Category: Daily Living
How fantastic is it when we finally reach the day on which, after weeks of planning, we set off for our spectacular holiday trip or relaxing little getaways? Perhaps a trip to some tropical island, or a historical city, some adventurous amusement park with the kids or just a relaxing week at a comfortable, quiet little rezort. Either way, it's the perfect holiday. Until you return home and the first thing that hits you, is the stench of rotting food you forgot in your refridgerator. What a nightmare!
Of course the perfect way of not letting this ruin your holiday, is to not let it happen in the first place. Still, people do forget, and amidst the excitement and packing and planning something like emptying one's fridge is very easy to forget to do. Which brings us to this short little blog.
There are several methods of cleaning your refridgerator after such a tragity as what ever occurred inside while you were away, but unlike several other circomstances, in this case the extream way is the best way. Why is this? Because while your food was rotting in your fridge, it didn't just emit a horrible unbarable smell, but it is most probable that your fridge is infested with backteria, which is why simpley taking out and throwing away the bad food will just not be enough.
You must never replace the rotten food with fresh food before you clean out your refridgerator. Partly of course is because of the smell, but mostly, because of the backteria the rotten food left behind.
Here are a few essencial things you will certainly need to clean out your refridgerator.
1: Thick rubber gloves.
You will be handling several cleaning products during your task, some of which are pretty strong. It's always a good idea to keep these products from coming in contact with your skin, so thick rubber gloves are highly important.
2: A brand new sponge or sham.
You're going to be cleaning up a lot of backteria so your sponge or sham have to be new and thrown away after you finish your cleaning spree.
3: Detol, or any other anti backterial cleaner.
Yes, you're using floor soap to clean the inside of your fridge.
4: Lemon juice.
I don't mean the drink you get from a grocery store or gass station, I mean actuall squeezed lemon juice. You can either split a lemon in half and squeeze some of its juice on your sponge or just buy it in a small bottle. The acid from this will help kill the backteria and leave the inside of your fridge squeaky clean.
Ok, now that we've got our tools, let's start cleaning.
First, unplug your fridge from its wall socket and wait for it to defrost.
Then get all the water from the melted ice out of the fridge, and you might want to hold your breath while you do so. Squirt some dish soap on your sponge and start cleaning the interior of your fridge. This is an optional first step so I didn't write the dish soap as a requirement. It will help you endure the horrible smell though so you might want to go for it. Secondly, clean the soap off with your water soaked sponge or sham, and repete the process with the anti backterial soap mainly the one you usually use to wash your floor. Rinse the interior or the fridge again and rub your finger on either side to see if it squeeks. It sounds silly but when it squeeks it means that what you're doing is working and that your refridgerator is getting cleaner and cleaner, which is where we get the term, squeaky clean. It's quite litteral. Finally, pore some more anti backterial on your sponge or sham and top it up with the lemon juice. Rub the interior again and again until the smell is completely gone. You may want to repete the last step a couple more times to be sure. Make sure that you do not close your refridgerator especially if it's summer or the smell will return. Furthermore, you may want to wash your sponge from the soap you just used between each step.
Well that's it really, hope you never have to do this, and if you do and it doesn't work so well let me know :D
Underneath some there is a tray that must be cleaned as well. You have to remove the front panel at the bottom and slide this tray out and wash it.
Yes it's like a little drore that's where I keep some of the veggies.
I felt like I should post this though, especially since I spent the last 3 days cleaning my piece of junk and boy was it a nightmare. I tried everything but this process worked like a charm.
No, not that tray. This is under the bottom. It isn't inside where you keep food.
Some don't have them, but some have a tray were water collects either under or at the back.
Oh no mine doesn't have that. At least it doesn't look like it has it. Then again I really don't wanna look at the back of my fridge where all the wires are. I got freeked out even trying to plug it back in.
All fridge has a drip tray, or all the water would go on the floor. Drink machines
do too. You might have a grate on the bottom of your fridge that keeps it from
being seen. You can remove this grate and get to the drip tray. If your fridge
ever starts leaking water, this is the first place you should check out.
I ran in to the issue when I moved in to this new place that my fridge smelt
bad, worse than garbidge. I put a can of opened coffee grinds inside and the
smell was gone in about 24 hours and hasn't came back. Its been a couple of
months now.
The thing is people said the same thing to me about baking powder and it was there for 3 days with no luck at all.
In your case it was different. You rotted food.
All don't have the drip pan. Some have evaporators.
This will be a device that gets hot, so gets rid of the water. But not all have them, and if you have a smell after cleaning, it will be due to that water under the appliance in the drip pan.
When you had the appliance unplugged, it have been a good things to have wiped the back of it off as well.
But, again your suggestions were great, good post.
Yeah the gap between the fridge and the freezer gets really hot I mean it's like you're placing your hand on a kettle.
Not that hot. Smile.
Let it cool if you are afraid of it, then dust it with a dry cloth, then wash it clean.
Plug it up.
LOL I'm not afraid of it I'm not even sure where it is.
This is good info. Yes, in most normal situations, coffee beans or baking soda will work, but a good detailed cleaning once a year sure wouldn't hurt, and especially after food has been left to rot in it.
Still I hope nobody has to go through that... Never, ever leave food in the fridge when going away
Thought you said you were afraid of the back of the fridge. It needs cleaning too. Special if it has coils.
So, get to it! Lol
I'm not afraid But I'm also not stupid lol I aint goin anywhere near that thing if it's plugged in :D
So, I hate to do this, but I'm a bit of a grammar nazi... so here goes: mostly useful information, but bacteria is spelled with just a c, not a ck. that really bugged me when I was reading the first post with my speech synthesizer. Sorry. But if you're going to be informative, might as well spell things correctly. lol. again, sorry. I couldn't let that one go. lol.
No no. She spelled it korrekly. Back teria... The back door of a cafeteria.
LOL sorry
Slises of bread is a good way to suck in all smells from the fridge. Make sure your bread is in the fridge overnight, with no rapping or anything on it, just let it sitting on a corner or somewhere, it will get rid of the smells.
I've forgotten about that.
I wonder if the baking stuff in the bread is what makes this work?
It's the same stuff that's in baking powder, which didn't work at all in this case.
No, I can understand why not in your case. You had to clean.
LOL It got messier trust me.