Day 3: Clean Your Refrigerator & Freezer {Spring Cleaning Made Easy}
For the next month, we’ll be spring cleaning the easy way with our Spring Cleaning Made Easy series! The goal is to get the whole house clean — one mini task at a time — without having to set aside a whole week, or even a whole day, to clean.
Today we’re diving into the fridge and freezer. For some of you, this is no big deal and for others, it might not feel like a mini task after all, but either way, let’s roll up our sleeves and knock it out!
source: PV KS
Bonus Tasks: If you have an extra refrigerator or freezer, go ahead and clean that one out today too! If it’s been a while and you’re feeling really ambitious, go ahead and defrost you freezer as well.
Some people recommend turning off your fridge and emptying all the food into a cooler to save on electricity while you clean it out. If your refrigerator is really dirty and you expect it to take a while, be sure to do this. Otherwise, I recommend cleaning the shelves one by one — top to bottom — instead. You can close the door while you’re washing a shelf in the sink to help keep the temperature cool.
Okay, let’s get started:
throw out any expired or spoiled food
clean the shelves, scrubbing any spills that may have hardened in place
wipe the walls and shelf tracks
clean veggie and meat drawers with warm soapy water
clean under the bottom drawers as well, where crumbs and spills tend to gather
wipe the condiment shelves in the door
clean the door seals to remove any crumbs or spills
Once you’re finished with the inside of the fridge, repeat those same steps in the freezer.
Then, it’s time to clean the outside:
wipe the top of the refrigerator
wipe the doors {we like to use baby oil on our stainless steel appliances}
unplug the fridge and clean the refrigerator coils
pull the refrigerator out and vacuum up any crumbs left behind
And you’re done!
TIP: Clean out your fridge and freezer each week before you grocery shop. It won’t be as full, so you can quickly clean up any spills, clean out the produce drawer, etc., and you’ll have plenty of room to easily put away the new groceries!
Track your progress this month with the Spring Cleaning Made Easy checklist, which comes in two versions — one with dates to coincide with the live series and one with generic labels so you can do it on your own at another time. Click here to download or print your copy!
Want to get a jump start on tomorrow’s task? We’ll be tackling the pantry.
How often do you clean our your fridge? What’s the oldest thing you found?
Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.
Day 3: Clean Your Refrigerator & Freezer {Spring Cleaning Made Easy} is a post from Life Your Way
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Home Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.
