house, there’s a space that everyone respects and silently agrees can be quite the warzone. If you’re wondering, no, it’s not the communal bathroom or living room, it’s the shared fridge. This rectangular box of madness can end friendships by sparking mistrust and a level of disrespect you won’t understand until you’ve experienced it. The shared fridge is where boundaries begin to blur and space begins to dwindle. Whether you have one roommate or five, sharing a fridge can bring about many universal experiences. Rules aren’t usually laid out unless you’re a neat freak (rightfully so) or someone in the house has been pushed to their breaking point. However, there are certain rules of a shared fridge that are unspoken, but for some reason, everyone knows them (or eventually learns them).
The Friendly But Not So Friendly Sticky Notes
Have you really lived in a college house until you’ve opened the fridge and seen food labeled with someone’s name or “PLEASE DON’T TOUCH” written in all caps? Well, that’s the norm for this shared space. These notes usually come about when you suddenly catch a craving, head to your fridge, and realize your leftover Domino’s pizza is missing. When you first move in, these notes might start politely, maybe even a smiley face drawn at the end, until it’s no longer funny and incites a bloodbath. No one ever fesses up to such an unspeakable crime, and suddenly, everyone is innocent (dramatic, maybe, but very real). This is when you either become a detective or simply resign yourself to the fact that for the next year, your strawberry danishes will just magically disappear.
The Roommate Group Chat
The roommate group chat, or as I like to call it, the doom chat. This group chat can be very active with everyone getting along and doing their part, or it can become the place where everyone passively-aggressively hashes out their issues with one another. Overcrowding in the fridge or someone infringing on someone else’s space can spark a long paragraph text that could be avoided if everyone respected one another’s space and belongings, but I suppose it wouldn’t be college if there wasn’t drama. And, of course, in every group chat, some don’t respond or worse, drop a completely unrelated emoji that leaves you questioning whether or not they truly understand what you said (most of the time, they don’t). Then, there are the times when people try to be polite by addressing an issue with the collective “we,” such as “we should all try and not leave moldy food in the fridge” when really everyone in the chat knows who it’s directed to. Still, no one truly wants to have a full-on fight with their roommate, and so passive-aggressive texts like these ensue and become the digital side eye.
The Unspoken Rules
There are a few unspoken rules about the shared fridge that everyone somehow knows (and hopefully follows). Here are a few standouts that are important to keep in mind.
- If it’s labeled, don’t touch it. In other words, if you see someone’s initials or full name written out on an ice cream tub, you might want to take that seriously, as a sign that you could go to war with someone over this if you touch it.
- Don’t hog the sides of the fridge with all your condiments or drinks. Keep in mind that the more roommates you have, the more ketchups you might have. If you happen to be friends, save yourself the trouble and just split the groceries because it’ll save you the headache.
- Stick to your sides of the fridge. If you and your roommates have designated spots for each other’s food, then there’s no reason someone should be receiving a “Hey girly” text about another roommate wanting to use part of their space. Be smart and don’t overshop.
- Rotating food is essential. If you don’t want to open the fridge one day and be hit with a nasty smell, it’s important to remember to eat what you bought and throw out old food.
- The freezer can become a forgotten zone. Once you throw something in there, you might as well kiss it goodbye because you won’t ever see those hashbrowns you stuffed at the back of the fridge ever again. They’ll probably disappear, or you simply won’t remember they exist.
Chilling Realizations
Figuring out this shared space is usually not a walk in the park, and takes respect, communication, and trust to live in a space where everyone shares different habits, values, and expectations towards cleanliness. It might seem unimportant, but learning to survive this chaotic space can be a learning experience and a time of growth for many. In a way, I guess you can say that’s what college is all about, learning and growing as you go along. That and learning how to spot spoiled milk before you pour it into your tea.