The fridge is one of the hardest working appliances we have in our home, on all day, every day, keeping our food cold. The fridge is prone to food spilling onto the shelves, and if gone unnoticed it will dry up or start to smell. Therefore, it’s important to give the fridge a good clean.
I wipe over my fridge the morning before I do a weekly grocery shop, which is when it’s usually the most empty. However every month or two it’s a good idea to pull all the contents out and give the shelves a thorough clean. I have a hot tip which I will share with you later this week in helping to prevent spills and easy ways to keep your fridge tidy and clean.
How to Clean the Fridge
After determining how to do this task efficiently, you will soon get into a system and be able to complete it rather quickly.
- Move all items out of the fridge onto the kitchen bench, or if you know, this may take time put what you can into an esky.
- Throw away anything that is out of date or spoiled. You’ll be surprised what you’ll find. It’s a good idea to bag these items to prevent them leaking through your bin.
- Take all removable parts out of the fridge and wash in warm soapy water in the sink. It’s important to ensure the water is warm not hot, as the sudden temperature change on a cold glass shelf may cause it to shatter.
- While they are drip drying, wipe the inside of the fridge using warm soapy water or homemade fridge cleaner and sponge. Don’t forget to clean the shelves in the door.
- Dry the shelves and return to fridge.
- Place all food items back into the fridge, however, wipe over bottoms of jars to remove any sticky spills. As you are placing items back into the fridge group similar items together and put nearly expired food to the front as a reminder to use them up.
- Turn temperature control back to the recommended setting. Close fridge door.
- Wipe down the outside of the fridge with hot soapy water, rinse and wipe dry to prevent streaks.
HOMEMADE FRIDGE CLEANER – You don’t want to use chemicals to clean the inside of your fridge as the food will absorb the smell. Try a natural homemade fridge cleaner, find my recipe here.
ELIMINATE ODOURS – If you find you have a constant smell in your fridge, you can eliminate the odour by placing an open box of bicarb in the fridge. When you next clean the fridge, change the box over for a new one. Throw the contents of the old box down the kitchen sink, then run the hot water, this will give your drains a good clean!
CREATE THE HABIT – Before you do your weekly grocery shop, empty fridge of all spoiled food and quickly wipe down the shelves. This shouldn’t take any longer 5 minutes. I use my homemade antibacterial wipes for this.
The benefit of a quick clean before grocery shopping:
- all clean before a new load of food arrives.
- you may not spend as much at the shops because you know what’s in your fridge.
- you may have some good food in there that you can use for meals during the week, eliminating the need to buy too much when grocery shopping.
