apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

the idea of only buying what you need seems a bit flawed to me... plenty of prepared meals wind up producing leftovers... which you would then be forced to throw away instead of saving it for the next day. What about a gallon of milk to last the week or a block of cheese? Plus if it requires more frequent trips to the grocery store, (and many people don't live within walking distance of their grocer) then you're spending more gas getting your daily food items.

does this unit have a freezer, or are they assuming you would never want ice (or ice cream?)

No way. I just do not have time to shop for groceries every bloody day. And I don't think that having no refrigeration will reduce waste - it might even promote it because things will spoil faster. You can only reduce waste by careful planning, with or without the fridge.

Besides, I live in a hot climate, so it seems odd to me that the designer comes from India. Yes, this may have a market... for people who have no (or unreliable) electricity. But I'm betting they're doing well enough without one of these.

I can understand the concept of buying fresh produce and maybe only a week's worth. Then you could sell the idea of a very small fridge - but a kitchen with no fridge at all? Assuming that you are perfect with cooking and manage to produce a dinner that generates no leftovers, are within walking distance of stores and ice cream shops, and don't require condiments that need refrigeration (do you make mayo on an as-needed basis?) - what about the milk? Are you supposed to buy milk in 1-cup containers? That seems like it would generate more waste. This sounds more like a concept display than a practical green idea. Although, if Green as a Thistle did it... I'll have to go investigate.

I think you need to be vegan for this to work, and have a house full of family. The major stumbling blocks, as noted, are the dairy products and the leftovers.

i love this idea! i want to go unplug my fridge right now. as long as i had a cool, dark place to store some things, i think it would be completely fine. i already use a lot of fresh and canned veggies, and, though i do freeze meat a lot (i would have to throw a party to use the pound of lamb in my freezer), i could figure it out. for sure. it would be worth it. now if i can just convince my roommate....

Definitely one of the more serious cases of "green madness" disease.

Maybe this could work for a vegan who never has any left-overs.

Otherwise, it's just insane. Buy milk by the cup? No butter (ever). No meat, unless cooked immediately as brought home. No LEFTOVERS. Ever. Totally ridiculous.

I just bought a little energy star deep freezer, and we do have a fridge. Now I can buy large quantities of organic meats, cheeses and vegies and it won't be to expensive because i can freeze stuff. I am also buying less processed food because of it, and driving to the grocery store less often. Is this less green?

You could have butter, but only small portions (seriously, folks, it doesn't go rancid in seconds!). I might be able to do it if I gave up condiments. Parmesean and such would be fine without a fridge and harder cheeses like cheddar would be ok.

Grocery shopping every day though would so not happen. I'd be eating out every night for sure.

As with everything green, you have to consider the trade-offs. Lower electricity use, absolutely. Lower footprint? Don't answer too fast. This could work if you're not a cook with a wide repertoire, and have an easy (=no driving) source of local produce all the time. I have placed a bigger premium lately on eating organic local veggies. One of the best ways I do that is to freeze things during growing season. I care a lot about farming practices, and how far produce is shipped to my table. To me, the electricity use for my freezer is the lesser of the evils.

It's easy to point at any one aspect of being green (saving water, electricity, etc.), and minimize it, but the reality is far more complicated. Want to reduce your trash? Wash out and re-use plastic bags, but see your water usage and the soap waste that goes into the environment increase. The right answer for many of us will differ based on where we live. NYC area? Water is plentiful compared with CA, but I think a lot about what goes down the drain. Landfill space is often of primary concern here. Also fighting for first place: trying to minimize fossil fuels for shipping, and via truck is far worse than container ship, per pound and mile.

Probably for vegans only. We'd rather give oup many things, than not have a fridge; we like our(organic, local) dairy products too much!

That said, we have a rather unusual setup here. Our kitchen is tiny, and had barely any counter space when we moved in. We bought a 7 cuft chest freezer, and a 5 cuft refrigerator, both EnergyStar. Placed next to each other they give us about 6 ft of counter space. When the fridge was delivered the truckers wanted to know where to put the "party fridge" and were shocked that it was going into the kitchen, replacing the big "Family size" fridge they were taking away. (this all started due to a catastrophic and non-repairable fridge failure, and we took the opportunity to do something different. Tiny fridge, okay; no fridge, no way...

"No butter (ever)"

We leave our butter out of the fridge anyway, it's fine for around a week (and we eat it faster than that anyway!) except in really hot weather - when we don't generally want to eat things fried in butter anyway!

I think it would be very do-able to do without a fridge if you have a chest freezer - which is more energy-efficient than a fridge - as you could freeze large blocks of ice and then use them in an ice-box type arrangement to keep other things cool. But as other people said, neither could only possibly work for a vegan. And even then, you wouldn't be able to eat salad in summer if you live somewhere hot - you'd buy it, and it would wilt in about five minutes!

this kind of thing would of worked when I was single and lived in a one room apt in philly, where I could walk to everything; Now I have three towering sons; I shop carefully, and as organically as possible, with meals planned to stretch my dollar with double uses/leftovers, plus its the best way to teach my sons how to shop, cook eat healthy and live frugally-instead of running out to burger king b/c "there's nothing to eat"-I guess we all have to pick and choose what works best,

This wouldn't work for me, because of where I live (no grocery stores in walking distance, and no cool places to put food, like a cellar), and because I've tried it. I was forced to. Because of a (expletive deleted) hurricane this year. We didn't have power for over a week, although we did have gas, so I basically made red beans and rice for every meal. I did barbecue a pot roast to save it from going bad. Bottom line? definitely not recommended. It is not as fun or economical as it sounds.

I think it would work for leftovers- really, if you heat something and leave it CLOSED so no air gets in, it is fine until the next day- at least for vegetarian stuff, though I thing Greenpa (http://littlebloginthebigwoods.blogspot.com/) does it with stews with meats in it.

I have been threatening to turn off my fridge for awhile now- the only thing stopping me is I am not sure if it would ruin the fridge to leave it off so long. I don't have a cool place to put food, but most of it would last long enough in either an empty fridge or icechest that would keep it from wilting until dinner.

I do live within walking/busing distance of grocery stores and like to shop every day or two, and don't eat a lot of foods that need to be in the fridge anyways though.

I guess I also don't use a lot of milk (ok, there is a half gallon in there for the last two weeks) or eggs much. I get cream if I need dairy stuff and make it in to butter, which lasts unrefrigerated. Eggs can be left out if unwashed, which might be hard in urban areas. But you can by not very many eggs at a time now. If you kept a freezer you could freeze eggs after separating them.

Just wanted to add- I would moderately miss my freezer- it would be nice to have a tiny one (a few square feet, pullout maybe?). Can't turn the fridge off without turning off the freezer though.

My grandparents (heck! even my parents when they were kids) lived like this for decades! Either no or unreliable electricity in one of the biggest metropolitan cities, Bombay... Even today in its bustling advancement, it is still DARK at night - they turn off the lights at night - imagine that concept in our cities? I can't sleep sometimes because there is a construction site next to me with the lights on 24/7!!
Anyway, they bought only enough milk to drink daily (with 6 kids, there were no leftovers), and they had cool concrete storage closets (concrete can be very cool - believe me bc they don't have air conditioning so I sleep on it when i visit), and they get fresh fish and meat daily. I think it requires a change all around us - markets nearby, more affordable farmers markets where we could shop daily (the ones near me are so pricey, i have to shop there as a treat!)... And I live in a big city (boston)...

What did people do with dairy pre-fridges? They milked the cow right before drinking the milk, for sure, but what about cheese and butter? Did they keep that in cold basements or something?

That's a good - that people existed just fine before fridges...but they had LARGE blocks of ice in the meat-houses and...who owns a cow now anyway? Less than 20% of the population, I'd wager.

I like the layout of this when I suspected there to be an under-counter fridge and freezer in with the rest of that. Those are better options to begin with and still allow for the freezing of out-of-season goods and excess meat.

And yes - preparing your food from scratch is so much more green than the alternatives. Even buying frozen veggies is a HUGE step up from canned.

Could I pare down what's in my fridge? Yes. Could I go fridge and freezer free? Not in this lifetime. Scratch that - maybe if milk were delivered daily I could. And with everything else coming from scratch...I'd need a housewife!

i have lived without a fridge for the past year, ever since my friend and i moved into a small apartment that didn't have one.

we lived for about three months without one, then got a small used one from another friend. it saw very little use before it finally broke down a month later. when i moved into my new apartment it had a small fridge that i, again, used a little bit for a month or so before giving up on it.

it is incredibly easy to live without one, and the waste produced is much, much less. i know exactly what fruits and vegetables i have as they are on the counter and not hidden within drawers or behind other things.

the "you need to be vegan" for this comment is false. i simply buy my steak the day i plan on eating it.

condiments, well, i've never been a fan.

you get pretty good at cooking the right amount when you no longer have a fridge to dump things in...and my dog is happy to eat the last few bites of anything i misjudge.

I think the hardest part would be no cold drinks. I hate room-temperature drinks.

I think this is something that can be done if necessary and/or it has been done before and done correctly. This would not work for my husband and me right now. 1) We both work 2 jobs and our home-together dinner schedule isn't always the same and 2) I only have 1 day to cook for the entire week unless I am willing to let my husband fry everything in butter.