Here is the layout of our kitchen.  We usually bring in all the groceries from the car and put them down in the Grocery Unloading Area.  From here, we grab a handful of items put them away.  If some go in the fridge, we open the fridge and put them away.

If opening and closing a refrigerator incurs an overhead, just like opening and closing a network or database connection incurs an overhead, this is very inefficient.  So I found myself bringing refrigerated items near the fridge, in a Refrigerator Staging Area, or refrigerated items buffer, if you will.  This way, I could quickly put away all fridge items, flushing the buffer, and only open the refrigerator once, saving the setup and teardown refrigerator opening costs.

Too much of a stretch?  I deal with this kind of crap all day long, so maybe this was inevitable.