apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I don't have a designated fruit bowl yet as I tend to eat seasonally, so I've been living on roots for the past few months. When I do however, I have this large pedestal basket from Ikea that makes a nice basket for large fruits (its my winter pomegranate storage) I may continue to use this, or turn it into a planter...
A good idea for small kitchens is to have a hanging basket (best made of wire so you can see into it) in a corner near your counter or table.
I also never keep easily perishable fruits out if I don't plan on eating them soon. Fruit baskets are reserved for fruits that disappear.

This isn't a display idea as much as a not letting fruit go rotten technique. In the summer when I buy berries, I immediately clean them and let them dry and then put them in baggies in the freezer for use in smoothies. I even cut up strawberries so that they'll blend more easily. Even in a tiny apartment, this technique allows for taking advantage of the 3 pints for $5 offers at markets.

What about one of those hanging wire baskets?

I like to put fruit and veggies all around the house in whatever bowls/vases/containers I have around. I live in a small (~450 sq. ft.) studio in London and only have a mini-fridge so I can't store much produce in there. What I do is put all the fruit and vegg of the same color in the feng shui area that corresponds to that color.

For example: I'll take plums and aubergines and put them in a dish in the "prosperity" area of the flat, a big bowl of lemons or clementines sits in the "health" area, limes and green apples go in the "family" area etc. It looks great and makes the flat feel so alive and fresh. It also makes it easy to monitor fruit and vegg ripeness and to get my 5-a-day.

What about taking your fruit to work & keeping a fruitbowl on your desk?

If you are putting it on the top of your fridge, it doesn't sound like it is decorative -- more like desperation.

I don't know how small your apt is, but if you really want a "decorative fruit basket" and you have no other space, then perhaps you can eliminate some other decorative item. Maybe eliminate something that is only decorative, since your fruitbowl would be both functional & decorative.

What is on your table that makes you have no room for a fruit bowl? If you don't have a table due to size constraints, I want to see pictures of your place, so that we can better visualize the challenge!

I have a big rectangle bowl/tray/dish on my kitchen table that I put all of my fresh fruit in. I have to keep it where I can see it so I'll eat fruit instead of junk!!

Another recommendation for a hanging basket. That's what I used in my small kitchen and it worked great. Now I have counter space for a black wire pedastal bowl which I like quite well.

I think keeping it on the fridge would make stuff go bad because of the heat up there. Kind of like why you're not supposed to store wine on top of the fridge either.

My fruit is for eatin', so I either store it in the fridge (apples, pears and such) or put it right on the counter so I won't forget about it, even if it's a little bit in the way.

Fruit goes too quickly otherwise.

Fruit does not last long at my house (It gets eaten!) I have it out on the counter in a beautiful bowl my friend made, The bowl (which is more a serving dish I guess, very wide plate with high enough sides) sits on a pedestal I made so that it is out of the way from normal counter traffic.

I put my fruit in the fridge- but sometimes there is too much- like right now I have too many oranges- so they are in my blue enamel colander on the counter. We'll make sure to eat those first. I try not to use food as decor. Too expensive.

I would swap out whatever is on your kitchen table for the fruit bowl. Like another commentor said, it would be functional and pretty.

Or, do you have a coffee table in your living room? I don't see why the fruit has to stay in the kitchen!

I always have a bowl of fruit on my counter. Because my kitchen is black and white the color of fruit and the bowls add color to my kitchen.
I have one big colorful bowl I bought for serving pasta salad for dinner parties I got at the Crate and Barrel Outlet I think I paid $8.00 now I use it to keep apples, bananas, grapefruit, pears in, I always get compliments on this bowl.
I have a smaller vintage bowl from Rosenthal China Raymond Loewy Charcoal line that I use to keep lemons in year round, I am constantly using lemons for cooking and to clean with and the lemons look great in this bowl.

Wood bowl I bought in Ecuador for onions, garlic, shallots.

In the summer I always have a bowl of tomatoes I love they way they look but I always have them on hand because I make salsa twice a week in the summer months.

The only fruit that typically goes into the fridge in a bowl no less are the summer fruits- peaches, plums because these sitting out attract fruit flies

The fridge. The only fruit I don't keep in the fridge is bananas. That's where my mom always kept it, so I do too. Besides, I don't like warm fruit.

I believe less is more and only buy enough fruit to last a couple of days... I want to eat it at its freshest and yummiest. We keep ours in a wooden bowl on the counter (workspace - I just move it to the side when we are busy) that is full of carved and decorative gourds and I just pop the fruit on top... that way its beautiful even when we run out of fruit and the two or three fresh apples don't look sad and lonely.

There is a photo of it at the end of this post if you would like to take a look. http://www.se7en.org.za/2009/01/25/saturday-spot-the-kitchen-tour

Fridge. I have a chrome basket for bananas, since they shouldn't be refrigerated, and we treat the bunnies with a slice at night, so we always have a few on hand.

But everything else is in the fridge.

(I remember a HGTV decorating program -- might have been the makeover section of Design on a Dime -- where they were supposed to only use what the homeowner had on hand. They found two huge glass cylinder vases -- probably 3 feet high and at least 8 inches across -- and filled them with oranges, for a "pop" of color. I cracked up. First, who in their right mind (without an orange tree in the back yard) has what looked like six dozen oranges "on hand"? And second, in a warm room those are going to go spoiled, moldy, and disgusging in a matter of days. This is decor?)

We buy fresh fruit every few days, so there's not that much lying around. We used to store it on the counter, but it was sort of disorganized. I just got this little shelf from Ikea:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80072583
(except ours is white with a nicer punched-metal pattern on the top) and now the fruit doesn't get in the way. As an unexpected bonus, the cutting board fits underneath, so the leftover bread is out of the way too.

I'm surprised by how many people refrigerate their fruit. Of course, I refrigerate berries, but not apples, pears, citrus, bananas. They do keep longer in the fridge, but I don't really have a problem eating up all my fruit in a few days to a week, and all those things keep just fine at room temp for that long. And then the fruit isn't cold when you eat it, so you can taste all the flavors (chilling dulls flavors, which is part of why people like warm pie, and why you have to flavor ice creams so aggressively). I also imagine biting into a very cold apple would rather hurt my teeth. But this is definitely a personal preference. Besides, I don't have room in my fridge with the all bags of nuts and cornmeal and other things that other people don't refrigerate, but I do!

Any produce that does not get refrigerated lives as a centerpiece on the kitchen table. Often there is a bowl each to segregate the fruits and veggies. It makes the space homey and inviting (I have a vintagey eat-in kitchen) and reminds me of what needs to be eaten/cooked!

Many, many fruits and vegetables are better preserved, retaining flavor,texture, and nutrients, OUT of the frig.

I keep some fruit on top of the fridge. usually bananas, or a few pieces that need to ripen. we don't have the counter space or a table in our kitchen, and I actually like that it brightens up the area and raises the eye a bit (along with a nice plant up there). the secret is to use wire baskets so it's all visible and you can't forget about anything, (also: be tall). a container that elevated the fruit slightly off the fridge is best, letting some air flow under and reducing the heat. but any fruit I buy gets eaten rather quickly, anyway, and I now keep an eye out for the fruit of others because...

disgusting story (please don't judge): one of my roommates bought a sweet potato. he left it in it's plastic bag and put it on top of the fridge. because it was in it's plastic bag, moisture got trapped and it started decomposing. this went unnoticed because he shoved it behind the plant. then someone noticed it, went to move it, the bag ripped open, and the nearly liquified potato oozed down the side of the fridge. a rather stern discussion about keeping track of one's food and its storage followed. (sorry for the gross-out.)

I use the stoneware bread basket from WS to hold my citrus fruits and bananas. It lets the air circulate so itr keeps the fruit from over ripening and getting moldy.

Plus I use it for parties to heat up rolls and bread in the oven so they are warm when served and don't go cold.

Pricy but it is a lovely and functional two-fer.

foodefafa: The same thing happened to me! My roommate had a rotten sweet potato at the bottom of her fruit/vegetable bowl. It spawned a few big nasty houseflies that would NOT go away. And of course this happened the week my boyfriend's parents came to my house for Christmas... I'd scrubbed the whole place but the flies sort of ruined the effect.

(My roommate was usually way cleaner than me, so I couldn't really hold it against her.)

Bananas in the fridge, away from other fruit, and everything else in a beautiful wooden bowl from IKEA (some sort of mock-bamboo thing). I keep it on the dining table, which is in the kitchen.