I’m scrubbing out my fridge and freezer this Sunday. Yep, it’s my once-a-year pre-Pesach clean-everything fest. ;j
It helps that the fridge is almost empty at this point. Just a six-pack that’s been in there for a few months, and the food for the next few days.
Finish it up quickly. Beer is chametz! 
Zev Steinhardt
Man, you guys are YUCKY! 
I clean my refrigerator out at least once a month, tossing out all of the old food, and wiping down all of the shelves. If I don’t, I start getting the willies about putting my food in a “germy” place. If I find something rotten, I clean the whole thing down, even if I cleaned it recently. Hey, everyone’s gotta be anal about something.
Chametz? I need to hang around with more Jewish people, just to learn all the cool words!
I’m with you, Lissa. Well…except I clean mine every two weeks. I time it right before my grocery store runs. There is something refreshingly appetizing to me about opening a refrigerator that’s “pretty” inside…fresh vegetables on the shelves, cilantro arranged in a glass decorating the top shelf…everything nice and neat.
I don’t get it…if some of you wait until your refrigerator actually reeks, how the hell do can you stomach eating anything out of it in the first place?
I Hate my fridge. The dang light broke (not burned out) and I can’t see a damn thing in there. Its avacado green so you can get an idea how old it is. Its semi-clean in there but it looks grungy without light. I’m saving for a new one cos I refuse to buy another used one.
I have one bottle of beer left, and that will be part of my Shabbos lunch. The kitchen will be kashered for Pesach by Sunday night.
When I first read this thread I was feeling all smug. I go through my fridge every Thursday night and toss aging food, wipe away any spills. Not a full scale clean, but it keeps things in check, and since I shop on Fridays, there’s mostly empty space to deal with.
And then, on doing the routine last night, I found a little jar that had slipped behind my egg keeper. Yeast. Expiration date 12/95.
Urk. 7 plus years I’ve managed to overlook that piece of ex-food. I bet that is a record. 
Oh dear. Yeast is uber-chametz. Plus if it has been in there for 7 years, the yeast cells might have developed language skills.
That’s probably part of the rationale behind the Passover clean-up: So food doesn’t sit around long enough to develop sentience or language, never mind Espionage or Future Tech 1.
Run, do not walk, and pick up a copy of Leo Rosten’s Joys of Yiddish. This very enjoyable book will tell you all you ever wanted to know (and more) about the history, the culture, and the current usage of Yiddish. It also has more good jokes per pound than just about any other book I’ve ever read.
My SO and I tend to only buy what we’ll eat, so there is very rarely food around to go bad on us, with the possible exception of the odd vegetable or fruit that we just didnt get to fast enough, or salad dressing that expired before we used it all up, etc. And since our fridge is never stocked full of stuff, its easy to see whats in there, and toss out as needed. As for actually cleaning the fridge, well I’ll wipe it down if I see something’s spilled, or if I’m a on a cleaning rampage for the rest of the kitchen/apartment anyways.
MY parents on the other hand…uggh. they aren’t messy, but they are plagued with my sister, who won’t eat anything that’s been open for more than 24 hours, so they end up with (last time I was home) 2 or 3 bottles of salad dressing, 5(!!) bottles of salsa, 2 bricks of cheese…you get the idea. The stuff just never gets finished, but they keep saying “it’s still good” and then they go out and buy another one anyways! I think my mom cleans the whole thing out every couple of months, ar just as she comes across something that should have been tossed out long ago. Since my sister is vegetarian, my parents also have the habit of buying meat for themselves but making vegetarian meals, so they never eat the meat, and it goes bad. It is seriously disturbing to me to contemplate the amount of money of wasted food in that refridgerator!!! When I’m home, I have trouble choosing what to eat, because there’s SO MUCH CHOICE, and half of it has gone bad.
I just don’t get my family sometimes!