How To Clean A Fridge
Look, we get it. We don’t all know how to clean a fridge. It has been far too long since you dared to open that fridge with the intent to clean it out. Same here! It’s effort, it’s scary, and let’s be honest… none of the food you cooked from it has killed you, so do you really even need to?
The answer that none of us want to hear is YES. So we all need to learn how to clean a fridge. Let’s do it together.
Equipment
Righty then! The things we are going to need for this kitchen adventure. For that DEEP CLEAN since we are all dirty animals that don’t wipe down regularly we are going to need to use a little more than just some kitchen towel.
- Washing Liquid
- Warm Water
- Soaking/Rinsing Tub
- Sponge/Wipes
Now, surely there are various products and sprays and tailored tricks created by the capitalist world we live in, designed meticulously to get you to spend all your money and work just as much on actually cleaning the damn thing as you would without it… but here we will focus on easy readily available kitchen STUFF because what more do you need really.
Method
The dreaded part of the process now. You want to know how to clean a fridge? Well, this is the part when you read the steps, and then enact them. Do the things. Yeah, DO IT. Then you might actually have a clean fridge and feel really good about yourself.
Step 1
Remove the contents of your fridge. Take out all the food stuffs, every layer, drawer, door-shelf, everything. Empty it out so that you can get your arms in there! You don’t need to turn it off for this process, usually — just be thankful it’s not an oven!
It can be prudent to have a reasonable idea of how it comes apart, so that you can put it all back together later!
Step 2
Now, you should have an emptied box where your fridge used to be, and a decent number of plastic and/or glass attachments in a pile. GOOD! Now you are going to need to fill that tub (or sink) with warm to hot water, mixed in with your washing liquid, very much like you normally would for washing the dishes. If you use a dishwasher and have never washed dishes in the sink, well this is a good time to learn that too!
With your washing water ready, grab a sponge/wipe, and start by cleaning out the fridge interior. Wipe down all the surfaces, top to bottom, making sure to rinse out your sponge as you go and refresh with soapy water.
At the end of this stage, if you have a particularly dirty fridge and this now leaves a pool of nasty grime and spilled or rotten food juices at the base of your fridge, you may need to get some kitchen paper, or toilet paper (sacred as it is), and soak up the shame with it. However, if you just have some soapy water left in there, then grab a cloth and dry it all.
Step 3
Now that the fridge box is cleaned, it is officially time to wash the parts! Yep, that pile of shame we dumped on the side/floor, that’s the one.
Again, those of you adept at washing by hand in the sink — good news! That’s what you do with these! In your sink, or your ready-made tub, whatever works for you!
For everyone else in the room, you are going to take your pile one item at a time, grab a sponge, soak both in the washing water, and wipe the item with the sponge and soapy water. Small circular motions work best for pulling up dirt, grime and stains. Once you are happy that you have cleaned the item, place it in the drying rack to dry off a little while you repeat the process for every single item in your pile of shame!
Note — this is a good opportunity to wipe down any food items/containers/etc that have sticky or goopy residue on them, and then dry them off, before putting dirty items in your nice clean fridge!
When everything has been washed clean, you can leave them to drip-dry, or ideally you grab a towel/cloth and dry every item off thoroughly, leaving no soap suds and no moisture on them.
Step 4
Now you have cleaned all the parts, you need to reassemble your fridge. This is where paying attention taking it apart comes in handy — because you are going to do whatever you did to get the parts out, in reverse, to get them back in!
After your fridge has all its components reinstalled, you can put all your food back in, organise everything neatly and nicely, throw out anything that is no longer safe for human consumption, and stand back when you are finished to admire your work!
You did it! Congratulations! You have my full permission to get a takeaway in now so you don’t have to clean AND cook in the same day!
Top Tips
If you want to make sure this process is as easy as possible, do it regularly! Once a month should keep it fairly simple with very little grime utterly caked into your fridge.
If you are up to it, do it more regularly than that!
Feeling daring? Try not spilling anything in the fridge, leakage or otherwise. That way, there will be less to clean up, AND less frequently. Mind-blowing.
Final Thoughts
I hope that you found this guide on how to clean a fridge useful! Feel free to comment on your top methods for cleaning your fridges at home, or how well you got on with following this guide!
For other content here at Showing You the Whey, why not have a look at How to make your own Cornstarch — or maybe some Homemade Granola is more up your street. There’s a bit of something here for everyone!