In an attempt not to waste anything, my family—like many other families in the world—scours our fridge at the end of the week to find the last remaining items that still count as fresh before the next grocery run. Inevitably we’ll find the final remnants of different flavors of shredded cheese lining the bottom of their respective bags or the last few asparagus or green beans that didn’t make the last batch. It’s always fun and interesting to play the “what can we make with this hodgepodge of ingredients?” game. Sometimes a cheese scraps pasta bake really does hit the spot.

Likewise, playing “what can we make with a random assortment of design system components?” is a fun game to make sure your design system stays fresh.

Here’s how you play.

On the last week or each month, pick three components at random and see what your team can make with them. Avatar + Inline Error + Date Picker? Sounds like a perfect component to use in your internal app for HR that purges old contractors after their term expires! List + Pills + Video Thumbnails? Say hello to a filterable dashboard of onboarding videos for new hires!

This exercise can get the creative juices flowing for your design system team and surface some unique possibilities you might not yet have thought of. Plus it can be a light, collaborative way for the team to end a rough week or month.

When’s the last time you cleaned out your design system fridge?