I came home from a week of travel to that "science experiment" refrigerator scene. The wilted, semi-gelatinous lettuce was easy to recognize and toss, but things like cream cheese and juices looked OK, and the thought of doing the milk taste test turns my stomach.

Here's a high tech answer to the question, "How long has it been in the fridge." And it's cheap, too. At howmanydaysago.com, $12 buys you two DaysAgo Digital Day Counters that you can stick onto your jars or containers using a suction cup. The counter goes up to 99 days and can be reset. Batteries last about 18 months and can be replaced.

And anything that needs to have days counted can get one of these digital counters. The web site suggests you can just as easily use these to keep track of when to clean your pet's cage or water a plant.

Not sure how long something stays fresh? The web site has a good chart of everything from eggs to sandwich meat.