Refrigerator 101
I can’t remember who said, “The front of one’s refrigerator is a window to one’s soul.” Someone famous I’m sure, and truer words were never spoken.
What’s on your refrigerator at any given time (magnets, pictures, scraps of paper) tells something about you. I’m not sure what exactly, but I’ll take a stab at it.
I can’t stand having items on the fridge that are more than a couple of years old. I need things to be fairly up to date and sorted in a tidy fashion, which is funny because my family ranks me high on the messy and disorganized scale in most other aspects of life.
My design style is similar to a Rothko painting. Simple and square. Things aren’t spewed all over its face, with items chaotically overlapping and colors bleeding into each other. I’ve been in some homes where it takes me five minutes just to find the refrigerator handle because it’s so covered with stuff.
I follow some basic refrigerator design rules. The magnets for the doctor, school, hospital, vet, etc. go in the lower left quadrant so you don’t have to look at them all the time, but you know where they are.
My guidelines for family pictures are clear. Be somewhat current, for God’s sake. I would rather not go to open the refrigerator door and see a picture of myself 10 years and 15 pounds ago. This puts a downer on getting a snack, to say the least.
Having a photo on the fridge of your child graduating from preschool, when they are now 25 years old, makes people question your parenting skills and wonder if that’s the last time you bothered to take a picture.
Also, make sure that all your immediate family is represented somewhere, even if it’s some massive group shot. There’s nothing as uncomfortable as having your in-laws visit, peruse the front of the refrigerator, and find themselves missing. You won’t see a birthday gift for a while.
I’m not so rigid on magnet composition, though keep it neat. Magnets can serve as a travelogue of sorts, and ours represent a variety of trips, including to the Alamo, Costa Rica, and the Grand Canyon. But never put on a magnet from some place you’ve never been. That would be wrong and misleading, and subject you to remedial refrigerator design class.
Feel free to call with any questions.
– AP
