Tao of Tetris

Does your office have a refrigerator?  A kitchenette?  How do you handle the shared space?

As many of you may know, I currently work 12 hour days.  This means that I eat breakfast, lunch AND dinner here at my office.  It takes a little bit of planning and a lot of pre-cooking and measuring, but it's a very manageable situation.

Here's the rub:  I work with 5 other people.  These five people also eat a majority of their meals in the office.  So, at any given moment let's assume that there are the fixings for roughly 13 meals in our office fridge.  Which, I should point out, is an under-the-counter model.

Seeing as how we're awfully tight for space, I only bring one day's menu at a time (even though almost the entire week is already cooked and portioned out at home).  If something needs to be in a hard sided container, I choose the smallest available.  The only full sized items that I store here in the office are condiments.  Some people, however, aren't so considerate.  So most mornings I spend a good 10-20 minutes sitting on the floor in front of the fridge, rearranging everything so that my father's and my poor nutritional needs can be refrigerated.

Basically, I play Tetris with food.  

In my new, improved Zen state of mind, I try not to judge people for their selfish fridge hogging, as in the past I too have been guilty of such.  I strive to accept that they have no spacial conception. 

I slide, stack, shimmy and stuff everything into tight little cracks and corners.  I move them from my shelf, my corner (top right in case you're curious - don't mess with it, I'm very territorial), and into a more appropriate location.  

Someone stole my drawer, but I'll get over it.  

Someday.

2 comments:

  1. At work we have a related issue except nobody wants to take their stuff home. After a few days of food going in the fridge, and none going out, it gets really busy with that not so fresh smell. Some have respect for themselves and others, some just don’t care. We now have a Friday rule to take it home or loss it to the trash – Regardless of how nice the container may be. Their getting the message, and it works.

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  2. Ah, see we don't have a problem with that - we finish all our food :)

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