Fridge Cleaning Steps To Ensure Safety And Longevity Of Food Items

We have a bad habit of postponing tedious tasks. But in the process of delaying such tasks, we do not realize that the task gets even more difficult to accomplish. One such household chore is fridge cleaning. Refrigerator is the place where we store eatables and hence its cleaning should top the chart of our to-do list. It is essential to ensure cleanliness and hygiene conditions of the fridge so that eatables are maintained.

You need not rush to the market to grab expensive cleaners because your household kitchen ingredients are powerful enough to serve the purpose. If you do not give regular attention to your fridge, it becomes a storehouse of germs and dirt that can infect your food and lead to food poisoning. No, I am not trying to scare you. But the fact is those food items have a short validity and post the valid date, eatables attract mould that infects food. So, regular cleaning of the fridge should become your habit if you want to keep your house clear of dirt and infection.

A word of caution: If you find food items that have been spoiled, immediately remove them because it will infect other items too and spread in the fridge drawer and shelf. So, keep checking the eatables that you have been storing in your fridge for a long time.

How to clean the fridge?

Here are a few simple steps that will help to keep the fridge spic and span:

• Cleaning the fridge drawers and shelves

It is important to take out all the stuff from the fridge to ensure that you can vigilantly load the fridge once the cleaning is done. Throw away the food items that have surpassed the valid date or gone bad. Rotten fruits and veggies should be gotten rid of immediately because these spread the infection in other food items in the fridge.

Now take out the empty drawers and shelves from the fridge. Let these resort to room temperature. Then make a solution of dishwashing liquid and warm water. Dip the sponge in the solution and then scrub the shelves and drawers with light pressure to ensure that all the mess is clear. If you find stubborn stains like curries, then you can scrub them with harder pressure to ensure that the stain is removed. Rinse the shelves and drawers with clean water. Allow these to dry and then place them back in the fridge.

• Interior cleaning of the fridge

For the interior upkeep of the fridge, keep kitchen ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, and water handy. Make a thick paste of equal parts baking soda and vinegar and double the amount of water. Then scrub the interior with a soft sponge dipping it in the paste. Wipe the affected areas with a damp cloth and ensure that the area is clean. Repeat the process if required. There are corners in the fridge that are difficult to reach. So, use a toothbrush to clean such areas.

• Cleaning the exterior

It is essential to keep the exterior clean. Also, the fridge exterior speaks volumes about one’s cleanliness. Moreover, you will never want to damage your impression in front of your guests. So, keeping the fridge exterior is not only a good habit but a necessity too. The exterior of the fridge consists of the door, handles, and the body of the appliance. Keep vinegar, water, and alcohol handy for the best results. Fingerprints are one of the most common stains found in fridge exteriors. You can either use a spray bottle filled with an equal quantity of water and vinegar or dab the affected area with a cloth damped with alcohol. The choice is yours.

You can also find special fridge exterior cleaners for the stainless steel fridge. You can buy the product and directly use it on the body of your fridge to get good results.

• Under the fridge

Refrigerators are heavy appliances and nobody moves them every day for daily purposes. It is a once in a month or fortnight affair. When you empty your fridge for cleaning the interior, you can move the fridge to ensure cleaning the floor on which the fridge was installed. You can vacuum the area. Alternatively, you can even use a floor cleaner to mop the area once the fridge has been moved. Such steps will give a renewed and fresh look to your appliance and above all boost your “feel-good” factor too.

• Gasket cleaning

The effective temperature is maintained when the door gasket is in place. The seal can lose its hold if dirt is accumulated without any attention for a long time. It will affect the cooling of the fridge and lower its efficiency. The tip is to take warm water and a few drops of dishwashing agent. Clean the gasket with the damp cloth dipped in the solution. Rub a bit of petroleum jelly once the task is finished to ensure drying of the gasket. The dry gasket becomes brittle. So keeping it moist with petroleum jelly will help in clearing the accumulated dirt also.

• Odour and mould treatment

Nobody likes a smelly fridge but a refrigerator is vulnerable to developing an odour because different types of food items are stored in it. A simple tip can help you get rid of the undesired smell. Simply place an open box of baking soda in the fridge and you are sorted. It keeps the fridge fresh. If you do not have baking soda, coffee grounds can do the trick if placed in the same manner.

Keeping the fridge is not as difficult a task as you may have thought. The above-mentioned steps are easy to follow and if you make fridge cleaning a daily habit, then you can easily avoid a tedious task. Little steps taken to keep the fridge regularly will save your time and effort. Also, do not fall prey to the temptation of unnecessary loading the fridge. Keep it as sorted as possible to avoid the mess, spillage, and rotting of food items.