I’ve been with my fiance for 6 years, living together for 5 years. Last year we purchased a standing freezer for our laundry room but he doesn’t close the door all the way, and then the frozen meats thaw and we have to throw them away. After 2 times of him leaving the freezer door open, I put a sign on it that says “MAKE SURE FREEZER DOOR IS CLOSED; that means you!”
After that didn’t work, I bought child locks so when he closes the freezer he can latch the child lock. It had been about 3 months or so since he left the freezer open after this fix, but when I went downstairs this morning the child lock was not latched, the door was open 2 inches and Costco sized portions of ribeye steaks, salmon, shrimp, ground turkey, chicken breasts, etc (hundreds of dollars worth of food) were totally thaw, and even WARM so they were too far gone to be saved.
What should my next steps be to make sure we can stop the food waste?
TL/DR: Fully grown man can’t close a freezer door and wastes hundreds of dollars worth of food semi-regularly. How do I fix?
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Have you had a conversation with him about this? What are his ideas?
But unfortunately, you may have to stop using the standing freezer.
You obviously can’t. Just sell it or him. Either way … .
Does he do careless stuff in other areas? I… really don’t know what to tell you. Like, I have ADHD so things are way harder for me than they should be, so I could see myself doing this. But three times in a year? Like… why does he do this? Why isn’t he capable of closing it?
get a separate mini freezer with the things he wants to get out, or a separate freezer for all of your long term freeze things like meat, so if it ever happens again you don’t lose your things you need to make your house run happily.
If you’re intending to stay with him you either put a lock on it so he can’t use it at all, or return it for a chest freezer. You’ve already lost enough money in food to buy a new one.
He’s 32 and incapable of closing a freezer door? My advice is if you ever have kids with him never let him drive by himself with the child in the back seat.
Sounds like he wants to get rid of the freezer so he’s acting stupid.
lift those hands up and fight him
So he enjoys wasting hundred of dollars of food on the regular? Are you sure you want to marry him?
Gotta stop using the freezer until fiancé comes up with a plan on how to fix this. Why are you making this your problem when it is clearly his problem?
Put a lock on it that he can’t open. He obviously isn’t trustworthy. When he needs something from the freezer, you will need to get it for him since he is less responsible than a toddler.
Make him pay for the replacement food out of his own spending money, each and every time. He has to replace like for like.
Is he paying for his mistake? Or are you splitting the cost? Because I would insist that he replace everything. Send him a bill.
HE leaves the freezer open, but you want to know what YOUR next steps should be? Why are you responsible for solving this problem that he causes?
What are HIS ideas for how to address this? Is he forgetful and careless in other areas of life?
Tell him he’s responsible for cleaning out the freezer, shopping for replacements, and the money comes out of his spending money. When he has to bear the responsibility, he’ll either shape up or ship off. Either way you’re better off.
It’s unbelievable this has happened THREE TIMES in a year, how can someone so so fail at such a basic task as closing the freezer door?!
Padlock it so he can’t open it. He can’t handle the responsibility.
So – you guys are rich enough that losing hundreds of dollars of meat every few months is ok? Does he get how much money is in that freezer? I would tape the receipts to the freezer to show how much money is in that freezer.
Then – I would lock the freezer and not give him the key. Don’t let him get meat out of there. No one likes to cave to weaponized incompetence but this seems pretty minor to start getting the meat yourself.
Question: does he go with you to buy the meat? Maybe tell him that in exchange for not being responsible for the meat at home, he can be in charge of buying and then he will see how much it costs and how much time and a pain shopping can be.
lock it with a combination lock. if he wants to act like a child, he can get treated like one!
Don’t have children with this man. JFC.
This sounds like weaponised incompetence.
He needs to covering the food bill on his own. See how quickly he will start remembering.
Some practical measures – I have this with my kids too – they have ADHD and are generally clueless teenagers more intent on getting treats out. We’re working on it but It’s really maddening!
Make sure the front of the freezer is higher than the back so it will swing closed. Also make sure there’s nothing obstructing it. You may need to use interior bins to make sure the door swing is clear.
Get a temperature sensor that will send a push alarm to your phone when the temperature gets above a set point. We have something fancy my husband set up with Home Assistant but I’m guessing there are more easy to use products as well.
You can get a child safe lock for $5. But consider if this is a person you can trust to be a competent life partner.
I’m so sorry for you. I CAN NOT understand his stupidity. I would definitely break up over this. But I have no patience for stupid men.
I had this problem. I would push the door closed and walk away thinking I had shut the door but come back later to find it open enough to thaw everything. It turns out my floor is slightly unlevel so the usual push didn’t work. I got a little magnetic alarm that will go off after the door is open 5 minutes and a tether thing that will actually pull the door closed in case the battery dies in the alarm thing.
Since he’s obviously a child, put a lock on it so he can’t get in to it at all.
Whoa. “How do I get my boyfriend to flush the toilet?” isn’t meaningfully different than this question.
Maybe post-it notes that say “Is the fridge door closed” throughout the house?
Damn.
Put a lock on it. Simple! 🤷
You’re going to have to get your own freezer that holds your food, and let him experience the consequences on his own of food that is spoiled.