High Atop the Fridge

[srhcb]

My refrigerator, like most I suppose, fits into a space beneath the kitchen cabinets which doesn't leave a lot of room on top, but since the cabinets are shallow, there is an available surface about 32" wide by 12" deep.

Up there I keep an acrylic cookbook holder, which displays either a new book or an old favorite or two, and is also handy to hold single page recipes out of the way while I'm working. Behind the cookbook holder I stash re-useable pieces of foil.

There's also an oval wicker basket with Easter Grass in the bottom where I store tomatos.

The top of the refrigerator is also where I keep screws, bolts, knobs and other small pieces that come off kitchen equipment until I can get around to making repairs. Since I'm the only one in my household tall enough to see up there without artificail elevation, I know the parts will be safe until I need them.

SB (Oh, and usually there's also a lot of rather grimey dust!)

[WolfChef]

We used to have a wine rack (I know it's bad now, so don't berate me. We learned the hard way.) and since it's gone I sort of miss the jingle and clank of the bottles every time the refrigerator started or stopped. Now since the remodel there are cabinets over the fridge.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Heh. I have some cutting boards, and usually some herbs drying, but they live elsewhere in the springtime. During Peeps season, you can find a few flats of the little yellow suckers on top of my refrigerator, "curing."

When I redid my kitchen, the design includes an open shelf above the built-in refrigerator for the Peeps.

[NancyH]

1 gallon bottles of bottled water.

[mikeycook]

I live in a Manhattan apartment, so every bit of kitchen space is precious. Generally, we have two large baskets (a square one and a round one). The square one usually holds cereal boxes, rice, Kraft macaroni and cheese, tea, and anything else in a square box. The round basket holds things like polenta, dried beans, chocolate pastilles, panko, etc. that come is softer bags. We usually have to pull both of the baskets down to open the cabinets over the fridge.

Behind those, under the cabinet, we usually store extra pieces of cookware (as the range top, oven, and one cabinet are already full. We had a wok back there for a while. Now it's where we keep a double-boiler and a milk warmer.

[slschnur]

Cookbook holder, bread crumb catcher with knife, brown paper grocery bags (small ones) for holding grilled peppers to steam.

[ludja]

Typically on top of the fridge: napkins, cereal, my scale (easy access for when I need it, which is pretty often), a large crystal carafe that doesn't fit easily in the cabinets and in back, out of sight, dried beans I re-use for blind baking tarts and pies.

Edited December 9, 2005 by ludja (log)

[liamsaunt]

Assorted serving platters and a big soup tureen. I am short and need a stepladder to get things down from on top of the fridge. There are cabinets up there too but I keep them empty because I cannot reach them without getting on the top of the stepladder and really reaching..

[eJulia]

Veggies that don't need refrigeration (onions, peppers, dried veggies)

[melkor]

Tea pots, blind filter for the espresso machine, kitchen torch, decanters, juicer, and a random crock.

edit: Plus that big jar full of preserved lemons that I somehow didn't notice when I posted the picture.

Edited December 9, 2005 by melkor (log)

[lesfen]

An empty wine rack that I have never used and a fly swatter. I'm too short to reach anything up there anyway.

[therese]

Nothing, because we specifically had the cabinet over the fridge built flush with the front of the fridge to avoid that dead space (as well as the really dead space behind, the cabinet that you can't open without moving all that other stuff out of the way). The cabinet had vertical dividers for storage of cookie sheets, cutting boards, etc.

[Jaymes]

This thread reminded me of this one:

The Thing That Grew on Top of the Refrigerator.

[winesonoma]

My knives laying flat.

[mizducky]

In previous places I have lived, what I kept on top of the fridge always had to include at least one cat. Seemingly every cat I've ever had in my life loved to get on top of the fridge or other elevated horizontal surface so it could properly survey its domain, like a panther on a tree-limb waiting to leap upon a hapless antelope or whatever. Fortunately, none of the cats I ever lived with ever actually developed the habit of leaping upon its human friends from such perches. If they had, I fear some unamused housemate might have turned them into an instant fur rug.

Alas, no cats in the current abode due to landlord restrictions (and Fearless Housemate's allergies). But it's a good thing, because the poor critter would have no perching space atop the fridge here. It's taken up with a whole pile of phone books, plus several packages of paper bowls and plates of various sizes.

[I_call_the_duck]

Plastic boxes which hold things such as cereal, tea, and other dry goods. And the ubiquitous plastic containers.

[jgm]

1. Cereal boxes - circa 1957 kitchen doesn't have cabinets they will fit in.

2. Stuff my husband has been desperately looking for, but he never learns not to put stuff up there because he won't remember that he did and then he'll turn the house upside down looking for it.

3. Dust

[Jaymes]

A large and beautiful and colorful hand-painted bowl from Mexico.

Which is filled with assorted junk that I don't know where else to put.

[johnnyd]

Just enough room for a boombox (knobs now coated with dried cooking slime) and my wifes collection of fortune cookies from takeout dinners.

Edited December 9, 2005 by johnnyd (log)

[*Deborah*]

Cutting boards, a serving tray, scale, and hats, scarves, gloves and handbags.

The cupboard behind has flower vases, martini and sangria pitchers, and a big thermos for drip coffee (seldom used as I normally have espresso).

ETA: and, often, a rather large black and white Manx cat.

Edited December 9, 2005 by *Deborah* (log)

[bigcat39]

Well, I have a WONDERFUL 28 cu. ft. commercial fridge,(oh, the things you can get on ebay for $100....) but it's 6 1/2' tall. I still manage to keep the kid's brekfast cereal up there.

[ludja]

In previous places I have lived, what I kept on top of the fridge always had to include at least one cat. Seemingly every cat I've ever had in my life loved to get on top of the fridge or other elevated horizontal surface so it could properly survey its domain, like a panther on a tree-limb waiting to leap upon a hapless antelope or whatever. Fortunately, none of the cats I ever lived with ever actually developed the habit of leaping upon its human friends from such perches. If they had, I fear some unamused housemate might have turned them into an instant fur rug.

Alas, no cats in the current abode due to landlord restrictions (and Fearless Housemate's allergies). But it's a good thing, because the poor critter would have no perching space atop the fridge here. It's taken up with a whole pile of phone books, plus several packages of paper bowls and plates of various sizes.

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Good one, mizducky! My current cats are not good leapers so they never make it up there. But previous Siamese were terrific jumpers and loved sitting up there--for the high perch and for the warmth from the fridge, I suspect.

OT, but had to comment since you mentioned cats leaping down on people's heads like panthers. A roommate and I had a "good leaper" and hyper-intelligent Siamese cat. He loved to make eye contact such that if you were sitting on a couch and stared at him he would come rushing towards you and run up your chest to stare right back at you. Even well-established cat lovers were sometimes taken aback by this. In addition, we found that if we stared at him fixedly in certain parts of the apt he would leap up vertically towards our face and we would catch him in our arms about chest-level. It was a rather silly thing to train a cat to do; he did do it once to an unsuspecting guest. Our cat was a legendary terror within the graduate department. He wasn't mean at all but was very intense.

He could also jump to the top of an open door and would sometime sit up there balancing between the top of the door and the wall...

[Marlene]

Nothing, because we specifically had the cabinet over the fridge built flush with the front of the fridge to avoid that dead space (as well as the really dead space behind, the cabinet that you can't open without moving all that other stuff out of the way). The cabinet had vertical dividers for storage of cookie sheets, cutting boards, etc.

←

This is exactly what we have too.

[Alex]

Two nice wooden storage boxes holding 22 varieties of herbal, black, and green tea. One purple and orange plush triceratops. Dust.

[SuzySushi]

Warehouse-size boxes of cereal, snack-packs, and 2 cases of instant ramen. I can't reach the small cabinet above the refrigerator at all, not even with a stepladder, so that's perfectly empty!