Help me settle a debate with partner please - who's right here?

[tiredmama23]

Lighthearted obviously but I may well divorce my partner over this before we are even married 😂

My partner and I disagree on how to 'correctly' put the food shopping away. I won't say who is who yet so as not to bias opinions.

Person A empties the contents of every bag onto the kitchen worktops first - we're talking about 5-6 bags - and only when every single item is on the kitchen worktops do they then begin the process of putting it all away into the fridge, freezer and cupboards.

Person B empties the contents of all bags one by one straight from the bag into the fridge, freezer or cupboard (thus missing out the step of emptying onto the worktop first).

Person A thinks their way is correct because you can see all your shopping first before you put it away. Person B thinks Person A is adding in an unnecessary extra step and taking longer where there is no need.

Who is correct?

B. A is just weird.

But I do pack my shopping so that one bag is fridge/freezer, another dry goods etc. Saves so much time.

This seems like a good compromise! Maybe we should do this in future if we unpack the shopping together so we don't annoy each other 😂

😂 Do you shop in either Aldi or Lidl by any chance? Those checkouts tigger serious anxiety for me.

Instead I stroll around Tesco doing scan as you shop, so I can pack my bags as I scan, without the pressure of an annoyed checkout person glaring at me whilst they throw my items at me 😭😬

Yes. I assess the spacing issue as I unpack, and I adjust accordingly as I place items into the fridge. Rather than lay it all out first and then adjust items.

I’m scared to reveal this, but no - Sainsbury’s and I do self scan too!!

I’m reevaluating my entire life right now.

I WILL BE BETTER. 🤣

I’m with B.
The shopping would have already been bagged up in similar groups, so for example, easier to take the bag of freezer stuff to the freezer in one go than emptying and carrying over one by one. Bag of tins to the larder, and so on.

@tutttutt

no, it's not. It's like packing your shopping at the supermarket or them delivering it in bags. If I could take their crates into the kitchen I'd unpack straight from the crates, but they're too big & heavy.

I then unpack directly from my smaller baskets I don't spread it out on all kitchen surfaces.

I would do as person A. That way I only have To open fridge/ freezer once.

@TiredOfTHECHANGE

i don't want to tip you over the edge, but I know where everything is going to go. My fridge & pantry (😂too few, too small, too cupboards) are organised to the nth degree. So everything has a place already!

I do in between. I put things on the worktop by the cupboard they're going into and put fridge and freezer stuff away straight away. I usually pack fridge and freezer stuff in a separate bag for the most part so it's easier to put this straight from bag to fridge

@mirror245

same when you are B, bag/basket of fridge stuff, just empty the whole thing into the fridge. I don't need to spread it across the kitchen to do it.

mind you if I had to open the fridge more than once I wouldn't find it too arduous

I'm a person B type of person, but with small adaptations. I put away everything that goes in cupboards as I get it out, one bag at a time, but stack fridge and freezer items on the worktop so I only have to open the fridge/freezer once. (In my defence, fridge is in the kitchen, but my freezer is a short walk away in our integral garage). HTH

@FabFebHalfTerm
no, it's not. It's like packing your shopping at the supermarket or them delivering it in bags. If I could take their crates into the kitchen I'd unpack straight from the crates, but they're too big & heavy.

I then unpack directly from my smaller baskets I don't spread it out on all kitchen surfaces.
You take them from one place and pack them into another place before putting them away. This is exactly the extra step that is the same as taking them from bag and putting in the kitchen counter. How is it not?

It's the same number of steps

Iwouldlikesomecake · Yesterday 18:56

1 bag at a time, but if you pack your shopping effectively in the supermarket you don’t need to run round the kitchen because similar things go in a bag together.

I couldn't agree more!

Person A is my XH and Person B is me.

With a small amount of shopping I have a bit of sympathy with A's technique - it might actually be more logical overall. But I prefer B as it's how I prefer to do it. As I recall XH was better at getting more stuff into the fridge.

I do A. I view emptying the bags as one job and putting everything away as another job. Jumping in between the two jobs freaks me out as it is difficult to gauge progress if you're still ferreting around in bags.

You check the fridge and freezer before shopping (or getting a delivery) and make room.

Yes you put all the frozen in one bag, fridge in another, tins/ packets etc.

Or if you are my mother (RIP) you pack a bottle of white wine in with the frozen food so it is chilled by the time you get home.

This might blow your mind again but in the days I physically went to the supermarket I would put things on the conveyor belt with the tins and heavy things nearest the cashier, and the lighter stuff further away so that the cashier didn't have to stretch to pick up heavy items.

Neither its preference, but we are As un our house

Person A ( my husband = lunatic)
Person B ( me - sane human being)

My method for a "big shop" is to use the time in the checkout queue to sort things out at conveyor belt stage. Then things I want together for unpacking end up in the same bag because they came through the till together.

Unpacking a big shop in our house goes like this:

FIRST EMPTY COOL BAG CONTENTS DIRECTLY INTO FREEZER AND FRIDGE. If person A is leaving cool bag contents out on the counter until all shopping sorted then they ABU imo.

Close fridge.

Go through the other fridge stuff (will be fruit, veg and eggs) putting things on the counter if putting them away will require 2 free hands to move older stuff around and/or need Tetris skills to fit them in. (ETA: or if the awkward stuff is the heavier stuff at bottom of bags then put the quick win stuff on counter instead, doesn't matter which way round, the point is just to separate them while fridge closed)

Reopen fridge, put the sorted out quick wins away.

Give fridge a break while do similar split of cupboard stuff putting away anything that can be done with one free hand, leaving in the bags anything that needs some rearranging done (using a little counter space if need be to get at quick win stuff underneath it).

Then put away remaining fruit, veg, eggs from counter, which do involve some rearranging of older produce, and the rest of cupboard stuff.

(If TWO PEOPLE unpacking then one is putting away directly from cool bag(s) while the other is putting fruit/veg on counter to make it easier for the other to pick out the quick things to put away while fridge open. Then similar teamwork on cupboard stuff... one putting away quick things, the other sorting out the rest onto counter).

@tiredmama23 on your clash with partner, a compromise could be some sorting as you put it up on the conveyor so that you know which bags to prioritise for unpacking.

Then if the fridge packer really finds it necessary to put everything on counter 1st to get it all to fit in, at least they leave touching the cupboard stuff until fridge stuff is away.

I'd still do cool bag contents directly away first though. Why wouldn't you? Even if they get re-arranged when fruit/veg added, at least they've been in a (closed) fridge while other stuff is being sorted out on the counter.

(The reason I still have to sort fruit and veg out a little in unpacking is because I will have packed them based on weight and fragility).

oops @tiredmama23 sorry, yesterday I had somehow missed where you had already replied to folk saying yours IS pre-sorted. Then it definitely seems that method A shouldn't be necessary. Or could at least be done in 2 parts so fridge freezer stuff not held up by sorting cupboard stuff.