Speed Cleaning the Fridge

Wouldn’t you love to open your refrigerator and see it shining and clean…and ready to fill with goodies for the holidays? If there was ever a time of year when a clean fridge was essential, the holidays is that time! We want to be able to say, “Sure, I’d love to have your help!”  How many times have you said, “No, thanks, I’m just fine.” , just because you didn’t want your guests to see the state of your refrigerator?

 

Well, not this year! This week, is Zone 2, if you are following the Flylady plan and that means working in the kitchen. I have talked a lot about that HERE and HERE.  I spent several days last week de-cluttering and boxing up my kitchen gadgetry and linens for a garage sale with my daughter-in-law.

While doing that, I naturally, ended up getting my cabinets in order. Last month, I de-cluttered the upper cabinets and this week, it was the lower ones--you know, the ones with appliances, mixing bowls, and Tupperware. Sadly, I didn’t get to the water bottles! I just flat ran out of time. But with Ebeth’s inspiration, I got enough junk out to make $50.00! She made a lot more, but hey, that’s still money in the bank and less clutter in my kitchen!

But what I most wanted to get done this week was to clean the refrigerator.  Every month, right before we do our monthly grocery shopping, I do a pretty major cleaning but not as thorough as I did this month. There will be a lot of baking, candy making, and cooking going on this month so I wanted everything to be as sanitary and roomy as possible.

Since I also started the South Beach Diet this week, (Gotta love those RECIPES!!), I needed a very clean vegetable bin and lots of room for fresh vegetables. I soaked those bins to get every last little bit of dried up unmentionable bits out of every crack and crevice. What were all those dried up bits? Ah..I’m not going to tell you! Didn’t I say they were ‘unmentionable?’. 

What dies in the kitchen…stays in the kitchen.

That’s my secret! Tee-hee! Let us pull a polite curtain over the remains of last month’s dinners shall we?

Really girls, It’s not as bad a job as it seems. If you are dreading the thought of tackling the whole fridge, at least commit to one bin. Once you get that one vege or fruit bin empty and it’s all clean and shiny (just use warm soapy water) you may have enough courage do clean the whole fridge!  That’s how I got started. I just wanted a clean vegetable bin..but one thing does often lead to another…and now the whole fridge is lovely—just in time for the holidays!

If your refrigerator is already in good shape but just needs some touching up, here is a good method from Jeff Campbell of Clean in a Minute: Speed Cleaning.

How to Speed Clean a Refrigerator

1. Take out a few things from the top shelf. Scoot everything to the left side of the shelf.
2. Spray and wipe this shelf with 409 and wipe clean with paper towels.
3. Remove and discard old food as you work. 
4. Scoot everything to the right side and clean the left side of the shelf.
5. Now move half of the second shelf to the empty space of the top one.
6. Repeat the left to right side scoot, spraying and wiping as you go. Work your way down to the vege and fruit bins.
7. When you get to the fruit bin, empty the fruit and veges from the top drawer into the bottom.
8. Clean that bin and replace.
9. Then shift the fresh food to the top drawer and replace and sort.
10. For the side drawers in the door, remove about half the condiments from the first shelf and set them in an open space inside the fridge, now scoot your stuff left to right.

  

My door drawers are empty enough, that I can scoot every thing in the drawer over enough to clean the surface without removing anything. This is called “de-cluttered”. :o) You want this!

Organizing and Maintaining Your Refrigerator

Now, how do you keep a fridge clean?  Once a week, you just have to put everything back where it belongs. Or better yet, how about once a day? When you see condiments in the wrong place, put them back. If someone puts leftovers on the dairy shelf, then move them back to the spot designated for leftovers.  If you don’t have any organizational plan for  your fridge, today might be a good time to start! :o)

I have my refrigerator organized, in a general way, like this.

• Beverages
• Dairy Products 
• Lunchmeats
• Leftovers and Extra Fresh Veges (things that could spoil if not used quickly
• Fruit Bin
• Vege Bin

And in the side drawers or shelves

• Butter and Eggs
• Tiny condiments and Misc.
• Sauces and Recipe Ingredients
• Lunch Condiments
• Salad Condiments

In my photo, you can see that I need to do some rearranging—again. This is called NORMAL life.  Order requires maintenance. It doesn’t happen by itself. So when you first start to try to keep some order in the fridge, be sure to label the shelves! This will help everyone get used to your new system!

I hope today’s post will help you get brave and get the fridge clean and shiny! I want your refrigerator to make you smile!

What cleaning job are you going to do today to help get you ready for the holidays?

It’s Monday-- Let’s put on our aprons and bless our homes!

Happy Homemaking...