Living without a fridge

Vibrant

I hadn't thought of using a cool box.
My brother has said he will store the freezer in his garage for me. So I'm going to wait until summer is well underway and then see how practical a cool box is. My current fridge can freeze the ice packs for the experiment. And if I keep the cool box in my pantry cupboard, it shouldn't be subjected to much heat, even in summer.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

lilac_lady

What about buying one of the little fridges that keep beer cool? It should have enough room to store milk, butter and cheese

Plum_Pie

I lived without a fridge or freezer for a couple of months last summer and it was a nightmare!
The only thing I can add to the points above is that you will have to cook exactly the right amount at each meal in order to avoid food waste.

Farway

Like others I also went without a fridge, and found it a problem, in the end I finished up poisoning myself using unrefridgerated left overs

Then I bought another fridge

Patchwork_Quilt

Why don't you go onto Freecycle? People are always throwing out fridge/freezers. We did without one for a while when we first got married. We put everything outside. Then we had a very sick hedgehog on the doorstep.

shandypants5

jcr16 wrote: »

for me i couldn't live without a fridge. well prob could if i had to. could u in the summer have loads and loads of ice blocks and use a cool box as a fridge for your milk and every day just replace the ice blocks and refreeze the thawed out ones ?

This idea sounds perfect for you.
the coolbox would be easy to keep cool with coolblocks as you would have a freezer, and a coolbox would prob fit inside one of your cupboards.

Cheap AND spacesaving... genius..


*goes off to frown at his massive energy sapping fridge.*

Pretani

At this time of the year I keep all my drinks outside in a shed and they're really cold, no need for the fridge for things like that.

Vibrant wrote: »

I seem to remember my Gran keeping a large stone (marble?) block in the pantry, which had holes cut in it for various bottles etc.
Any ideas, or thoughts would be useful.

It would be interesting to know why she used a stone block in the pantry, as the pantry should have been cold enough.

Pretani

what about cooked stuff, aren't you supposed to put them in the fridge?

Ephemera

I had a freezer but no fridge when I got married, we managed with a cool box and ice blocks for months.

If you have a well ventilated pantry a stone block would be fine, if it's porous stone all you'd need to do is splash it with water every day or two to keep it cool through evaporation, pantries traditionally were on north walls as they got little or no sun.

In hot countries where electricity is a dream't of luxury, they use two stone pots, one inside the other, with the gap between filled with water. Food goes into the glazed, covered inner pot, the water evaporating from the unglazed outer pot then keeps everything cool.

You can live without a fridge...but you need to live slightly differently...

flossyblog

I think a pot in pot refridgerator looks really sweet and eco friendly to boot

http://www.goselfsufficient.co.uk/potinpot-refrigerator-zeer.html

have you ever tried soya milk, that doesn't need to be in a fridge.