Well, I checked the temperature by yanking out my thermostat… When I put it on the top shelf, it read 57 degrees F… On the bottom shelf, 60 F
Much too warm. If the dustbunny removal and the deep defrost doesn’t help, the next thing will be to check repair prices. If you can find a repairman to tell you what is wrong and what it will cost, without being to expensive, it might be the best alternative. Otherwise it’s time to check prices in local stores. A new fridge may even earn its price in a few years by using less power and keeping your food fresh longer.
I haven’t unplugged the fridge yet… I gotta wait to finish the food, and then order some dry foods to replace…
I also threw a TON of stuff away last night, thinking less items might help it a bit.
But isn’t a working refrigerator part of a lease? Fridges go bad and need repairs just like anything else.
Number 1 problem with old fridges is in the defrost cycle.
Is there a lot of frost built up on the freezer coils?
If so, that’s your problem.
I’m not sure if it is. My place is a mess, and I avoid him like the plague, even though he’s actually a decent slum-lord… I’m going to try an exhaust everything else and then I’ll think of it.
There was some ice stuck to the back wall of the freezer, some which I removed and threw in my sink, and then throwing away some more food that was kinda leaning on that wall, in-between the two shelves in the freezer.
I know my temperature is only at about 60, but the carrot juice I’m drinking now isn’t warm.
If there’s ice on the back wall of the freezer, the coils are probably completely iced over.
This will make the fridge run continuously (is it?), and never cool.
Unplugging and letting it defrost for 24+ hours will temporarily fix the problem, but it will return until the defrost system is fixed (usually an easy fix).
The only coils I see are on the back, which I did vacuum out (I’m really ignorant about things like this) but it seems that’s the best thing to do is to turn it off, which I’ll try once I have no food left… Thank you.
Those are the condenser coils.
The Evaporator (coiling) coils are behind the panel in the freezer.
Most people should vacuum out their coils at least once a year. Get a brush to help the job:
I’d vacuum out the coils anyway, but it sounds like a defrost problem. A manual defrost will help for about a week or so on an automatic defrost fridge.
Back in the day it was usually the timer or the heating element, but nowadays most fridges have some sort of control board that times the defrost. Let your landlord know the fridge isn’t working–I used to fix appliances, and fixed plenty of them for landlords.
The cold air in your refrigerator originates in the freezer compartment. There are vents for the air flow. Hopefully by removing and resetting (and reorganizing) your freezer, if you have blocked these vents, they will be unblocked. Make sure you have room for air flow throughout the freezer compartment, too.
StG
I didn’t know that… Thanks.
Good news: I yanked (won’t do it again) my thermostat and after about 10 minutes, I read the new temperature at 51 F.
Someone mentioned how organization of food (and how the fridge depends on the freezer) helps… I threw more food today after doing a smell test. And I pushed the items in the freezer up front, and tried to organize them, instead of just throwing things wherever… I even have two similar juice bottles and the one on the bottom shelf of my fridge isn’t as cold, so we’ll see… I will probably unplug for 24 hours, but while I’m trying to get rid of (or eat) of everything, it would be cool if I didn’t have to do it, because dry foods for 48 hours is something I want to avoid, but not as much as having to contact my landlord, so thank you all so much. There’s no dollar amount I could put on reducing stress.
Can I just saw how nice it is to see a poster who asks for advice about something, and then replies about how he has/is going to try the advice out? So, so many times the responses instead are gripes about how difficult the solution would be, how they don’t want to try that, how they’re sure it won’t work even though they’ve never tried, and just a whole lot more general whining?
I hope the Magic Ice Box fairy swoops in and fixes your problem. You deserve it for good attitude.
I have learned something new too, thank you! 
In German they are called Wollmäuse or Staubmäuse, 
literally wool mice or dust mice.
Is the food in the freezer frozen solid? If so, it may just be the vent from the freezer to the fridge that’s frozen up. If so, and you can find the vent, you may be able to clear it with a hair dryer without needing to defrost entirely. This would be a very short-term solution until you have eaten enough food to do the full defrost.
And, I can’t emphasize this enough, DO NOT eat meat or cooked leftovers that have been at 50+ for more than a couple hours. You could make yourself very sick.
Thank you, I appreciate that and everyone’s help.
Most is solid, but I have a few Snickers ice cream bars, and they’re pretty solid, which wasn’t the case weeks ago. I notice they are coldest when they are on the bottom, toward the back, and I also remove them from the box. I don’t have a hair dryer, though.
Can we get an update? I think of you every time I go to the fridge.
StG
I’m waiting to finish the remaining food (freezer) until its empty. My fridge has been at 60, despite me removing everything that was on top of the fridge. I’ll keep sauce in the freezer until it freezes (30 degrees) and then put it in the fridge, but will probably throw it away (it was 88 cents, not worth getting sick) since every night I pass up on the breadsticks.