What could I use fridge shelves and bins for? Anything?

May 17, 2024 4:47 PM

I got a new fridge. I'm scrapping the old fridge. As I'm gathering my condiments to transfer over, I'm looking at my fridge shelves and drawers and the bins in the door and the big wire baskets in the freezer compartment. One produce drawer is cracked, but the rest of this stuff is...really nice. I feel like i could use them to organize something else? Store something else? Something something? And if I let them go with the fridge a week from now I'll be like "OMG I wish I had a bin exactly that size right now." But I don't want a storage space full of random just-in-case someday shelves. So what might they be useful for?

The bins and shelves both have little hooks on the back to attach to the fridge. The wire baskets and drawers do not. I will only save them if one of you has some brilliant "oh, fridge door bins are actually the perfect thing for storing Thing X" or "Fridge shelves can by used as dividers for blah blah" because I have plenty of generic bins (with lids, which fridge bins don't have). I'm looking to avoid kicking myself later not to become a hoarder.

posted by If only I had a penguin... to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

I have used the bins for pantry storage, e.g. if cans fit just right, or things that come in bags.
My favorite was when I had an infant and used the vegetable crisper drawer as an outdoor bassinet. I called it the crispinet and it was hilarious and useful! Kiddo could chill and snooze in there, see some plants and birds and things while we did yard work etc. So if you know any infants or pregnant people, they might get some use out of it.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:56 PM on May 17 [13 favorites]

If you have wire shelves you could put a couple of screws through the wires and hang them in the garage.
posted by MadMadam at 5:00 PM on May 17 [1 favorite]

Or if the shelves are glass you can hook them on something (back of a door?) vertically and use as a dry erase board.
posted by phunniemee at 5:22 PM on May 17 [1 favorite]

If the shelves are wire they make great cooling racks for baking. I prop mine up with four upside-down saucers at the corners.
posted by kate4914 at 6:35 PM on May 17 [3 favorites]

Even if you decide you don't want them, try giving them away on a buy nothing/freecycle-type board - someone will probably have use for them.

I've used leftover glass shelves like that as a surface to either protect what was underneath (like if I was doing some messy project, or was keeping plants or something potentially messy on top of it), or to protect what was above (if I was storing stuff on an unfinished floor, for example).

Wire shelves can be nice for keeping produce in outside of a fridge.
posted by trig at 12:20 AM on May 18 [1 favorite]

I just spent good money on wire baskets for fabric dyeing projects, specifically ice dyes. Placing one wire basket upside down inside a larger non-perforated container, then placing a second basket right side up on top of it, creates a setup that's ideal for ice dyeing (the garment sits in the top basket, potentially atop some wiffle balls or scrunched foil balls, gets covered in ice and a layer of powder dye on top of the ice; as the ice melts it creates watercolour-style patterns on the fabric as the dye colours split and run). If anyone in your household might ever want to try this style of dyeing, I say keep them, as it was weirdly hard to find wire baskets of the right dimensions without also buying a fridge.
posted by terretu at 12:33 AM on May 18 [4 favorites]

We kept the drawers from our old fridge (against my better judgment) and it turns out my family was right and they're great for sorting recycling.
posted by Eyelash at 12:41 AM on May 18 [2 favorites]

Do they fit in your kitchen cupboards? You could use them to categorize baking stuff or bags of dry rice, beans, etc.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:05 AM on May 18

I took my fridge drawer out so that I'd have more room in the fridge. I use it to make cheese. I rest a cooling rack on top and leave my cheeses there to drain.
posted by wheatlets at 6:39 AM on May 18

Replacement glass shelves for refrigerators are very expensive. It might be worth selling them on eBay. If you price them around half the cost of the factory replacement part, they will sell.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:55 AM on May 18 [1 favorite]

Using four bins for recycling: light bulbs, printer cartridges, batteries, drugs/pills/ointments. Since they're the same, they line up neatly on the wire rack next to the back door. As they fill up, we empty and take to an appropriate recycle destination.
posted by Zeedog at 11:08 AM on May 19

If the shelves are glass, they may be useful on your benches as a place to safely put hot things. Other than that, they'll most likely be among other things that you keep for a few years and then throw out a week before you find a use for them.
posted by dg at 8:38 PM on May 19

I currently have an old fridge drawer under my kitchen sink holding cleaning supplies. It works great!
posted by hessie at 6:18 AM on May 20