Speaking of my childhood....

My sister and I have a game we play that I like to call 'Where in the fridge?' You see, when we were kids everything in our refrigerator had an assigned spot. Seriously! I would have thought this was to cut down on the times we had to be told to 'Quit fanning the refrigerator door' but it went far beyond sheer energy conservation. You see, we lived in the perfect Leave it to Beaver home. My parents never argued. Every cloth hanky was carefully ironed and every bed made to naval standards every single day. We got home-cooked meals and home-grown veggies. Life was very, very good.
The game involves my sister and I (never played it with my brother) stating the name of an item normally found in the fridge and the other one of us declaring it's assigned spot. Mustard? Second shelf on the door, to the right. Cheese slices? Top drawer on the left. Iced tea pitcher? Top shelf on the right in the front. It was a very useful system if the electricity ever went out and we had to locate the butter in the pitch darkness! I am sure you can see the usefulness in this system. (Why us 3 kids never drove my mother insane is probably a better question)
My refrigerators (yes, 2 of them) are a disaster. There is usually at least one mutant life form beginning in the odd container of leftovers. Shelves are sticky, I can't find anything and I often end up with duplicate food items because of that reason. (No jelly? Buy more. Oh, there is the jelly. Oops.) I don't have a system other than to buy it, cook it, store it, eventually discard it. (Hey, at least I don't have to kill it...unless it's one of those mutant life forms I mentioned) My kids aren't enjoying the Leave it to Beaver childhood I enjoyed, but I don't think I am doing any permanent harm. Besides, all the preservatives in their food protects them, right?