how long does homemade bread actually keep? and fridge, yes or no

Your experiment found the truth: the fridge is the WORST place for bread. Refrigerator temperatures accelerate starch retrogradation - the process behind staling - so fridge bread goes dry and firm fastest of all. Counter beats fridge every time.

The rules: wrapped airtight at room temperature, homemade bread keeps 4-5 days. For longer, freeze it - a week or more easily - and refresh in a warm oven for a few minutes before serving. Freezing pauses staling almost completely, the fridge speeds it up. Counterintuitive but that's the chemistry.

Slice before freezing and you can pull out exactly what you need.