The Old-Fashioned Fridge Features That Were Way More Functional Than Today's Models
We like to pride ourselves on our modern advances and conveniences. And while we've come a long way in many cases, we've also regressed in many others. Foodies of past decades had it easier and better in regards to some innovations we'd argue — certainly when it comes to fridge features in days of yore, many of which were downright futuristic.
Rotating doors and drawers, removable crispers that were designed to be run right under the sink for easy washing of produce — the designs of fridges in the mid-century era put modern-day fridges to absolute shame. One feature we're totally fixated on, common 50 years ago but something you'd never see today, are rotating fridge shelves. Yep, mid-century cooks could simply pull a fridge shelf out to grab food from the back, which easily rotated out on a swivel like a lazy Susan. No more bending or crouching to grab food from the back, or forgetting about it altogether, a common cause of food waste we've all experienced.
This feature was offered from around the '40s to '60s, and why it ever fell out of fashion is completely beyond us. If you're in the market for new appliances, perhaps you'd be better off skipping the shiny new models and hunting down the retro fridge your grandma had. And it wasn't just old school fridges that in many ways outperform modern versions — we also demand to know why the antique stove options were so much cooler!
Mid-century fridges were designed to solve common problems
The features of MCM fridges were futuristic for the time and still are, designed to solve for spatial hangups and common frustrations cooks of any era experience. Who hasn't ever lost leftovers to the back of the cramped fridge or struggled to remove cumbersome shelving for the seasonal fridge decluttering and washing you're definitely regularly doing (right?).
Fridges of the 1940s through '60s were designed with innovation in mind, especially when it came to convenience. Meaning, they didn't just look sleek and keep food cool, but made food prep and storage so much easier for the home cook. That's to say nothing of the materials they were made of in this era — often super durable aluminum designed to last compared to many of today's plastic-forward constructions. And then there's the longevity — one can still find functional mid-century fridges in antique stores and online marketplaces, often still running as good as new!
Today's modern fridges by contrast are largely focused on smart features like Wi-Fi connectivity, device syncing, and the like. Cool and impressive features in their own right, no doubt. But with all our modern touchscreens and appliance computerization, we seem to have forgotten the good old analog improvements like swivel, lazy Susan-style shelving, that actually made life way simpler.