High Atop the Fridge

[fifi]

Absolutely nothing that I ever wish to see again. I am too short. I have no idea what is in that little cabinet either. I haven't looked in 3 years. When my tall son was here one time, he looked and said "EEEWWWW!" about the dust and grime. My reply was "What dust? I can't see it, therefore it does not exist."

[Anna N]

I swore nothing would live on top of the 'fridge but space is at such a premium in this tiny house that my vow went by the wayside fairly quickly. Right now, on top of the 'fridge is my butane cooker, some trivets that I use for hot dishes on my dining room table, a plastic box of cookie cutters and other pastry tools, one of my many kitchen timers, and some dust.

[bloviatrix]

We don't have any cabinets about the fridge, so there's a lot of room. In the back is where we keep the microwave, which has probably been used 4 times in 10 years. We keep meaning to toss it. Sitting on top of the microwave is picnic basket and an box with an acrylic cookbook holder. Standing in front of the microwave are assorted boxes of cereal, a tin full of sweet & low, and a bottle of vitamins. We've also got a small toolbox tucked away and a spare 1 gallon jug.

[Lone Star]

A loaf of bread and a bag of potato chips.

This thread has made me try to remember what is in the cabinet on top of the fridge. I will now have to look when I get home.

I am pretty sure there are vases up there, but you never know.

[hjshorter]

Anything I don't want the kids to be able to reach lives up there. Almost every pair of scissors in my house resides on top of our fridge, along with Sharpie permanent markers, and my knife block. The kids lunchboxes are usually up there too, only because that's the only place with room for them.

Our cat likes to perch above the door and stare down at us like a vulture.

[rooftop1000]

On top of the fridge ...hmmmm catering trays, envelopes, old easter baskets phone books the paperplates and paperplate holders, coffee can with pens, and a gift bag with perfume in it from god knows where (shudder) and I assume, dust

tracey

[sparrowgrass]

About a hundred egg cartons, all opened and nested together. Friends and family save them for me, but my old hens quit laying to molt about 8 weeks ago, and the new young birds are just now beginning to lay, so I have a backlog of cartons.

My KA mixer. Just *had* to have it, but found that I don't use it often enough to warrant keeping it on the counter. The KA food processor is up there, too, but I just decided to get rid of the bread maker, so the food processor will move back down to the counter soon.

The bread maker is possessed. It is a Zojirushi, with the long bread pan with 2 paddles. The little devil has decided to keep all the dough on one side of the pan, so the loaf is definitely not show quality if I bake it in there. Might as well just do the whole thing the old fashioned way.

The pressure canner lives up there during the summer canning season, but goes out in the shed in the winter.

Sometimes a loaf of bread or package of tortilla chips hangs out up there.

[TPO]

It's breakfast central on my fridge, with an assortment of cereal and a bunch of bananas.

[Megan Blocker]

I have a set of stoneware mixing bowls, my mini-mortar and pestle (a gift from my grandparents), the mason jar that holds my pie weights, and a bowl of tomatoes!

[saskanuck]

There aren't any food items on top of my fridge because they'd get forgotten. There is a pencil/pen/scissors/etc holder that looks like a little galvanized pail, assorted bills, paperwork, and junk like that up there.

In the cupboard behind/above are the cookbooks I don't use very frequently, but it only takes a small stool for me to reach them because I'm tall. I do have to move the pencil holder to get at them though.

And I know for certain that there's a lot of dust up there.

[JEL]

just checked.......

1 can skoal chewing tobbacco, fine cut wintergreen........

1 flyswatter........

no dust.........

current issue of "playboy".........

i like to read the articles while the coffee brews in the morning.........

[KatieLoeb]

Besides the dust, usually the jar of whatever infusion I'm in the midst of making (often limoncello, but today the makings for a cranberry liqueur), my foil wrapped bricks for weighing down gravlax or whatever needs it, and a couple of random empty liquor bottles I'm saving to refill with some creation or another.

[Ling]

I used to climb on the counter and then sit on top of the fridge, calming eating my afternoon snack, when I was small enough to fit in that space. I'm not sure why I did that, but it sure gave my mom a start when she saw me one day.

Right now, the top of the fridge is for Costco-sized boxes of cereal.

[SuzySushi]

I used to climb on the counter and then sit on top of the fridge, calming eating my afternoon snack, when I was small enough to fit in that space. I'm not sure why I did that, but it sure gave my mom a start when she saw me one day.

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I can just imagine!

Thanks for today's sweetest image!

[Ling]

^heh heh...I distinctly remember what I was eating the day she caught me--it was strawberry ice-cream that I had scooped (with great difficulty) in a sugar cone.

[bavila]

What is it about our culture that so many of us put cereal above the fridge? Hmm...

No cereal on the fridge in this house. One big artificial plant arrangement which fills the space quite nicely with a green accent for the VERY red walls. A small "boom"box (out of kiddies' reach), lunch boxes (behind the plant and stereo) and an Igloo water jug. Also an ice bucket and small coffee thermos.

In a previous home with a galley kitchen we had the microwave above the fridge which drove my mother crazy -- she was sure we'd drop a boiling hot dish on ourselves sometime.

We also used to have cabinets above the current fridge (which is in a corner and not adjacent to any other cabinets), but when I painted the kitchen red, I chucked the cabinets cuz they just held stuff I didn't use and looked weird all suspended by their lonesome.

Edited December 10, 2005 by bavila (log)

[Toliver]

I'm tall so I see everything on top of the fridge (it's an apartment refrigerator so it's not the best nor is it the biggest).

On top of my fridge resides my small fire extinguisher and my complete supply of Ziploc-type bags (all sizes), plastic wraps, wax paper, parchment paper and my big ass roll of aluminum foil from Costco...I never run out!

One bad thing I discovered was as much as I like the new Glad Press N' Seal plastic wrap, letting it sit high atop the refrigerator in the summer heat caused the roll to cling to itself and made it extremely difficult to use. I was bummed but I'm over it now. Thanks.

[Hest88]

Clorox wipes and sometimes a roll of paper towels.

And yeah, one of our cats--the Japanese Bobtail--likes sitting atop the frig, so we can't put anything there she might want to destroy.

[suzilightning]

plastic drinks glasses - including the I Survived the Flood of 2000 plastic mugs with the full sequence of our local disaster - john's teapot and my containers of parchment paper and sandwich bags that fit perfectly right next to the left side and the stove and a crock of extra implements of destruction

[kalypso]

What a great topic

On top of my fridge are --

2 insulated lunch bags

4-pak of L.A. Weight Loss meal replacement shakes (LAWL does work!)

1 Bundt cake pan

1 half size hotel pan

1 knife block with knives

2 nesting bread baskets

1 paella pan

1 cake pan

1 grocery bag with about 10 coffee cups in it

(and a partridge in a pear tree)

On the topic of cats that like fridge tops, I used to own a show quality Persian cat, yes one of those smashed face felines. Contrary to popular belief, she was fully capable of propelling herself anywhere with great speed and impulsion. Her favorite thing to do was to race through the house at breakneck speeed, take one bounce onto the kitchen counter, dash across the counter depending upon where she had landed on it, one more bounce and land on top of the fridge, and then usually one final bounce onto the top of the cabinets, which didn't go all the way to the ceiling. There she went into vulture mode, hanging over the edge watching everything and everybody, planning her exit stradegy. My Maine Coons were much less impressed with her antics than I.

[andiesenji]

I have an open cabinet over my fridge that holds my sheet pans and other flat pans, bun pans, big muffin pans, trays.

It sets back 10 inches from the front of the fridge because the fridge does not set all the way back against the wall. (Space used to hold built in fridge and freezer).

There is just enough space between the top of the fridge and the bottom of the cabinet to hold 2 flat boxes of parchment pan liners, full sheet and half sheet with the flap at the end of each box hinged at the top so the paper stays clean. I move a cart in front of the fridge, pull down a sheet pan, apply a liner, stack the next pan on top, apply a liner and so on.

When I lived down below and still had the 32 cf side-by-side Kelvinator, the top held my sprout "garden" as I found that my sprout trays produced sprouts twice as fast there as anywhere else in the kitchen. I also used to place my dough trough up there for the dough to rise. It was just warm enough to promote optimum yeast action.

I still miss that fridge. It may have been an energy hog and it wasn't frost-free, but it held a lot of stuff and ALL the shelves were slide-out and adjustable to any height.

Edited December 10, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[srhcb]

  I also used to place my dough trough up there for the dough to rise.  It was just warm enough to promote optimum yeast action.

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Now THAT is a great idea!

SB

[daniellewiley]

Our phone book, an Easter basket, a small wooden egg "crate" and various bags of chips.

[purplewiz]

Cereal boxes.

A box of oatmeal.

The one box of crackers we keep in the house so we can serve crackers and cheese to guests at the holidays. The box will hang around until the next holiday, at which time it will be thrown out and replaced.

A box of powdered milk that is older than I care to admit.

A box of protein shake mixes that my spousal unit used to drink for breakfast but has given up for some reason (probably because they have the consistency and taste of latex paint).

A can of "Nevr Dull" brass polish.

A can of WD-40.

A can of day-glo orange spray paint used for marking things outside.

A stainless steel thermos that falls off once in awhile.

More dust than I care to admit.

I have NO idea what's in the cabinets up there. I put stuff in there when we moved in 9 years ago and I don't think I've looked in there since. Obviously it's not important.

Marcia.

Edited December 10, 2005 by purplewiz (log)

[MarketStEl]

Lessee...besides dust, there's:

--The salt and pepper mills (they don't like the sometimes-damp kitchen counter)

--A package of napkins

--A wooden salad bowl

--Two aluminum foil pans

--The coffee filters

--Bottles of aspirin (don't ask how these ended up here)

--A box of toothpicks

--A box of straws

--Three boxes of sickeningly sweet cereal (the roomie likes this stuff)

--My file card box full of recipes I've clipped out of various and sundry places

--A metal box full of recipes I've clipped out of various and sundry places

--A wooden box that originally held Gethsemani Trappist cheese, but now holds recipes I've clipped out of various and sundry places

--A metal tin that once held cookies, but now does not hold recipes I've clipped out of various and sundry places; I imagine I'll figure out something to put in it someday

--A cheeseboard with plastic cover

--A glass ice bucket that we can't store on the liquor cart because it's full of other junk