The rules of refrigeration

My family seems to have a couple of main misconceptions about how a fridge works. They seem to believe:

1) The fridge will keep something cool even when it is left on the kitchen table or the counter; but that thing should be covered to keep the cat away.

2) Items actually placed in the fridge are further protected, indefinitely, from everything, including the cat.

3) While it is wasteful to throw out food, it is not wasteful to put it in the fridge indefinitely.

Fish is left on a frying pan through the hot summer night. It doesn't have to go in the fridge– 1). But it does get a loose misfit plate laid over it. This will keep the cat away.

Rice is put in the fridge on an open plate. Doesn't have to be in an air-tight container, because of belief 2).

There are some inconsistencies in my theory though. Perhaps I have not properly codified my family's misconceptions regarding the fridge. They do not fully explain my family's behaviours.

If the fridge continues working no matter where the food is, then of course there is no need to put anything in it, except to protect if from the cat. Yet, they will put a half eaten apple in a bowl in the refrigerator, and put a plate over the top of it. I'm not sure what the plate on the apple is. Perhaps to hide the expensive treat from others. But the apple will stay there until, looking for plates a week later, I throw out the half-eaten browned apple. Who is hiding an apple they never intend to eat? Who is refrigerating an apple they never intend to eat? So I added misconception 3).

The pizza I make on Sunday night, and put in an air-tight container in the the fridge, is inevitably on the kitchen table on Monday morning. This is okay, because of Belief 1). But the top is off, so what is keeping the cat away.

Several times a week, I find myself yelling to a sleeping, or otherwise disinterested audience that "That's not how fridges work!"

But how can I educate them unless I understand their misconceptions. I'm getting closer to understanding it, but it is, as many things are, a process.