The refrigerator. As an essential appliance, most homes contain at least one, and the frequency with which its doors will be opened and closed each day, mean that it can quickly become dirty, cluttered and smelly. It’s also a tricky item to clean from top to bottom, since it usually contains many food and beverage items that need to be kept chilled, so emptying it to clean it isn’t always practical.
However, if your refrigerator has gotten just a little too grubby for your liking, here are five quick and simple cleaning tips:
- Clean the coils at the back of the fridge: You’ll need to pull the fridge away from the wall to clean these coils, but it should be done at least twice as a year as dust and grime settles on them and can affect their efficiency. Grubby coils can cause the compressor to have to work using double the energy, which not only means that your fridge isn’t efficient, but it will be much more likely to break down, and it’s a costly appliance to replace.
- Vacuum inside your fridge: Vacuum cleaners are a great way of cleaning many areas and appliances within the home, since the attachments are usually capable of reaching into nooks and crannies that are tricky to reach with just our hands. Using a vacuum cleaner,you can suck up the crumbs and food debris from the corners of your fridge, and in all the drawers and compartments, without having to remove them.
- Clean frequently: Nobody wants to spend half an entire day cleaning out their refrigerator, so try to keep on top of the cleaning and it shouldn’t take so long each time. Every two weeks should suffice, and you’ll find that labelling food items will make it much easier to know what can be kept and what needs to be discarded.
- Wipe jars and bottles: If you’re putting the effort into taking items out of your fridge while you clean it, try not to put back any bottles or jars that are sticky, or all your hard work will have been wasted.
- Organize your fridge’s contents: This may take a little effort, but it will be worth it. Try to ensure that any food items that can be eaten without being cooked (such as food already prepared, leftovers or food that can be eaten raw like fruits or vegetables) go at the top of your fridge, and then the shelves below can be organised according to the temperature that foods need to be cooked at. Raw meats that need to be cooked to be eaten (so not including hams, or processed meats), should always go at the bottom of the fridge to avoid the risk of any blood or meat juices dripping down and contaminating other food items. Fruits and vegetables can of course be stored in the bottom drawer as usual.
With just a little time and effort, it can be easy to keep your refrigerator clean, tidy and smelling fresh, but get lazy, and your fridge will soon get grubby, smelly and disorganized!