When people talk about decorating their fridge, they often talk about the door – but the latest trend sees people focusing on WITHIN of the refrigerator for decoration.
People on Instagram and TikTok have taken to “fridge processing,” turning the place where they keep their food into something aesthetically pleasing.
Food products now share a home with items such as flowers, framed photos or eye cream as decor.
The trend is just gaining popularity, but some creators have been on the fridge train for a while now — and the term has even crossed over to Instagram.
The phrase first appeared in 2011 in a blog post by Kathy Perdue, a retired design consultant based in Brentwood, California.
“Why not put your everyday foods in pretty containers and have something pretty to look at when you open the door?! You know something that makes you smile,” Perdue wrote.
In 2011, however, Perdue’s fridescaping looked more like today’s repackaged videos: an organized fridge that’s aesthetically pleasing because of the functional display—no flowers or photos added, just things that belong to the refrigerator.
“What’s funny is that you can call different levels of refrigerator organization ‘fridges,'” said Ellen Marie Bennett, founder and chief brand officer of Hedley & Bennett and host of Kitchen Glow Up. a culinary makeover show with a focus on cooking. Food & Wine.
But like many things in the cultural zeitgeist, social media took the creation of refrigerators to the next level.
“I saw a video where someone had an orchid in their fridge, and it was all in an aesthetic jar or picture frame, and it just lit up my dopamine centers,” North Carolina creator Allison Hester told Food & Wine for the first time he saw. Fridgescape content about a year and a half ago.
Since that moment, Hester, along with other creators, have become known – for better or worse – for the contents of their fridge.
Lynzi Judish, a home decor-focused content creator based in New York’s Hudson Valley, has been posting refrigerator content since May, but what went viral was her Bridgerton-inspired refrigerator, which she calls it “Frigerton”.
“This Fridgerton fridge refill was honestly one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in a while. I just started watching ‘Brigerton’ season 3, so what better time to romanticize my life with a refrigerator?” she has her caption with 1.1 million views.
While having a fridge certainly looks nice, it’s not the most practical thing to do if you need to use all of your fridge space for food and ingredients.
“I think [fridgescaping] it’s a really funny, weird trend, but I don’t think it’s a trend from people who cook,” Bennett said. “I think it’s a trend from people who maybe decorate and want to make their house look nice, but in in no way are they trying to bring function to their home.”
Although he likes the practice of refrigeration, Bennett admits it’s not practical and sometimes even “ridiculous.”
“I’ll take a sauce out of my container and then I’ll put it in a mason jar and it’s just disgusting. That’s what I find funny,” she laughed. “Or I’ll take all my two-year-old’s yogurts and line them up so they all say ‘Stonyfield Farm’ at the top.”
However, Bennett added that the trend may actually make people cook more, ironically, as these decorators will want to use the contents of your fridge for aesthetics — and Judish can attest to that.
“It got me into gardening because I wanted to grow my own food and have my own herbs at home,” Judish. “So now I have my own raised bed situation in the garden that I use all the time.”
Judish admitted that the activity is not ideal for extending the shelf life of some foods, such as when she puts her berries and fruits on wide open plates.
She also admitted that the things that go in her fridge for social media content don’t necessarily stay there.
“Obviously I don’t run around my house in lace gloves and I don’t actually keep a jewelery box in my fridge, although some people on the internet do think I do, which is really funny. Judish shared.
“I wanted it to be something like this, this is what my fridge looks like now, one hundred percent. But I also wanted it to be kind of fun. So I think some people miss that. It’s supposed to be a little silly, too.”
The trend is all in fun, though Bennett appreciates the change in conversation it has brought.
“Actually I love this. Instead of talking about beauty trends, we’re talking about making our fridges look cool. What a time to be alive,” she said. “I’m like, I’m here for this. I’d rather people spend their money at the farmer’s market than at Sephora.
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Image Source : nypost.com