K.I.S.S.

I see the scrappers out too but the dumping of stuff still occurs at least around here with modest regularity along a nearby river.

So a few ideas with the list I put up:

Refrigerator: several things come to mind. Use a wire shelf (chrome plated steel wire exactly like a webber grill) can be used over a campfire to cook. Bust out the section between the top freezer and frig section creating a much bigger cavity. Lay on it's side with door hinges up, door propped solidly up (latches have been gone for decades and just magnetic door seals) in a horizontal position and build a camp fire 5-6 feet away. Fridge creates a little insulated cave on 5 sides and can trap heat inside to keep warm curled up inside it. Might be able to remove a few screws and bolts and remove compressor and it's weight with a Leatherman tool. (cover tubing with heavy rag when cutting refrigerant lines to protect eyes, face, etc). Then rip off door and it could be a crude canoe to cross a river. Rip out wiring and power cord to use for small game snares. Maybe bury the refrig to use as a cache to store other things scavenged and found. If you can secure the door, it could protect food stores from most critters shy of bears and the two legged kind. Use it as a live trap (not sure now you would empty it.). The real old 1950's refrigerator like a Philco had curved doors that could make good drag sleds to haul stuff, especially in winter.

Some more ideas may come to mind. Maybe I'll pick another item on the list tomorrow if ya'all don't beat me to all the thoughts floating in my head.

Oh yeah... There is one item on the list I started that is huge for survival and even guerrilla tactics. See if anyone picks up on it.

AT

 

Make outerwear (coat, parka, heavy pants, etc.) from upholstery on discarded furniture, car seats, lawnmower seat, etc. Use foam from the same sources for insulating small sleeping spaces.

 

Most, in fact a vast majority of, "shelves" in freezers and refrigerators, if not all for the past, oh, 30 plus years, have been PVC plastic coated steel wire - not chrome plated. This has been a matter of reducing the cost to produce refers. Matter of fact, many current shelves in the refer portion have been made from tempered glass (useful for different reasons) for at least the past 15 or more years. The shelving in the freezer portion remains, as it has for years, plastic coated steel wire. Since the wire is coated with PVC plastic, the manufacturers have been able to transition to a lower grade of steel, and only God knows what kind of welding materials they have been using. Err on the side of caution.

Additionally, it was not uncommon to use Zinc plating, not chrome, on wire shelving for cold, wet environments, because it again is far more cost effective. Since zinc fumes are toxic, and your average lay person is not familiar with the difference between zinc or chrome plating, it is better to not use a shelf from a refrigerator to cook with.

Unless you luck out and find a vintage 1950's to early 1970's refrigerator, that is.

 

Also, modern fridges are nothing more than light sheet steel, and styro walls for the most part (unless you go stainless, but they get repaired, not tossed) . They are NOT water tight, and would sink quickly. It would float (maybe) but it would be wet, and much harder than just swimming. releasing the coolant is a violation as well, though you would hardly care at the time. Removing a compressor with a pocket tool? forget about it. pocket tools I have seen do not have edge files, just on the flats. You would starve to death, before you could cut your way through the bolts and brackets you could not remove with the pliers. Shelter? yes, just lay it on it's side with the hinges up, and the door open. a small fire would keep you warm and dry. Any of the smooth doors would work as a sled, the rounded doors would work , (though they were rarely smooth) over snow, towing a jon-boat would work well, and could be shelter as well.
Buried fridge as a cache? yes, but not for anything of value. I have seen them used for vegetable cool storage like a cellar, and for worm farms, and beetles for cleaning skulls. (the stink is away from the house, and rodents can not eat the antlers.) but they leak, and rust fast.

 

Now, I recently removed the Fresnel lens from the front of a flat screen TV (broken and on the curb) it took a screw driver and a wire cutter and about ten minutes. My Gerber could have done it easily. That lens can be used to start fires, and general daytime heat, or heating rocks for night time heat.