September 1, 2014
How to Clean Your Refrigerator
This week’s organizing (and cleaning) task is the REFRIGERATOR. (September’s cleaning and organizing calendar is here). Keeping your refrigerator clean and organized isn’t easy with all the use it receives every day. Sticky shelves, crumbs, and food residue can be easily wiped up and taken care of in minutes, making cleaning your refrigerator a simple and easy 15-30 minute task.
Weekly Maintenance Tip:
I find that the only way to keep the refrigerator organized and clean is with a little maintenance and to group like items together. Wipe down any sticky shelves before you do your grocery shopping. Reorganize items so that when you come home from shopping you can quickly and easily fit your groceries. It only takes a couple minutes and it will keep your refrigerator neat and tidy.
My Favorite Refrigerator Cleaning Tools:
My favorite refrigerator cleaning tools? Warm water, dish soap, baking soda, and a microfiber cloth. The warm water helps the soap bubble up and is perfect for dissolving any stickiness and picking up crumbs. The baking soda helps naturally deodorizes any residual stinky corners or drawers. The microfiber cloth can be rung almost dry making the wiping that much easier. I don’t find a need to rinse this solution because the microfiber wipes the shelves clean and there isn’t any residue left behind.
Where to Start:
- Mix up 1 teaspoon of dish soap (or my favorite, Dr. Bronner’s Citrus Orange castile soap – (here’s a free recipe printable on castile soap), 1 teaspoon baking soda, and about 4-6 cups of warm water.
- Start by emptying your refrigerator. (Work quickly so your food stays cold.)
- Wipe down the shelves with a well rung out microfiber cloth or dish cloth. Repeat until all shelves and drawers have been wiped clean. Dry if necessary.
That’s it! The recipe for a clean refrigerator is so easy – you’ll love how clean and fresh it makes your refrigerator. (You can also use this same method to clean your freezer!)
You might also be interested in these posts on the germiest places in your kitchen and how to clean them: part 1 and part 2
Kelli Dingmann Says
Love this post….love the bright, sparkling new-looking fridge. I love the french doors and that wide drawer underneath the crisper bins! My husband and I are in the market for a new fridge and I would really like to check this model out.
If you don’t mind, would you mind telling me the make/model # of your fridge?
Thanks,
Kelli
Janet Says
Nice, but I’m a veggie person and it’s very difficult to fit all my veggies in the bins/shelves, much less make it all fit in an organized system in all my shelves, along with my condiments, left-overs, milks/eggs/dairy/yogurt, salad dressings, vitamins, sauces, pickles, jellies and meats/cheeses. How do you make it all fit in an organized fashion?
Becky Says
Post authorI keep overflow fruits and veggies on the shelf above the fruit drawer.
Laura La Borde Says
I have discovered acrylic bins that you can use for the inside if your refrigerator (to put on the shelves) some of the bins are designed to stack on top of eachother if you want to use them that way. For example if you need a place to keep all of your fruits and/or vegetables, you can have one on your shell to keep everything all together. You can also have one for yogurt for example, so they are all kept together, just a thought.
Khurram Says
I really like how you kept it simple with the products being used. A lot of our customers want “green cleaning” options and this would work great for them. Weekly maintenance if definitely the key!
Thanks,
Khurram
Super Maids CT
http://www.supermaidsct.com
eva macholy Says
Nice post and recipe is easy and good as well. there are some other quick tips which makes refrigerator clean, like one i do remember here, put a little olive oil on a paper towel and wipe the inside of your freezer , this will prevent ice build up. i hope it will help someone. Thanks.
Jeana Lee Says
This is simply lovely! I hate cleaning the fridge (I’m sure everyone does) and I have never used castille soap, but I can’t wait to see how this combo works. I’m off to see some of your other posts and will definitely be a frequent visitor.
JL
http://littlegreencloth.com/
Kathy Purdy Says
I love this article! The next time I clean our fridge, I am using your method. I am old enough to remember when we placed the perishable items in a cooler of ice and placed a bowl of hot water in the freezer. Defrosting the freezer was always the worst part until I realized a blow dryer set on high cuts the time in half. We had to put a large bowl on the shelf below the freezer to catch the melted ice. It often fell off in chunks. (Of course, use precaution with the blow dryer.) Once the freezer was carefully wiped down with a soapy cloth, we refilled the ice trays and started on the refrigerator. All drawers and drip pan removed and cleaned. Shelves and walls washed including the front and sides. If one’s refrigerator was on rollers, the coils were vacuum cleaned and then wiped down. Floor behind the refrigerator vacuumed and mopped. (Some coils were on the lower front of the refrigerator which made cleaning easier. By the time we were finished, dinner was defrosted and ready to cook. Phew! That was quite a job but it was quite satisfying to step back and look at the nice clean, defrosted, restocked refrigerator.
Nicole Says
Hello I read your many articles and saved them because I have been too sick to really DEEP clean things. And I have to be sensitive about smells so I am anxious to try your recipes – will it be less effective to not use the essential oils? I am a migraine sufferer and I just can’t take that for the sake of having things “smell nice.”
As for the fridge – a bottle of wine leaked from the bottom shelf to the back and under the drawers. I haven’t attacked it yet… I wiped up what I could reach. Do you have a good idea of how to get the stain out? This is a white fridge.
Thanks!
Becky Says
Post authorMake a little paste with baking soda and water – apply and let that sit. Hopefully the stain will lift with the baking soda. You could also add a little hydrogen peroxide if needed to ‘bleach’ the area. Use precaution as the hydrogen peroxide might bubble up a bit. Rinse well!
Dillie Says
I clean my fridge and added clear shelf liner cut to fit each shelf. This involves taking out each shelf and measuring it, but so worth it when there is a spill! You can clean or throw away if it is a spill you don’t want to deal with. I put the bumpy woven liner in the fruit and meat bins. Then I lay a paper towel on top of that mat. This allows air circulation around the begs and if you have a mess in there, you just dispose of the towel.