This trend has been gaining popularity on social media platforms for some time now.
Experts warn of the dangers of cluttered refrigerators and mixing food and fresh flowers.
In 2024, the important thing isn’t whether your fridge is full or empty. What really matters among Instagram and TikTok users is whether the inside is cool. This kind of content is generating floods of comments and thousands of views. What does your fridge look like? Is it a boring appliance full of cartons of milk, yogurt, and a Tupperware container with leftovers from dinner? Or does it seem more like a Victorian cabinet, which wouldn’t be out of place on the set of Bridgerton? The second option refers to “fridgescaping,” a strange trend that has been gaining followers on social media for some time now.
The problem here isn’t whether you’re more or less convinced about putting framed flowers, busts, and portraits in your refrigerator, but rather that fridgescaping involves some risks.
What’s a refrigerator for? I know the question may seem extravagant. However, one thing is evident from the videos and photos circulating on Instagram and TikTok: People can use these appliances for more than just preserving food. In addition to keeping our vegetables and fish fresh, refrigerators can become ornaments or decorative objects. With the fridgescaping trend, these appliances can turn into furniture, sideboards, and shelves filled with picture frames, vases, and figurines.
At least, that’s how influencer Lynzi Judish (@lynziliving) sees this new way of decorating. The content creator has over 20,000 followers on her Instagram and TikTok accounts, which focus primarily on home decor. In between pictures of paintings, living room tables, decks, and tiles, Judish has dedicated a few posts to show refrigerators. And no, she’s not displaying appliances or doors full of magnets. Instead, she posts how she decorates the shelves of her fridge. Next to the food, you can see wicker baskets, porcelain pieces, flowers, and, in some cases, figures and portraits.
Don’t say fridge, say fridgescaping. Judish isn’t the only one who’s started to use the inside of refrigerators as an unexpected testing ground for unleashing her love of decorating. Rebecca (@rebeccathrifts), who has nearly 25,000 followers on TikTok, has also shown her followers how to decorate the shelves, nooks, and crannies of a fridge with secondhand items like a small mirror, metal trays, vases of fresh flowers, or a candlestick.
Tiffany (@houseofbishophq) does the same. The content creator tags her photos and videos with hashtags like #fridgescaping, #fridgescape, #fridgeorganization, and #fridgescape. These hashtags lead to posts commenting on others’ creations or adding new images.
They all share the same taste for “refrigerator landscaping,” with fridge shelves filled with fruit, flowers, jars, and wicker trays—almost like a modern version of baroque still life. Some people opt for personal adaptations (ornate or sober). Others prefer themed versions, like this Halloween-inspired one that Stephanie Hanna shared on TikTok.
Going back 13 years. Fridgescaping has gained momentum because of social media platforms. However, some argue that the term is familiar and has a particular tradition. Judish traces it back to a 2011 post by a designer and former blogger, Kathy Perdue. However, her approach differed from the ornate refrigerator shelves of vases, flowers, and figurines now circulating on TikTok. As CNN reports in an in-depth article on the trend, Perdue used the word “fridgescaping,” but what she was suggesting was storing food neatly, elegantly, and in “pretty containers.”
“I like my refrigerator to be neat and clean and even pretty inside!!” the blogger wrote in January 2011. However, the photos she included in her post bear little resemblance to those shared by Rebecca or Judish. The second one even went so far as to decorate a refrigerator inspired by the popular Netflix series Bridgerton, including portrait frames, wicker baskets, fruit, trays, flowers, ceramic pieces, teapots, and ribbons—all in the refrigerator itself.
“I’ve never felt healthier.” Fridgescaping supporters believe the trend is more than just a particularly quaint take on decorating that focuses on the inside of the appliance. This space appears fully functional and is usually not looked at by anyone other than those who own it. “I’ve never felt healthier, which is a very unexpected side effect,” Judish told CNN. She says the first step to decorating refrigerators is to clean them thoroughly. By tailoring her shopping list to the theme of each decoration, Judish says she ends up cooking new dishes every week.
Judish insists she feels joy when she opens the door to find a bucolic print. “When an artist’s medium of expression is painting, they turn to the canvas. In my case, mine is the refrigerator,” Tiffany Bishop told The New York Times. Some say fridgescaping helps them organize and provides extra motivation to clean out the fridge. They even believe the trend could gain traction as door-in-door models expand.
This trend is generating mixed feelings. Not everyone is convinced about the purported benefits of fridgescaping. As it’s gained visibility, some users on social media are warning about the risks of turning refrigerators into furniture with jars, porcelain, flowers, vases of liquids, and uncovered vegetables. Laura Mountford, author of the book Live, Laugh, Laundry, recently questioned the appropriateness of using wicker baskets, as seen in some refrigerators on Instagram or TikTok.
“You can get plenty of acrylic boxes for any food, which are much easier to clean properly. The fridge is not the place for a wicker basket,” Mountford told The Telegraph. Others, such as Mioko Fujisaki, head of a design firm specializing in kitchen interiors, point out something even more fundamental: Framed jars, figurines, and portraits take up space, which isn’t usually abundant in refrigerators.
And how does it affect health? The million-dollar question. Although Judish claims she’s never felt healthier, some question whether it’s a good idea to stuff the fridge with ornaments and organize it for the most aesthetically pleasing result. “Refrigerators are designed to keep food at safe temperatures, usually between 1 °C [33.8 °F] and 4 °C [39.2 °F]. When you introduce non-food items like flowers or antique vases, they can obstruct air circulation, leading to uneven cooling,” kitchen expert Allen Civlak told Express.
He insists that the result can be areas of the refrigerator that get too hot, even creating an environment where bacteria can grow. Another risk, he warns, is cross-contamination: Decorative items, such as fresh flowers, can transfer bacteria or pesticides to food.
Less sustainable kitchens. “A cluttered fridge, especially one filled with non-essential decorative items, forces the refrigerator to work harder to maintain its temperature. This increased strain can lead to higher energy consumption, driving up electricity bills and contributing to a less sustainable household,” Civlak added. There’s another, even more obvious risk: over-decorating can break a shelf, affecting the appliance and the food inside.
The three basic rules. A few months ago, CBC Public Protection shared guidelines from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for refrigerator safety, some of which don’t favor fridgescaping. Users must keep the interior at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or even lower. In addition, they must not put many items in place to ensure air circulation. Above all, users must cover raw meat, fish, and seafood. There are many uncovered foods in the videos and photos of refrigerators circulating on TikTok and Instagram. However, they’re basically fruits, vegetables, and greens, such as bunches of asparagus, tomatoes, and grapes.
The Telegraph reports that the FSA has warned users not to store their food in containers used for other purposes. They must use sealed bags or containers to avoid cross-contamination. What’s abundant in the images of fridgescaping are pieces of ceramic, metal, wicker, wood, and glass that, in many cases, have other functions than storing food in the fridge. As you can see, there are also fresh flowers. Judish shows how she cuts them straight from the garden in one of her videos. Fridgescaping even includes garlands with lights.
Image | Dom Crayford
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