The Kitchen: Refrigerator

Your cold water, cold milk, and the meats that you keep for dinner are all in the refrigerator. Cleaning your refrigerator is going to help it run more efficiently and will help keep odors down while keeping your foods cold at the same time. No matter how long you have had your refrigerator, cleaning it out will cut odors.

Starting with the freezer, if you have frost in the freezer you will need to defrost it. I wipe down the inside of my freezer with hot soapy water, getting all the crumbs out and then I will wipe it down with clear water.  I pitch everything that looks too frosty, anything that is too outdated that was long forgotten in the freezer. 

You can clean your freezer out with any type of cleaner you feel most comfortable. If you have frost in the freezer, putting a pan of water that is hot in the freezer while help speed up the defrosting process.

Before I put anything back in the freezer, I make sure all the seals are wiped down good with hot soapy water.  If dirt continually accumulates in the seals, the seals can dry out and break. The water keeps the seals clean and in place. Large pieces of food that get in the seals can prevent the freezer from closing just right, which will waste energy. 

Now that the freezer is cleaned and organized, I move down to the refrigerator lower portion. I literally take everything out of the fridge. I put it all on the counters and I take out the racks, drawers, and the supports for the drawers. I wash all the racks and such, in hot soapy water, killing off the germs, and washing away spills and crumbs.  You can use bleach water, soapy water, vinegar water, baking soda in your water or any other type of cleaner you like to clean. I leave everything to drip dry just because I do not like to have to dry with towels!

Now that you have everything on the counter, the fridge is empty and your racks are clean and drying you can move onto cleaning the inside of your refrigerator. The inside of your refrigerator most likely has the remains of spills from the children, bowls that tip over, and crumbs in the fridge from everything else.

You can use your favorite cleaner or you can use inexpensive hot water and soap, hot water and vinegar, water and baking soda, or water and bleach to cut through sticky grimy messes. The worst places are going to be on the door where jars sit, in the very bottom where spills gather, and on the sides where small children’s hands seem to touch all the time.

Now you are working on washing out the entire inside of the refrigerator, it is a good time to change that box of baking soda that you use to keep the refrigerator smelling good all the time. I do not keep one in the freezer, but I do in the lower portion of my fridge.

Some people will cover the very bottom of their refrigerator with plastic wrap to protect the spills from staining the bottom of the appliance, but this is up to you. My refrigerator is already stained, so it is pointless for me.

When you are cleaning the inside of your refrigerator you should focus on cleaning the grime and dirt from in between the small seals on the door and on the fridge itself. Using a soft toothbrush, the dirt will come out easily. You do not want to brush too hard so you don’t loosen the seals and then have a energy leak problem or worse, the heat getting in the fridge more often!

Focusing on the door, your soft toothbrush and a little soap and water will come in handy in the cracks where the shelves connect to the door. Getting the dirt out of these areas will prolong the life of your accessories. I do not like to use straight bleach in the refrigerator because some finished will stain. You are not going to want to use scratchy pads in the refrigerator either, because this can scratch the paint and make it unsightly. 

If you have scratches in the paint on or in your fridge, you might want to get some type of automotive touch up paint and touch it up. This little touch up will prevent rust from starting in this scratched area making your refrigerator look nicer longer. Rust on the refrigerator makes it look dirty all the time.

If you already have rust starting to build up on your refrigerator, try a little soft scrub soap on the area, or a rust remover. After you remove what rust you have, sealing the scratch would be best to keep it from spreading even further.

For your deep cleaning session, you will want to clean behind the refrigerator and the entire outside of the refrigerator. Sweeping the pet hair, dust and wiping up the spills under and behind the refrigerator is going to help you cut back on odors in the kitchen. Hidden odors like orange juice under the fridge can be stinky!

You are also going to want to sweep the vent and the racks on the very back of the refrigerator. Use the attachment on your sweeper that you would use for your couch or drapes, one with a soft end that will not protrude into the vents or cooling system. Removing hair and dust from your vents will prolong the life of your refrigerator because it will not have to work as hard to cool itself.

Wiping down the exterior of your refrigerator will keep smells and odors down as well. Spills down the side of the refrigerator might not even be seen until you move the refrigerator out so it will stink in the warm house.

Washing down the sides of your refrigerator or the top, you can use hot soapy water, and a clear water rinse or you can use bleach and water, baking soda/ vinegar/ ammonia/ or your favorite cleaner on the fridge. The best way to get sticky messes off will be to use a non-scratch abrasive cleaner that will lift the stickiness off the paint without leaving scratches.

You can clean the top of your refrigerator at any time and if you have not cleaned it in a few months, you most likely are going to have to clean it more than once to get all the dust and dirt off.

Your deep cleaning of taking everything out of the refrigerator and having to move the refrigerator for a good clean that will eliminate odors, rusts, and all the mess can be prolonged or possibly eliminated by adding some of these tasks to your weekly routine and your daily routine.

For example, wiping up spills as soon as you notice them in the refrigerator will prevent it from staining and growing mold. Wrapping or using plastic ware that will not spill or allow leaks, helps keep the fridge cleaner. When you are cleaning up the kitchen, wiping down the outside of the refrigerator quickly with your hot dishwater will help keep it cleaner longer without too much hard work!

One method of remembering to wipe down the outside of the refrigerator weekly will be when you put your groceries away for the week, wash down the outside of the refrigerator when you are done. Making this a habit will keep grease and oily prints from building up on the outside of your appliance.