An Example of FIFO (First In, First Out) Design: Egg Skelters

This object is called an egg skelter, which I’d never heard of before moving to this farm.

We have a lot of laying hens and we use the skelter every day.

Obviously, when cooking you draw eggs from the bottom. It’s a simple way to keep track of eggs by date, ensuring we’re not eating only the new eggs while forgotten eggs slowly go rotten.

It’s a simple and effective design. My only gripe is that it takes up a lot of counter space. (We don’t refrigerate our eggs, as unwashed eggs will stay good for a couple weeks.)

YouCopia, a Chicago-based company founded by serial product developer Lauren Greenwood, makes this sleek, modern version of the egg skelter. It’s easy on the eyes and has a smaller footprint than the incumbent design.

It’s called the Rolldown Egg Dispenser and it runs $20, which is about the same price as the wire ones these days. I don’t think ours will ever break, but if it does I’ll buy YouCopia’s as a replacement.

By the way, if you’re curious what this category of object is called, there’s a food-service and logistics-industry term for it: FIFO (first in, first out). You’ve probably seen those pantry organizers for canned goods or beverages, and vending machines are also technically FIFO devices.

Image: Estera on Unsplash

I wish it was possible to design a refrigerator itself with FIFO principles. More than once I’ve had leftovers go bad because I forgot about them in the back of the ‘fridge.

Source: core77