Don’t Bring Your Containers To My Fridge 😤

All of this decanting and labeling and color coordinating is out of control

In case you hadn’t noticed, containers are in.  They are cool. And hot.  Chill.  And on fire.  In vogue.  And cosmopolitan.  

When you put containers in your refrigerator, they will either give you life or make you drop dead with their gorgeousness.  When you post pictures of your container filled fridge on Instagram, people will swoon.  Everyone.  Will.  Swoon.  If you’re an alien, visiting Earth, scrolling Instagram on your phone because you’re trying to blend in, then you absolutely know that in order to have an organized refrigerator you have to take everything out of its original packaging, and put it into bright, shiny, see-through packaging, and if it doesn’t go click, click, click when you’re dropping your apples and cheese slices and eggs into the boxes then are you even doing it right?

I mean, not for nothing but whoever came up with this “you should buy a bunch of boxes to hold all your food inside the giant refrigerator you bought to hold all of your food” marketing ploy really nailed it.  Those “restock my fridge with me” and “organize my fridge with me” videos have totally got me feeling like Dayum I gotta get me a container.  Because Dayum what if my fridge looked like that… 

Yeah Viv, what if?  Tell me.  If the inside of your stainless steel electrified cooler box looked like that, what are you gonna do?  

Are you going to invite people over for cocktails and ask them to stand there with their martinis staring into your refrigerator so they can see how you spent 350 bucks on containers to hold your blueberries and string cheeses and coffee creamer? 

No no. I don’t think so.  You’re not going to do that because that would be weird.  And not half as fun for anyone as drinking gin and playing rummy. 

And also, if you’ve got 350 greenbacks laying around, you’re 100% not buying a bunch of empty boxes.  You’re buying a weekend in Newport.  

Are you going to be happier with a fridge full of see-through boxes?

Are you not an old, single, childless, cat lady who is fully capable of finding something to eat without requiring the food to sit there all cold and naked in 17 labeled acrylic receptacles?  

So, let’s be honest about this out of control, Instagram sensation, refrigerator container situation.  

All of those containers in all of those refrigerators?  

They’re not about organizing your fridge.  

They’re about making your fridge look pretty.  

And if you want a pretty refrigerator, then knock yourself out.  Decant and label and color code it up.  

But don’t buy a bunch of containers to stick in your fridge in the name of organizing.  

Containers are not about organizing.  They are about containing.   

And guess what? If you have a refrigerator, you already have what you need to contain your food.  

Uhm.  I don’t know if you noticed, but inside your fridge? They put some shelves and a couple of drawers.  For you to put your food in.  And on.  

Seriously.

So, you’re all set.  You don’t need anything else inside your fridge to contain your food.  You can organize your fridge so that it’s clean and tidy and functional and makes it easy for you to whip up a 30-minute Rachel Ray dinner before The Voice starts.  And you don’t have to spend a small fortune on Amazon buying a bunch of plastic that you know darn well is going to end up in the landfill when you’re like, “Whyyyy am I wasting my time moving eggs from the cardboard egg carton to the effing plastic egg carton?”  You don’t have to do this to have a refrigerator that is organized, functional, and beautiful.  Which is good news.  For your pocketbook.  And the planet. 

The thing is, we’ve been watching all of this organizing porn and so now we’re confusing tidy, efficient, and easy with chic, sleek, and sexy.  

Listen, I too have eyes.  And for real, some of those refrigerators are seck-seeeee.  But drooling over these images is giving you, me, and the aliens a skewed idea of what an organized refrigerator is supposed to look like.  

So.

What if we stop normalizing the hyper-containerized Frigidaire?

What if we DON’T buy a bunch of containers to put in the fridge?  

What if the fridge IS the container.  

What if we just let the fridge BE the container that holds the food.  

Your fridge doesn’t need containers to be organized.  It just needs to be organized.  

So you can easily grab the martini olives when you invite your cat lady friends over to finally plan that weekend getaway. To Newport.

Not stuffing my fridge with stuff I can’t eat,
Vivian

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