Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Indoors Wednesday

DSC_0887-001  DSC_0886-001

Today has been an Indoors Wednesday for me.

The primary reason was not the weather - even if on that account it was actually a rather good day to have a reason or two not to go out. Those reasons can be seen above: A new fridge and a new freezer being installed.

That’s one of the advantages as well as disadvantages of living in a rented apartment. You don’t have to decide vs don’t get to decide about these things yourself. They either happen or don’t, as the case may be. In this case, I got notice last week that is was going to happen; and further notice on Monday, that it was going to happen today, some time between 8-12 a.m.

Which meant that I was up and about around 7 a.m., just in case. But of course they did not turn up until around 11:30.

On the whole I guess it went smoothly, even if it got a bit more stressful for me than I prefer… Having to hurriedly clean away I-don’t-know-how-many-years worth of grease and grime that had been hiding under and behind the old appliances (while two strong guys carried the old ones out and the new ones in). I’ve lived here six years, but there were things living under the old fridge that I’d never seen before…


Question of conscience: Do you pull out your kitchen appliances every year and clean behind them???

The manuals accompanying the new appliances tell me, of course, that I should.

They also tell me, in visual language, that it’s okay if my new fridge sounds like a cat…


… but not if it sounds like a bear.


Remains to be seen how we’ll get along. So far this afternoon it’s mostly been me roaring like a bear, rather than purring as a cat. This because I’ve not yet got used to the fact that the new fridge only has one, big door; while my old one was a fridge-chiller with two doors that opened separately. (The lower half supposedly keeping a somewhat higher temperature, suitable for vegetables and fruit etc.) What has happened a number of times this afternoon is that I somehow manage to hit my toes with the door when closing it… (being used, I suppose, to being able to stand closer to the cabinet when I only had the upper door open).

I also have a slight grudge going on with the new freezer, which still lacks a proper “front” (which also means it still lacks a handle!). I was given a vague promise this will be added “another day”, apparently by someone else… Until then, I have to open the door by gripping around the edge of it. On top of that, the new freezer also turned out to be a little bit smaller than the old one… And as my old one was more or less full, you may be able to guess some of the initial consequences. No? Okay then: I had to have a bowl of ice-cream for dessert after lunch. And a couple of packets of very icy frozen veggies (with best-before date expired and half-thawed and re-frozen at least once before) had to go…

Minor troubles. Hopefully we’ll learn to get along…

Winking smile


  1. From what you say at the beginning of your post, I assume it is normal in Sweden to have kitchen appliances replaced as regular part of a rental contract. This would be very unusual in Germany; here, people always buy their own appliances and replace them as necessary (and as they can afford it). Of course, sometimes the entire kitchen is sold from the former tenant to the next tenant, but it usually does not belong to the owner of the house or flat.
    So, I've learned something new today, about life in Sweden!
    It is nice to know that your fridge can purr like a cat. Less nice that it is smaller and less comfortable to use than the old one.
    As for your question of conscience: No way I would be able to pull out my kitchen appliances every year. They are firmly installed as part of the kitchen units and can hardly be moved seperately.

  2. Yes Meike, basic kitchen equipment in Sweden is more or less standardized and in a rented apartment with a kitchen it would be taken for granted that it would include at least stove and fridge. And at least with the bigger housing companies these day one would also expect a freezer, or a combined fridge-freezer, depending on the size of the flat. If you buy a condominium or cooperative apartment (or a detached house), you'd also expect to be taking over that kind of appliances from the previous owner. If you have an extra freezer you might take that with you when you move, but to take the stove or fridge when you move house would be most unusual.

    There is a German Wikipedia article 'Schwedenküche' that you might find interesting. For some reason the same article seems not to have been translated into English.

  3. Exciting, for sure. I know it will take you awhile to get used to it. So WHY? Were the old ones just getting too old? Now I want to know the differences from your old one. Any extra compartments? Do the shelves slide out? Is it better in any way? Well, this is a cool way(pun intended) to clean out your freezer. The former tenant must have had kids or grandkids. Thanks for the good shot; I collect marbles!

    1. Big housing companies usually do this kind of thing according to a certain schedule. I suppose it's probably cost efficient for them to do it that way as they get better deals when ordering many of the same kind at the same time, and then not much worry about having to repair or replace individual broken ones for a while. This time, on the estate where I live, they are replacing kitchen appliances older than ~15 years. Some are getting new stoves as well, but I did not, and did not expect to, as I already knew that mine was almost new when I moved in six years ago (the previous tenant told me).

  4. rental apartments here come with everything but furniture and some come with that also.. i have never seen a fridge that did not have a freezer in it.. we do have free standing freezers though. and no, i don't pull them out to clean, when we have a problem bob pulls them out to fix the problem and i am horrified at what is under there and how did it get there... my two aunts pulled theirs out twice a year, the stove to

  5. I'm loving my new refrigerator, hope you like your new one. My husband pulls ours out at least once a year and cleans behind it, if it were up to me it would never get cleaned behind, I just do the interior.

  6. So that's what husbands are for (Sandra & Janet)... pulling out the fridge so you can clean behind it! ;)

    1. Husbands have to be useful for something Monica otherwise there wouldn't be any!

  7. As Meike said it's an interesting insight into different practices. So far as I am aware unless a property in the UK is let 'fully furnished' the kitchen appliances would not be included unless they were fitted as part of a fitted kitchen. Neither of my fridges (a cool one and a colder one) has a freezer compartment and my freezer is a separate piece of equipment. It's completely different from the fridge units I've seen in the US and Canada. I can say that my fridges are cleaned under twice a year (because I have to pull them out to get at the switches which are behind them) when I go to NZ and then when I return.

  8. I hope by now that your new fridge is purring like a cat and that you are more accustomed to it being there.
    Twice a year I pull my fridge out and clean the coils and all around. It's easy for me since I designed a rolling platform that the fridge sits on when I redesigned the kitchen.

    1. That's clever, Virginia. I know I've sometimes said I wish I had all my furniture on wheels! :)


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