The best tips for cleaning your refrigerator before you stock up for lockdown cooking
A comprehensive guide to ensure your refrigerator is just as clean and fresh as your produce
The refrigerator is not only one of the main storage units of your kitchen but also one that is most used. Considering that, don't you think it needs to be cleaned as often as the kitchen surface does? With the appliance being the designated address for all your groceries, frozen meat items, dairy and liquids, it's only sanitary that we keep our fridges shining on the outside and inside. Especially now, with curfews and lockdowns bringing out the grocery hoarder in some of us at least.
A deep cleanse of the refrigerator is recommended every two-three months and in order to help make this mundane chore more fun, we've compiled some tips for you. Check it out.
The ammunition (or what you might need): trash bags, rubber gloves, cleaning solution, baking soda, water and a sponge or a microfibre cloth.
Empty out your fridge
All the food items should be removed and kept aside so you can evaluate the damage and be able to clean out gunk hiding in far off corners. This will even give you a chance to throw out anything that may have expired or be too old to consume.
Rinse and dry all the removable surfaces
This step involves taking out the shelves and especially the vegetable drawer at the bottom and washing it out thoroughly with warm water and a non-abrasive soap solution. You can even fill up an open container with a spoonful of baking soda and leave it at the bottom of the fridge for a while. This will help deodorize the refrigerator and absorb any unwanted odour.
Wipe down the interiors of the fridge
An easy and effective way to do this would be to add two tablespoons of baking soda and a quarter cup of hot water to your cleaning solution. Spray this solution onto the walls of the refrigerator and wipe it down with a sponge. You can use a toothbrush to scrub away the stubborn stains.
Wipe down the exterior of the fridge
Dampen a sponge or the microfibre cloth in the warm soap solution and begin cleaning the sides, front and back of the refrigerator. Don't forget to clean the top as well and pat dry with kitchen roll or a paper towel. For a stainless steel fridge, use a cleansing solution specific to the stainless steel. You can line the top of the appliance with some newspaper so that once it's cleaned, dust doesn't settle easily again.
Clean the gasket
The rubber gasket/ lining around the fridge door also needs to be cleaned so that the seal is maintained. In case you spot mould formations, a bleach solution is recommended. But if not, wipe it down with your liquid soap solution and pat it dry with a paper towel.
In addition to these steps, if you're the kind of person who likes to keep things smelling nice, you can get a little creative. Before fitting the shelves and vegetable drawers back into the fridge, you could soak cotton balls in vanilla extract or essence and place them in an open container. Leave them inside the refrigerator for an hour or so to return to a fridge smelling like cake. From our own experience, we can attest that orange extracts work wonders, too.