Kath, I had that happen about a month ago, only it was the freezer, and I don't have an Alex to blame it on! I'm sure I was getting ice cream in a hurry before some TV program came on.

I was able to cook a couple things, but most everything had to go.

Oh, wait; it wasn't me! It was that old woman! And she was into MY ice cream!

Don't be too hard on Alex. Grown ups do those things, too.

Sue

I feel for you. When my sister was here on Halloween for a week never made sure the freezer door was closed after she looked into it. She didn't push the ice cube trays far enough to the back and they kept the door ajar. Drove me crazy. With my old refrigerator my brother would always leave the door ajar after looking into it. I came home many times to spoiled food.

I don't put pizza boxes in my fridge either.

Anne

Bob gets up during the night almost every night to make oatmeal. A couple of weeks ago when I got up at 6:30 the refrigerator door was wide open. He had forgotten to close it. It had been open since about 1:30am.
Last week he was rinsing his bowl out after eating oatmeal. Anna went into the kitchen at 7:30 am and found the water running. I don't know what time he got up that night. I'm just glad the sink didn't over flow.
I went into the kitchen at 6:30 this morning and the milk was sitting out. It was almost a gallon and it was room temperature.
I worry that he will forget to turn the stove off some night. Thank goodness I've convinced him to put the pan in the sink and fill it with water so the oatmeal isn't so hard to clean off. At least I know if he leaves a burner on there won't be a pan sitting on it.

That happened with my small freezer in the laundry room. Something got wedged in the door and I didn't notice it for over 18 hrs. It is next to the dryer which I had been running non stop. Everything had thrawed out. I had to throw away a ton of meat. GRRRRRR!

My new refrigerator makes a beeping noise if the door is left open. It went off once, DH and I were looking all over the house trying to find out what the heck the noise was coming from. We had never heard it before.

I have an Eric to do things like that. So I woke up this morning to the back hatch of my minivan wide open. We got home from his hockey game at 10:30 last night. I asked him to be sure to put his gear in the garage (or my van would STINK the next day). Little while later I asked if he locked the van and closed the garage. He had not. So he went to the garage, pointed the key ring out the door and pushed the lock button, the closed the garage. Only he had not CLOSED the van!

I went out at 8am to get my cell phone, which I left charging in the van overnight. That's when I found the van wide open! It was in the high 20's here last night, but I guess up north it would have been worse, at least it was also dry here. And my cell phone was still in my van... which a text message received at 11:30pm from my next door neighbor saying this..."The back of your van is open." Next time, skip the text message and close my van while you're out there having your cigarette! Sheesh! for DS and Sheesh! for the neighbor!

I woke DS up at 8:03 and told him to go scrape the frost off the INSIDE of the van windows!

I had to quit storing the ice cream and frozen goodies out in garage freezer because the kids didn't close it al the way. I've told them they are no longer allowed in that freezer. My biggest culprit is 'Jennifer'. She's the invisible person that always being naughty and trying to get my 5 yo dd in trouble. Jennifer also likes to adjust the thermstats for the freezer and refrigerator.

Cleaning up that kind of stuff can be a mess but you probably threw away cheese and butter that was perfectly good. Most people put there eggs in the fridge but they last a long time unrefrigerated....Things like that don't spoil that fast. I don't even keep my butter in the fridge...just in my cabinet.

The open door thing hasn't happened to me, but...
I do remember the days of wire shelving in refrigerators.

One day I spent a lot of time removing everything from the fridge and wiping down the interior with bleach water; replaced the shelves; put everything back in place; went to put a container of juice on the top shelf and tipped it over. It splattered and dripped all the way to the bottom and I had to start over again. My vocabulary wasn't up to the challenge.

Ruthie, the cheese was warm and the butter completely mushy, almost like I stuck it in the microwave. Even the milk that was in the back of the fridge was warm and my half and half was thick and warm. gag. I don't eat anything like that has been at room temperature that long.

the butter was definately useable...since you were just going to make cookies...oh well...

I've never lost the fridge stuff..but I've lost the garage freezer things a few times!!
Like Adella, my kids were getting "frozen treats" out...

Twice I've come home from work this month to find the heat still on because DS didn't turn it off before he left. It really bothers me that we are spending money heating a house with no one in it!

Next time he's contributing to the heating bill!

My kids used to leave the fridge door open. We finally put a velcro "latch" on and showed everone how to use it. Now that my youngest is 18, I removed the velcro and we keep the door properly closed. But our three pets love the "magic door" and beg for treats whenever anyone opens the fridge. Too bad they don't have hands-they coud get their own!