Shakin & Bakin Foodie Blog

How To Properly Clean and Organize Your Messy Refrigerator

One of the appliances that gets the most use in your home happens to be the refrigerator. Every day our family members get in and out of the refrigerator to grab what they need and off they go. Rarely do they take the time out to clean up any messes that occur. As the week goes on, these refrigerator messes get out of control pretty quickly. If this sounds like your refrigerator you are not alone!

Personally, I used to dislike cleaning out my refrigerator because it was so time consuming. Over the years I have learned a few tricks on how to clean it properly and how to organize my items to help prevent accidental messes.

The first thing that you want to do is to remove everything from inside your refrigerator. Fill up your sink with warm soapy water and grab a new clean sponge. Take your shelves and racks over to the sink and scrub them down with the soapy water. When you are finished scrubbing them, rinse clean with cool water and towel dry. Fill up a bucket with warm soapy water and take it over to the refrigerator so that you can wipe down the inside walls, drawers, shelves and doors that are not removable. Rinse with clean water and towel dry.

Before you place everything back inside your refrigerator, check all of the expiration dates. Anything that has expired gets immediately tossed. Use a clean damp sponge to clean any gook off of your condiment bottles and containers before placing them back inside. If organization is a problem for you, I suggest you invest in some clear containers that are stackable. I purchased 1 cup, 2 cup, 3 cup, 4 cup and 8 cup containers that are specifically made for the refrigerator and they stack on top of each other to save on space. I went with clear ones so that we can easily see the inside contents without having to label them. I also purchased slim oval shaped plastic beverage containers that take up less space than round ones and use those for all of our beverages. I decided to go with clear and opaque beverage containers so we can easily see the inside contents. Finally, I purchased some really neat slim design condiment containers at our local kitchen supply store. These containers are fantastic for holding all of your messy condiments and I find they fit inside my refrigerator door a lot easier than the regular containers that condiments come in.

Keeping your refrigerator clean and organized doesn't have to be a nightmare. I suggest giving it a good overall cleaning once a month and to invest in some great slim design containers that are specifically made for refrigerator use. When you notice spills and drips, clean them up right away instead of letting them accumulate for another day.

This article was written by Shelly Hill, copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved. Copies of this article are available for reproductions in your newsletters, on your blogs & web sites, etc. Please contact Shelly directly for her official author's resource reprint box and information by emailing her at classystaff @ yahoo dot com with subject line of SANBF Blog. Please allow 24-72 hours for a response.