69 replies to this topic

[QuiteContrary]

Hello!
THIS IS NOT A DIG! I am just very curious.

I watch a lot of British TV and I am always so amazed at the small to tiny refrigerators I see in your homes. Some are about the size of the tiny ones we had in our dorm rooms in college.

We Americans can't seem to live without our big fat refrigerators and still never have enough room!

I'd love to do with less, but how do you do it?

Have any of you lived in NA with fat frig and also overseas with a tiny one? What is the secret?

Do you shop daily? Where do you find the time?

We love our cold beverages which take up a lot of room in our refrigerators. Do you not share our obsession? Maybe that is the key.

On one of my British TV shows they did a complete "Americanized" remodel of their kitchen, yet their frig was still half the size or less of a typical American one.

Are you limited on size for some reason?

Do you have separate freezers? It seems some of your homes do not even have a freezer compartment on the frig.

Thanks
QC

Edited by QuiteContrary, 20 December 2012 - 02:29 AM.

[Kaikou]

To be honest QC it's something that I've wondered myself a few times. I think space does have a lot to do with it, the houses over here can be quite small.
In our house we have a small refrigerator and a separate freezer. They have plenty of space for us. We shop once maybe twice a week in my house but only buy enough to get us by.

[JGirl]

i noticed this as well, but i chalked into up to smaller living quarters too

[QuiteContrary]

Dark entity, on 20 December 2012 - 02:55 AM, said:

To be honest QC it's something that I've wondered myself a few times. I think space does have a lot to do with it, the houses over here can be quite small.
In our house we have a small refrigerator and a separate freezer. They have plenty of space for us. We shop once maybe twice a week in my house but only buy enough to get us by.

Thanks for the reply! This really intrigues me.

JGirl, on 20 December 2012 - 03:21 AM, said:

i noticed this as well, but i chalked into up to smaller living quarters too

Yes, I agree, space plus maybe "the way it's always been" does account for the small refrigerators, but I wonder "How they do it?"

There are only 3 living in our home now and our fat frig still gets overcrowded all the time.

Right now my frig contains pretty standard American refrigerator fare:
1 gallon of milk
2 half gallons of orange juice
2 twelve packs of canned soda pop
2 pounds of butter
3 mustard, 1 ketchup, 2 mayo jars, 4 salad dressing bottles,
1 shelf of leftovers
1 drawer of cheese and lunchmeats
2 drawers of vegetables
2 dozen eggs
10 bottles of water
3 jars of jelly
a few miscellaneous condiments: pickles, hot sauce, Worcestershire, soy sauce, Tajini,
a roast for tomorrow
a whole chicken for this week
some miscellaneous items in plastic containers

The door compartments are crammed full and the shelves have little space left.

UKers what is usually in your small refrigerators? What on my frig list would you never have in yours?

Do you drink most beverages at room temperature? Eat out a lot? Drink a lot of tap water?

Thanks

Edited by QuiteContrary, 20 December 2012 - 04:01 AM.

[ciriuslea]

LMAO Its you who has the extra big fit all your food in fridges, we have normal size fridges, but yes we do have smaller properties and so smaller kitchens, plus the price of food over here is ridiculous, just to fill a huge fridge would take a small fortune..I use my fridge mostly for dairy products like milk, cheese, etc etc mostly everything is bought fresh and eaten within days so no real need for me at least to have a huge fridge.

[QuiteContrary]

ciriuslea, on 20 December 2012 - 04:22 AM, said:

LMAO Its you who has the extra big fit all your food in fridges, we have normal size fridges, but yes we do have smaller properties and so smaller kitchens, plus the price of food over here is ridiculous, just to fill a huge fridge would take a small fortune..I use my fridge mostly for dairy products like milk, cheese, etc etc mostly everything is bought fresh and eaten within days so no real need for me at least to have a huge fridge.

I called your refrigerators small as I was comparing them to ours in the US. I never called our fat ones "normal", that's subjective, no harm meant.

We like our condiments and so our frig doors have things like 2-3 types of mustard, and ketchup, and jar of mayonnaise and hot sauce and a few other sauces we regularly eat and last a while before used up.
So you don't keep around sauces/condiments like we do? Or have 3-4 kinds of cold beverages?

Edited by QuiteContrary, 20 December 2012 - 04:32 AM.

[EllJay]

I would think that the beverages and your bottled water take a lot of space.
We buy milk by the litre carton instead of 4 gallon cans. and our water (at least were I live) taste like heaven right out of the tap.
Beer and such, we put in the amount we think we will use that day and leave the rest in the storage.

I dont know, maybe you mericans are a bit of a hoarders, or mayeb you all are doomsday-prepping subconsciously.

[ciriuslea]

QuiteContrary, on 20 December 2012 - 04:31 AM, said:

I called your refrigerators small as I was comparing them to ours in the US. I never called our fat ones "normal", that's subjective, no harm meant.

We like our condiments and so our frig doors have things like 2-3 types of mustard, and ketchup, and jar of mayonnaise and hot sauce and a few other sauces we regularly eat and last a while before used up.
So you don't keep around sauces/condiments like we do? Or have 3-4 kinds of cold beverages?

Ooops apologies I never meant anything by that comment more in humour calling ours normal, I understand normal is as normal is being both big and small to whoever it applies,

I can only speak for myself who has a http://uk.shopping.c...oint-FFA71/info  on sauces and stuff, yes and no mostly its red and brown sauce, mayo and salad dressings but not to any extent that its takes up any real space, I have ready made juices...orange and blackcurrant in the lower shelves and a large water filter machine...then its like I said earlier cream, cheese milk salads some cold meats some dips and deli stuff like Pakora, Pork pies cold meats..and bacon...and anything left over from a main meal like bolognese or chili

but I used to work for a large electrical suppliers and regularly sold those double door fridges that you could hang a cow in,

[QuiteContrary]

EllJay, on 20 December 2012 - 04:40 AM, said:

I would think that the beverages and your bottled water take a lot of space.
We buy milk by the litre carton instead of 4 gallon cans. and our water (at least were I live) taste like heaven right out of the tap.
Beer and such, we put in the amount we think we will use that day and leave the rest in the storage.

I dont know, maybe you mericans are a bit of a hoarders, or mayeb you all are doomsday-prepping subconsciously.

It could be the containers our food comes in are larger.

[pallidin]

If the ceiling height is OK, there should be no problem with standard refrigerator. Just a guess.

[QuiteContrary]

ciriuslea, on 20 December 2012 - 05:01 AM, said:

Ooops apologies I never meant anything by that comment more in humour calling ours normal, I understand normal is as normal is being both big and small to whoever it applies,

I can only speak for myself who has a http://uk.shopping.c...oint-FFA71/info  on sauces and stuff, yes and no mostly its red and brown sauce, mayo and salad dressings but not to any extent that its takes up any real space, I have ready made juices...orange and blackcurrant in the lower shelves and a large water filter machine...then its like I said earlier cream, cheese milk salads some cold meats some dips and deli stuff like Pakora, Pork pies cold meats..and bacon...and anything left over from a main meal like bolognese or chili

but I used to work for a large electrical suppliers and regularly sold those double door fridges that you could hang a cow in,

No  problem. I didn't want you to think I was making fun of British refrigerators.
Thanks for the photo! That is bigger than many I've seen even on modern day British TV.

Yours says 10.2 cubic feet = total volume
Mine is 25.4 cubic feet = total volume
18-26 cubic feet is typical in the US

Edited by QuiteContrary, 20 December 2012 - 05:24 AM.

[ciriuslea]

QuiteContrary, on 20 December 2012 - 05:16 AM, said:

No  problem. I didn't want you to think I was making fun of British refrigerators.
Thanks for the photo! That is bigger than many I've seen even on modern day British TV.

Yours says 10.2 cubic feet = total volume
Mine is 25.4 cubic feet = total volume
18-26 cubic feet is typical in the US

From almost everybody I know bar one or two, this is mostly the size they have, one or two has what we describe as an "under counter fridge"

[JGirl]

QuiteContrary, on 20 December 2012 - 03:59 AM, said:

Thanks for the reply! This really intrigues me.



Yes, I agree, space plus maybe "the way it's always been" does account for the small refrigerators, but I wonder "How they do it?"

There are only 3 living in our home now and our fat frig still gets overcrowded all the time.

Right now my frig contains pretty standard American refrigerator fare:
1 gallon of milk
2 half gallons of orange juice
2 twelve packs of canned soda pop
2 pounds of butter
3 mustard, 1 ketchup, 2 mayo jars, 4 salad dressing bottles,
1 shelf of leftovers
1 drawer of cheese and lunchmeats
2 drawers of vegetables
2 dozen eggs
10 bottles of water
3 jars of jelly
a few miscellaneous condiments: pickles, hot sauce, Worcestershire, soy sauce, Tajini,
a roast for tomorrow
a whole chicken for this week
some miscellaneous items in plastic containers

The door compartments are crammed full and the shelves have little space left.

UKers what is usually in your small refrigerators? What on my frig list would you never have in yours?

Do you drink most beverages at room temperature? Eat out a lot? Drink a lot of tap water?

Thanks

i call my fridge the condiment cupboard because it's mostly filled with bottles and jars. there are several types of cheese as well, and the vegetable drawers are always filled. i could fit a turkey in there though if i wanted to without moving anything around. pretty bare lol

[QuiteContrary]

ciriuslea, on 20 December 2012 - 05:36 AM, said:

From almost everybody I know bar one or two, this is mostly the size they have, one or two has what we describe as an "under counter fridge"

Yeah, the 'under the counter fridge" are ones I especially notice. Even in detached homes of decent size.
Your regular-sized are still about half the size of ours though.
Probably use less energy too.

Edited by QuiteContrary, 20 December 2012 - 07:12 AM.

[BonecrusherPotlessjinxpotl]

I do all my grocery shopping on a day to day basis.
That could partially explain why Brits manage with small fridges.
Or it could be something to do with  the obsession as per sell-by dates.
Us Brits don't like anything left to waste and don't like storing things to excess.
It's only Christmas,New Year and when friends come to stay that we go mad with food and drink.
However we've got one of the American style refrigerators.
One of my sisters pet hates is me causing scratches with the waste bin.
I wonder if anybody's got the same obsession with keeping the exterior pristine.
Tbh the outside isn't   the problem but the condition of the inside.

Edited by Medium Brown, 20 December 2012 - 11:32 AM.