For context, I grew up in a really messy home. My dad has some chronic illness and my mom is wonderful, but somewhat of an absent parent. We were never really disciplined. I’m also the oldest of five kids. For as long as I can remember, our house has always been nasty. My dad never felt like cleaning due to his illness, and my mom just kinda gave up at some point. I tried to help keep the place clean when I was in high school, but my dad would berate me for not doing something the exact way he wanted it done, and then the house would be filthy an hour later because no one cleaned up after themselves (parents included).
My dad loves cooking, so if his illness wasn’t flaring up, he would cook dinner for us. And since no one cleaned up around the place, any leftovers would just be kept uncovered on the stove/oven/crockpot/etc. The next day we’d just reheat it in the microwave and eat it. I also think that part of the reason why leftovers weren’t put away was because our fridge was always overstuffed, so there just wasn’t any room I guess. I grew up like this, so I never saw an issue with it. I’ve also never gotten food poisoning from it, somehow. Now that I’ve moved out, I’ve continued to leave my leftovers out overnight.
Recently, I was talking to one of my friends and the topic of leftovers came up. When I mentioned that I leave my food out, she really ripped me a new one about how unsafe that was lol. I was really surprised because I thought it was normal to just leave stuff out like that and that everyone did it, but apparently not. I went out that night and bought a bunch of Tupperware and I’ve been refrigerating my leftovers for about a week now. The only difference I’ve noticed is that my food doesn’t get as dried out now.