Year five, day 2 no refrigerator. Did you know power companies promoted them to use more energy (not for health, safety, or flavor)?
The first time I unplugged my fridge was December 2019. A few months later Covid hit and I lived outside the city a couple months. My fridge remained unplugged, but I don’t count that time since I wasn’t home. The next time I unplugged earlier in the year: November 2020, and made it six months or so before spring warm weather made keeping things fresh harder.
The next year I started yet earlier: September 30, 2021. My goal was to make May, I think, but that May I unplugged the whole apartment so made it a year with the fridge unplugged and didn’t see a reason to plug back in.
Along the way, I learned from the book The Grid that fridges became widespread not because people wanted to keep food fresher but because power companies wanted more people using power at night. Likewise many appliances we’ve become dependent on but don’t need.
Here’s a bill from the power company, I think my last one before closing my account. Unplugging the fridge was probably the biggest step.
If you think it’s hard or requires resources, you have it backward. I did too. That belief likely comes from a lack of hands-on practical experience.
Does it feel like it must be hard? Or that only people with extra resources can do it? That belief likely comes from a part of your mind protecting you from feeling emotions that come from internal conflict. I felt them too.
Yet no fridge saves time, money, and other resources. It doesn’t mean more shopping. It leads to fresher, more delicious, healthier food. It connects us to nature.
Fridges require more shopping, pollution, depletion, waste, cost, and other problems. The opposite of what I expected and everyone else seems to too. Fresh fruits and vegetables don’t need refrigeration. Frozen pizza, ice cream, takeout, and stuff you won’t use for weeks or months do. Doof does and it’s not even food.
Try this experiment
I’ve basically followed two steps on this experiment. If you follow the following two steps, you’ll find yourself not needing a fridge, healthier, safer, and more secure:
- Unplug your fridge
- Don’t die
That’s all I’m doing.
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