It is extremely important to maintain the hygiene and cleanliness of your fridge. This is because it contains the food that you and your loved ones will consume. Cleaning your fridge will ensure that you get rid of any unwanted contaminants or food spillages that can lead to mold growth and affect the health of your family. Furthermore, it can potentially help you to enjoy great cost savings in the long term because your fridge will be operating at its peak when it is not affected by any debris.
Where to Start?
One of the biggest misconceptions is that you absolutely need to get a new cleaning kit. You’d be glad to know that chances are that you have all the equipment you need lying around your home already. All you need are some trash bags, anti-bacterial cleaning agent, some baking soda, and paper towels. If you still want to get new cleaning equipment, make sure that you choose products that are unscented because chemicals can easily be absorbed into your food, making it taste bad. Furthermore, you can always choose to throw a couple of household items together to make your own cleaning products (explanation below).
Steps to Take
Cleaning your fridge is a process that is more than just throwing away old, stale food. This is a good place to start but it is far from what you need to do. If you need to throw away a large amount of food, you should do so just before garbage disposal day so that the waste will not stay in your home for too long.
- Step 1 – Pick out the old food items and throw them out: When you start cleaning your fridge, you should always start by looking through all the food items inside. Needless to say, if it is past the expiration date for any of these items, do not hesitate to throw them away. Consuming expired food is a sure way to land yourself in the hospital or at least with food poisoning. However, there are some items that can be placed in the freezer to prolong its shelf-life. Once you have emptied your fridge, take out the shelves or dividers.
- Step 2 – Make your own cleaning solution and scrub your fridge: In this step, you should place your fridge shelves in a mixture of baking soda and warm water. Using your dishwasher might damage the structural integrity of your shelves. After you have soaked the shelves in the mixture for a few minutes, you can start scrubbing them with a wet sponge or a paper towel.
- Step 3 – Proper Organization: After scrubbing your shelves, make sure that you dry them properly. Once this is done, you should organize your fridge properly. Before placing your items back in the fridge, be sure to wipe the jars, bottles and containers so that your fridge can remain as clean as possible. To organize your fridge, you can use several strategies. However, all strategies should involve separating raw food from cooked food. If you have housemates, you can also consider designating shelves to each individual. You should also label the items in your fridge for greater ease.
