So, I’m sitting on the floor last night, scrubbing out the fridge (Passover is coming, don’cha know), and I got to thinking . . . how often do people clean out their refrigerators? How much do you really clean?
First I threw out all the old stuff. Then I took out all the shelves and drawers, scrubbed them down with steel wool, and cleaned the inside of all the accumulated gook. I vacuumed the crumbs out of the freezer, and scrubbed that down as well. (I actually did all of this twice, because we have two refrigerators.)
Now, I’m all ready to do the oven on Saturday night. ;j
How often? No timetable for me - there will just come a day when I suddenly see gunk in the fridge that needs to be cleaned. I do remove old stuff periodically. But when the gunk needs to be removed, I empty the fridge of everything, including shelves and drawers, wash everything, and reassemble everything. I can usually take care of it in an hour or so.
And as it happens, I think I’m due. Lucky me - weekend’s coming.
Let me get this straight. You vacuumed your freezer? You really need to get out of the house more, KVS
I clean my fridge out maybe once every six months or so. All the old bags of bread that contain nothing more than dried-out heels, all the old eggs, sitting dutifully in a container of eggs purchased at least three months beforehand, all the soggy fruit that I had good intentions to eat…
Heh. My freezer, on the other hand… I figure, hey, it’s frozen! It’s not like it’s gonna stink me out!
The freezer is full of crumbs from open boxes of chicken nuggets and fish sticks. The kids are not so careful when the remove or put the boxes back in. It’s easier to use the vacuum than to try to get them up with a paper towel.
And you should see how much junk accumulates in my car before this time of year finally comes back as well. Better yet, you shouldn’t. But remember the “Garbage barge” from New York City that was floating around in the late 80’s - early 90’s? One of my old cars, abandoned rather than cleaned right before Passover.
I don’t have a special time to do it. I do it when it looks like it needs it. And right now it’s looking like it needs it. Geesh I need to get busy on my day off.
The fridge is due for a cleaning when I open the door and something waves and introduces itself. “Hi, I’m Morty - you know, the leftover chinese food from last month?”
If I opened the door, and former food starts talking, I’d slam the door shut and move. Let someone else make First Contact.
The former tenant of my apartment pretty much did this - they left a squid in the refrigerator when they moved out. And why yes, they did turn the fridge off before they left. Thankyouverymuch!
I could see leaving behind the five cans out of that six-pack of cheap beer you didn’t like, but, a SQUID? If nothing else, I acquired a reference point on exactly how nasty a fridge can get and not explode. I also got a new fridge - the landlord didn’t want anything to do with that squid after it had been fermenting for three weeks.
Barring abandoned calamari, I do a Fridge Patrol every couple weeks to toss the shriveled strawberries, fetid feta and dead bread.
This is not going to help you, but I just don’t let things get dirty. It must be genetic, though, because my SO does, and cannot seem to learn another way.
Yep. Gotta get rid of the chametz. Invariably things spill in the fridge, requiring that it be cleaned up. And if you have little kids, they not only get spilled, but smeared, spread, overturned…
My refrigerator is will be the final proving ground for the Theory of Evolution.
OK, maybe not. I detest moldy, slimy fridge contents, or those mushy foods that have gone crunchy, crunchy foods that have gone mushy, and any type of all-around nastiness. The condiment shelves are in need of a cleaning, but hey, I’m moving next month, so I’ll do it then.
