Lost Soul: The Old Refrigerator

How long are you going to keep an item you bought 30 years ago, stopped using 10 years ago, and has been lying around for 20 years now?

My mom bought this refrigerator in 1977. If my memory serves me right, we replaced this with a new one around 10 years ago. And just 2 years ago, we replaced it again with another. The 2nd never lasted that long compared with the 1st. But the 2nd was never kept as long.

The 2nd fridge was immediately taken downstairs and was used as a cabinet to store different things. The 1st fridge was never taken downstairs, it was stuck here, in the 2nd floor, rusting, blocking the light and air from our windows, and accumulating dust as time goes by.

This fridge is just one of the many old and useless things that this household just couldn't let go. And for whatever reason, I could not really comprehend. The electric fan in the photo is more than 20 years old now, it broke 2 months ago. It's still here.

For me, this is no longer an issue of wasting money or resources. Everything breaks. You could repair them several times, but there will always come a time when it is no longer possible to repair them. And the only thing left to do is to let go.

Few months back, I made a promise to myself, that 2007 would not pass without me removing that old fridge from this house. Last Sunday, I began the eviction process. It was a daunting task. Because it was too heavy, I had to remove the compressor first. I consulted my dad first because I was not sure if it might blow up or something.

When he learned that I'm going to take it apart, he told me that the fridge is still working, that the parts were all new... Yeah right! The parts were new, 10 years ago! And even if it's still working, it's pretty useless to keep it here if we are not planning to use it in the next 10 or 20 years.

I never really said that to him. He probably knew that it won't stop me from taking it apart so he just told me what to do.

First, I need to cut the metal tubes attached to the compressor and to the body of the fridge. The tubes are quite thick and difficult to snap. I spent quite sometime bending and snapping the tubes.

Next, the compressor body must be unscrewed from the base. The most difficult part was removing the last screw located at the back of the compressor, which I couldn't really see.

After the compressor was removed. My dad used a hand truck to move to a temporary location, until we finally figure out how to bring it out of the house.

The end result...