Fridgescaping: Bridgerton to Fridgerton!

Barb's Tea Service attempts "fridgescaping" at up north cabin kitchen.

 

Aside from the "junk drawer", in many homes, including mine, the kitchen space that garners the least creative design energy is the refrigerator. My goal has always been to squeeze in as many groceries, in a Tetris-like challenge, onto the shelves and bins among yesterday's leftovers and last weekend's pizza box. But no more! At least according to a new trend that's gaining traction on social media:  "fridgescaping". 

This past week, fridgescaping popped up as headlines on many of my on-line magazines and "think pieces" (among them, Good Housekeeping and Buzzfeed). Although these sources both credit blogger, Kathy Purdue, for coining the phrase back in 2010, recent Twitter ("X") posts reaching over 6 million views have shown the idea is gaining traction.

So, what is fridgescaping? As spelled out in Buzzfeed, it is "decorating and organizing the inside of your fridge to look stylistically and aesthetically pleasing, typically using things like baskets, vases, pitchers, and other items to achieve a desired theme".

One popular Tik-Toker, Lynzi Judas, a 37-year-old from the Hudson Valley, scored thousands of fans with her fridgescaping, although she's only been designing for less than a month. Themes she has incorporated inside her refrigerator include Beetlejuice and Bridgerton, although of the latter she prefers to call it "Fridgerton".

Lynzi lists being more aware of current inventory and inspiration to cook more, among the benefits of frigescaping, while others caution that not all decorative containers are food safe and some produce, per Nicole Papantoniou, the director of Good Houskeeping Institute's Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation Lab, stays fresher in store-bought containers. 

With a relatively blank canvass - our refrigerator in our up north cabin - I thought I'd jump on the fridgescaping wagon and give it a try. My theme: moose. I chose this because it works with the environs and I have a number of moose decor items at the ready.

Completed in less than 15 minutes, and all that time truly shows, I put fresh flowers in the moose teapot, started a charcuterie mix in a moose bowl, and topped the assembly of bottled water, lite and N/A beer, orange juice and an almost full jar of salsa with a moose candle. It's no "Fridgerton", but what can be?

Bottom line take-away:  I don't think I'll hang with the fridgescaping wave.  Apart from the added time (even my 15 minutes could, arguably, find a better focus), I'm not a fan of putting picture frames and knick-knacks where I keep my food. However, I greatly admire the concept. Something so absurd and unnecessary has a certain charm, not to mention millions of views.