The Once Popular Refrigerator Feature Younger Home Cooks May Never See

Hindsight is 20/20, but some erstwhile kitchen appliance features sure do seem less necessary than others. For every formerly functional refrigerator feature, it seems as though there were two more superfluous ones, like hand-operated ice ejectors, for example. What is and is not useful is somewhat subjective, of course, and your own opinion of another largely obsolete fridge accessory will vary based on your own cooking habits: the egg storage bin.

Egg prices aren't the only things to ebb and flow over the decades; the way we store them has, too. Not to be confused with the egg trays that you might commonly find in refrigerator doors, egg storage bins were more like drawers you could put wherever you wanted, like on an interior shelf. There isn't exactly robust tracking of the things, but some surviving resale market finds seem to indicate a 1950s to 1970s heyday.

General Electric's optional and since discontinued egg bins were just one apparent option. They would typically have measured 14.5 inches by 4.5 inches to accommodate two dozen eggs at a time, according to the company website. For comparison, a standard 12-count egg carton, which you can also stack, will measure about 12 inches by 4 inches. So the difference would be negligible to all but the most dedicated spacemaxxers. That ultimately just doesn't seem to have amounted to enough folks for major makers like the General to continue minting egg storage bins for younger home cooks to choose — or not — for themselves. There wasn't some massive move away from them, but dedicated manufacturer egg bins have virtually vanished to date. "Most consumers leave the eggs in the egg carton," GE's site reads.

High cadence egg households might still like a dedicated place to keep their eggs that isn't the typical cardboard carton, and egg storage bins aren't without their charms. They do make the eggs a little easier to just grab versus opening the cardboard encasement, particularly if you tend to secure yours with a rubber band. Anyone whose spouse has ever texted them from the market asking how many eggs are left will also appreciate the quick visual. But if there is some sparkling new refrigerator with a readymade egg bin hiding among shopping links somewhere, we have yet to find it among the more contemporary (yet questionable) AI appliance options. Plenty of modern standalone egg storage bins, however, more or less approximate what GE and others would have been making in years past with a fairly neutral, timeless aesthetic. 

If you're feeling nostalgic for a refrigerator feature that you, personally, may have never even seen, you can find some purportedly vintage egg storage bins on sites like Etsy and eBay. Many of their styles come across as very tethered to what many will think of as a 1950s, '70s, or otherwise precise era, so they might not quite fit in with, say, the smart refrigerators that are trending today. But, who knows, you might actually end up using 'em longer than whatever gimmicky features those newer models are peddling.