Top Tips For Cleaning Your Fridge

Most people regularly clean their kitchen, and sometimes they do a deep clean of things like the oven. One often-overlooked kitchen appliance, one that should be cleaned more often, is your fridge.

Cleaning your fridge regularly ensures your fridge is in top working order for longer. Regularly rotating food throughout the fridge also means that you are less likely to end up with unpleasant smells from forgotten food left in the back of the fridge and well past its use by date. This article contains 5 tips to make cleaning your fridge as simple as possible.

If you’ve never cleaned your fridge before, then do it sooner rather than later.

Before

After

Top Tips For Cleaning Your Fridge

Before getting started, plan a date, and make a plan

Whilst it may be tempting to clean your fridge one shelf, or one drawer at a time, we recommend doing it all at once. By doing it all at once, you’re less likely to procrastinate as you won’t’ want the food in your fridge to go off while you’re cleaning it.

We recommend cleaning your fridge before a major shop. Doing so means your fridge will be at its emptiest. Plus, you will know exactly what you need before you do your grocery shopping. It makes preparing a shopping list easier. You will also be able to ensure all your new shopping ends up in a fridge that is clean and odour free.

Cleaning your fridge requires you to take everything out of the fridge. To avoid your food spoiling I would recommend preparing an esky with ice to store your food in whilst you are cleaning the fridge.

Check everything as you remove it. If food is out of date, then dispose of it. If not, put it in the esky until you have finished cleaning.

Take out and clean any removable shelves and drawers

There are likely removable shelves and drawers in your fridge. To make cleaning your fridge easier, you should remove these shelves and drawers. You should wash them thoroughly with dishwashing liquid (Quick note, if you have glass shelves you may want to let them come to room temperature before washing in hot water as not doing so can lead to glass shelves cracking.)

If you notice any residue build-up in any joints or crevices, I recommend using an old toothbrush to remove this residue. Once you have washed them and removed any residue, the next step is to rinse them and then dry your shelves and drawers. Leave them to dry whilst you start the next step in cleaning your fridge.

Wipe down the interior

Whilst you are waiting for your shelves and drawers to dry, it’s time to get inside the fridge, wiping down the surfaces and walls with cold water and some sort of sterilising agent. (Don’t use hot water as this will mean it takes too long for your fridge to cool down again before you stick your food back in.) As with the shelves and drawers, if there is any residue build-up, then get out the toothbrush to clean this out. Wipe down your surfaces with a clean, dry tea towel when you are done.

Clean outer surfaces

Once you have finished cleaning your fridge inside, it’s time to look to the outer surfaces. You need to do this for two main reasons.  Firstly, you remove germ build-up on the most frequently touched surfaces. Secondly, as one of the biggest appliances in your kitchen, you’ll want it to look clean on the outside. Otherwise, it will make the kitchen look dirty and people will notice. Wipe it down and vacuum up any crumbs around the bottom and underneath if it fits. 

Allow your fridge to cool before replacing food

The process of cleaning your fridge means you will have had some time with the doors open. Your shelves and drawers will also now be at room temperature. It’s highly recommended after you have finished cleaning your fridge that you allow some time for your fridge to cool down to 4 degrees before putting your food back in the fridge. This decreases the risk of food contamination.

If you follow these steps, cleaning your fridge should be a breeze. If, after reading this article, you are tired and have decided it’s better to outsource your home cleaning to the experts at Simply Spotless, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch today for a no-obligation quote. We can help you with your regular cleaning as well as fridge cleaning and other optional extras.