Throw away food before or after vacation? (freezer, vegetables, groceries)
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When you go on vacation and your house will be empty for a week or more, do you throw away food that might spoil before you go, or do you wait till you come home and then throw away what has spoiled?
Me, I never throw anything away until I absolutely have to. Everything gets left behind, and if it's
bad enough when I get home, I cut off the bad parts. I'm leaving for six weeks, and I'll probably drink the milk when I get home, or at lest use if for baking.
Location: Scott County, Tennessee/by way of Detroit
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We usually take what we can to eat in the car..ie lunch meat and make sandwiches...then if I have vegetables or something I just bought stupidly, I give it to the dogsitter on the way out of town....pretty much plan on no big shopping trips for groceries before a big trip..that way I don't waste alot...
When going away for long periods of time we spend the last two weeks trying to use up all the perishables. What we don't eat we give away. Except for the chest freezer that usually contains at least 500dollars worth of food items. I toss some gallon jugs of water and ice sealed in 3mil plastic bags in it couple of weeks before we leave so they are rock hard. If I know I'll be gone longer than a week I have someone come by to check on things.
Why would you risk the power going off in the summer sometime in the next six weeks and coming home to a hazmat clean up site?
Especially given all the Floodin Down in Texas, SR RIP, and all the telephone lines going down.
If we have anything that won't last while we're gone, we either take it with us (assuming a road trip, where we'll pack things in a cooler to snack on...baby carrots, fruit, yogurt, etc.), or give it to somebody to finish. My MIL typically gets any milk we leave when when we take a trip, and when she's going to travel, she brings any milk she has over to us so it gets used. We also have somebody watching the house in case of power outages.
Throw it out before...no sense in dealing with stinky, spoiled food when you get back! Why let it sit and mold? Of course, don't throw out things that won't spoil...check expiration dates! Carton OJ keeps a long time...and fresh veggies (carrots, apples, etc...) will stay fine for a week or two!
To check if the fridge has been off, (this only works if ice isn't in ice cube trays!) see if the ice has melted!
OP, haven't you already established on other threads that you typically drink spoiled milk?
He loves to talk about lumpy, foul smelling milk. According to some of his posts, he doesn't use soap or hot water when he washes his dishes. I loved his dumpster diving threads. The responses were quite funny.
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