Those silly cupboards over the 'fridge

[srhcb]

I keep my mice up there. It gives them easy access to the bread and stuff in baskets on top of the fridge.

Sadly, this is true. Today it is 84F, so hopefully they will be moving back outside for the summer.

In France that's known as Mise en Place.

[clothier]

My sister, the architect (you rememeber her don't you?) is short. 4'11 to be precise. When she was designing her house, everything she did, she did to her scale. Yes it's odd to cook in her kitchen but it's not like I'm a giant. Anyway, she had the same problem, and she just built the cabinet over the fridge, and then did a whole arsty-farsty painting/sculpter thing where the cabinets would go.

Her advice was when in doubt, make it art.

[jo-mel]

How about 'nothing' over the refrig?

I have a small kitchen, so I had the soffits opened, and have put casseroles, woks and steamers up there. It is not unattractive. Over the refrig, I have hung a 24' wok, (where else to put it??) and my cumbersome electric wok is on the refrig top.

[Cusina]

How about 'nothing' over the refrig?

But, where would you store the cereal??

We are tall people, the top of the fridge is prime time space. Cereal boxes go up there, as well as a large basket filled with bread and rolls (and the secret ziplock bag candy stash, cleverly out of reach and out of sight). Our cabinets were custom made by the previous owner's son, so we have this weird little nothing space there, maybe 8" tall and 25" wide with a flip down door and handle. I, honestly, think it is completely empty. It's so unusable. At least it keeps the cereal boxes from falling off the back of the fridge.

O.k., went to look... it wasn't empty! Two silk flower wreaths (table decorations from our wedding) and several Christmas themed tins got dispensation to stay there, two super cheap vases hit the recycling bin, a bag of tealights that I hunted for forever this past Christmas got put away in the right storage bin and a stash of very inedible cheap candy went in the garbage, ew. Thank you for motivating me to clean it out! I would have had Mayhaw's mice moving in soon if I hadn't.

[chezlamere]

i have to much stuff on top of the fridge to move to even begin to look at what might be in the cupboard up there, but if i remember correctly, the juice jugs are all up there.

[Mayhaw Man]

I have to admit that I find this subject strangely fascinating. After we get done with this, let's move on to what's in the cabinet under the sink.

O.k. I did an inventory today and I am pretty sure that I have not looked in those two cabinets in several years. I have:

8 Flexible Ice Trays (don't know why, I have had fridges with ice makers for at least ten years.

1 really old bottle Tabasco Bloody Mix

1/2 bottle Triple Sec

9 Cookie Tins (I thought I had lost them, they were my grandmothers and I missed them. They are old peppermint tins with the Lion on them, can't remember the brand)

Christmas Bevnaps (they will be handy next year if I remember them )

Ziplock full of various cookie cutters (I had lost them too)

A misdemeanor amount of a now unidentifiable leafy green matter that never belonged to me, I swear.

4 bottles Andygator (this was worth the whole process, even though I can't drink it-it will make a nice treat for some guest or another. This beer ages as well as any I have ever run across.

Lots of dust.

[balmagowry]

...

Oh, and the key to a pristine refrigerator is to get a stainless steel door, as magnets don't work.

I took the other route and trashed all the magnets!

Eeek! That seems a bit drastic. At best it's a waste of potentially useful temporary billboard space. At worst, where would I keep things like my lovely little Polder timer?

Actually, I can't give up magnets for quite another reason: a friend of mine makes comemmorative magnets for all sorts of occasions - very often featuring his own likeness morphed onto the shoulders of some incongruous portrait or other; and I have an impressive collection of these. They are purely decorative, so it's sort of like an off-the-wall art gallery. Not only off-the-wall but off-the-fridge-door, in fact. The magnets on my fridge are of a more utilitarian kind, for the most part - the collection of masterpieces resides on the front of my one metal cabinet, whence it wreaks havoc on nearby navigation systems.

This reminds me of a cartoon - now, alas, long lost - which once graced my fridge: the caption was "Refrigerator Magnet Abuse," and the picture was of a fridge door with only one item magneted to its surface; that one item, however, being a copy of War and Peace.

[Toasted]

Thanks to this thread I am getting rid of my silly cupboards over the 'fridge! I've decided that the top of the 'fridge would be the perfect place to put my little kitchen t.v. I mostly listen to it for sound anyway and right now it's taking up valuable counter space. The crap that's up there will either go in the pantry or on shelves in the garage- it's not stuff I use daily anyway. BTW: when I stood on a chair to see what was up there I found a huge bag of halloween candy. Do do think it's still good?

[Rachel Perlow]

8 Flexible Ice Trays (don't know why, I have had fridges with ice makers for at least ten years)

Redub them "stock cube trays"

[Mottmott]

Thanks to this thread I am getting rid of my silly cupboards over the 'fridge!  I've decided that  the top of the 'fridge would be the perfect place to put my little kitchen t.v.  I mostly listen to it for sound anyway and right now it's taking up valuable counter space. 

Consider a mirror on the wall opposite your fridge with TV. I have a large mirror over the sink. I do most of my prep in the corner between that sink and the the stove, and I can see the TV on the fridge behind me in the mirror whenever the "action" gets hot. I love to watch food shows while I'm cooking.

[Toasted]

Another amazingly good idea that I never would have thought of! God, I love Egullet.

[balmagowry]

Thanks to this thread I am getting rid of my silly cupboards over the 'fridge!  I've decided that  the top of the 'fridge would be the perfect place to put my little kitchen t.v.  I mostly listen to it for sound anyway and right now it's taking up valuable counter space.

Yow - makes my neck hurt just thinking about it. Yes, I know you said you mostly just listen, but you must want to glance at it sometimes.

Of course I've already stated my convection conviction - um, sorry, actually I mean my microwave manifesto, i.e. that the top of the fridge and the microwave were simply meant for each other (talk about saving counter space!), and I guess there's no point in belaboring that, can't help it if the rest of you fail to grasp its sublime perfection... but anyway, in the space-saving TV dept I have to confess that what I lust after is one of those silly under-cupboard fold-down LCD jobbies. Then again, ain't much point in spending the money for that unless I break down first and get :delicate shudder:.. cable.

The crap that's up there will either go in the pantry or on shelves in the garage- it's not stuff I use daily anyway.  BTW: when I stood on a chair to see what was up there I found a huge bag of halloween candy.  Do do think it's still good?

Depends. Halloween of which year? 2002 is a pretty good vintage.

Or to put it another way - yes. Of course. Halloween candy is always good. (Or if not always, at least - thread convergence alert! - a few days a month.)

[Mottmott]

Having a mirror over the sink is something my mother did, so it seemed normal to do it, though I don't know anyone else who does this. Of course many people have their sink under the window which is very pleasant.

When my kids were small, though, the window was VERY useful -- A little like having eyes in the back of my head.

Another place I like to have a mirror is on the landing that's halfway up the steps between floors. Just this evening my DIL & I exchanged a few words about something too trivial to climb steps for. We spoke"face to face" even though she was on the first floor and I was on the second.

Edited March 5, 2004 by Mottmott (log)

[fifi]

I have those things over the fridge, too. I have been in this apartment for a year and a half and I don't think I have ever looked. My houskeeper/domestic engineer unpacked the kitchen so I may never know. Furthermore... I am not going to look.

I am short. Having the luxury of designing my house from the ground up... upper cabinets were one of the annoyances that I put in my "diary of using a kitchen". At first, I was stuck with the paradigm that "you have to have upper cabinets 'cause everyone does". Then, Queen fifi emerged and I proclaimed "Off with their heads." My architect agreed and now, at each side of the range and hood, there is a lovely window. I was dubious until he pointed out that, with the size of the kitchen, I have more square footage of storage than I had in the previous house. And most of that will be drawers. The annoyance list also included groveling on the floor to get to the back of base cabinets.

[Rachel Perlow]

Anna,

Along the lines of your putting lit glass shelving above your fridge, while addressing the concerns of others of you having to clean dust & grime due to its location near the cooktop, my mom has an elegant solution:

Glass fronted cabinets. You can have them lit and even use a glass shelf if you want more than one level for placing decorative objects. However, the doors will protect the contents from dust and you will only have the glass doors as dust collectors to clean.

[Anna N]

Anna,

Along the lines of your putting lit glass shelving above your fridge, while addressing the concerns of others of you having to clean dust & grime due to its location near the cooktop, my mom has an elegant solution:

Glass fronted cabinets. You can have them lit and even use a glass shelf if you want more than one level for placing decorative objects. However, the doors will protect the contents from dust and you will only have the glass doors as dust collectors to clean.

Rachel,

Thanks for an excellent suggestion. My objection to doors of any kind there is that one must then ensure that the 'fridge top remains clear. But storage being at a premium, somehow things gravitate to the top of the 'fridge and though I keep taking them off, SOMEONE (read "The Dane") keeps putting things back! So, I am aiming for completely open shelving there. I am leaning towards plate racks divided by dowelling on one side (I have determined that with a bit of a stretch, I could pull out a platter from the left side) and a display area on the other side which is further away from the stove. Since nothing will happen until the bedrooms are completed, I have lots of time to contemplate solutions!

[therese]

So long as you bring the front edge of whatever cabinetry you choose to the front edge of the fridge you don't have to worry about the door/no door question, as there won't be any "top of the fridge" to worry about: the "Dane" simply won't be able to put anything up there. I'd tend to go with doors to keep out dust and minimize cleaning. The cookie sheet/cutting board/tray option (with or without doors) works particularly well, as you need only be able to reach the bottom forward corner of the item in order to retrieve it (as opposed to just about anything else); the remainder of these hard-to-store items extends to the back and top of the cupboard, but doesn't take up space you'd otherwise be able to use very effectively.

Assuming that you are actually doing a total redo of the kitchen I'd also go with the earlier suggestion that you forego wall cabinets (the sort that perch on the wall over countertops), and go with base cabinets. I'm not that short (5'6"), but love not having to deal with wall cabinets and those stupid top shelves, etc. Base cabinets with drawers, roll-out shelves, etc. are great: easy to reach, and everything's right there in front of you.

[Anna N]

So long as you bring the front edge of whatever cabinetry you choose to the front edge of the fridge you don't have to worry about the door/no door question, as there won't be any "top of the fridge" to worry about: the "Dane" simply won't be able to put anything up there. I'd tend to go with doors to keep out dust and minimize cleaning. The cookie sheet/cutting board/tray option (with or without doors) works particularly well, as you need only be able to reach the bottom forward corner of the item in order to retrieve it (as opposed to just about anything else); the remainder of these hard-to-store items extends to the back and top of the cupboard, but doesn't take up space you'd otherwise be able to use very effectively.

Assuming that you are actually doing a total redo of the kitchen I'd also go with the earlier suggestion that you forego wall cabinets (the sort that perch on the wall over countertops), and go with base cabinets. I'm not that short (5'6"), but love not having to deal with wall cabinets and those stupid top shelves, etc. Base cabinets with drawers, roll-out shelves, etc. are great: easy to reach, and everything's right there in front of you.

Thanks for the suggestion but it simply isn't feasible in this tiny galley kitchen. No major reno is planned - just this tiny annoyance to fix and later a tile backsplash behind the stove-side counters.

Further, I have but two base cabinets - one of generous size and the other quite narrow. We hope to outfit the large base cabinet so that it is much more useable - using a slide out drawer/shelf, lid rack etc. It will require quite a bit of thought before we are ready to tackle that!