I am a fanatic when it comes to keeping my refrigerator clean and I routinely give it a good overall cleaning each and every month! Today, I wanted to share with all of you my favorite tips on how to give your refrigerator and overall good cleaning.
Note: Since your food and beverages will be setting out…you want to get all your supplies together before starting and do this on a day when you will not have any distractions. You want to work quickly so if you have a partner who can help you or an older child…let them help you with this cleaning task to get it done quicker.
1. Unloaded your dishwasher and clean out your kitchen sink before you even start this cleaning project.
2. Gather your supplies: clean bucket, liquid dish soap, salt, baking soda, lemon juice, clean (new) sponges and clean cotton dry towels.
3. Remove everything from the refrigerator! Toss out old and expired food and condiments. Use a damp cloth to wipe down condiment bottles, butter dishes, etc. Let them sit on counter top or table to dry.
4. Fill up your bucket with warm water and liquid dish soap. Use a clean sponge and wipe down everything that is non-removable inside the refrigerator. Things that are removable such as shelving, bins, egg holders and trays should be tossed into the dishwasher and ran on a light or gentle load. The dishwasher will do a much better job at removing grime and food than you spending hours hand scrubbing them so toss in everything that you can.
5. For stubborn stuck on food and grime use a baking soda paste or salt scrub to remove the debris from inside your refrigerator. Some stains from food can be lightened and/or removed by soaking them in pure lemon juice.
6. Fill up your bucket again with warm water and a few squirts or teaspoons of lemon juice. Wipe out your refrigerator for a second time to remove any soapy residue and the lemon juice will act as a natural deodorizer and refresher. Air dry or use clean cotton towels to dry out the dampness.
7. This is a good time to fix any broken shelves or bins since everything is out of your refrigerator. If you have an extra light bulb on-hand, replace it now. Do any repairs that need to be done now while your refrigerator is empty.
8. Remove all washed items from the dishwasher and dry them if they are not heat dried. Place them back into the refrigerator and then begin loading in your food and beverage items.
You should be cleaning out your refrigerator and giving it a thorough cleaning every month to keep germs at bay and to keep foods fresh.Once you get used to doing it, it will quickly become part of your cleaning routine.
Do you have any tips or tricks related to this topic? If so, leave them below in our blog’s comment form. Thanks!
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I’m afraid I agree with Anne. It’s great that you’re that devoted to keeping your fridge clean on a monthly basis. I would aspire to that if I were a germaphobe. But I believe you need a few germs around to keep that immune system doing its job. Great article!
I do not clean the refrigerator like you do every months. I check for grime and expired items every week and clean more thoroughly and change baking soda every few months.
Wow–I thought I was doing pretty good by tossing old stuff every two weeks, when the trash truck comes. But emptying and cleaning the whole refrigerator every month? I’m afraid that’s just beyond me! I hope you don’t think any less of me as a person, but I only do that a couple of times a year. Still, I love your process and will incorporate at least some of your times during my next Big Clean. Thanks!
Egads – every month?! I feel accomplished when I get to this every three months! Although I do do a good weaning and swipe through on major shopping days – it makes it so much easier to verify what I need to buy and what I don’t. I love your process, though – I’ll add lemon juice next time as I usually use a “green” window cleaner.
This is a great post. I am a clean freak and am super crazy about expiration dates. I once was a guest at a picnic and got food poisoning by eating bad mayo that was not kept cool enough in the cooler. EVER since then I am super extra crazy about safe food temperatures and expiration dates on all food. Thanks for all of the great information I did not know about the salt scrub. The only thing that I could add is to go out and purchase a refrigerator thermometer that shows frozen zone/ food safe zone/ spoilage zone. I look at ours almost everyday just to be sure. All of this has scared me off of ever eating at a potluck again in my life because you never know the cleanliness of the kitchens where the food is coming from or what their refrigerator looks like – Scary Movie LOL. Thanks for another great post.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I always have problems keeping out refridgerator clean because we have many very bulky items in there ( large juice bottles, milk jugs, beer growlers) and often stuff gets pushed to the back and forgotten about.
I might just make tomorrow a fridge cleaning day and follow every one of your tips.
Thanks for the reminder and post. We quick clean are refrigerator every couple of weeks but you really need to do a thorough clean. This is a great time to go through your items and rearrange. Get rid of old and check to see what you need to eat soon. This is also a good time to change baking soda box if you keep one in the fridge. Our next project is cleaning out and defrosting the freezer, and I am not looking forward to it.