I went to the grocery this morning to re-stock our fridge after a week away. When I got home, I decided to give the fridge a quick clean before I put the groceries away. I knew it was time to check for and remove a variety of expired, ignored, and hidden treasures inside. I cleared off the bottom shelf and noted how cruddy it was. I grabbed the cleaner and a paper towel and started to give it a wipe. Bub started helping (and by helping I mean spraying cleaner at me and into a rag and onto the floor). Then I started to empty the next shelf, thinking maybe I'd wipe it too. But I wasn't quite satisfied with getting the obvious crumbs and the raisins (homemade, not to brag, from stray grapes in corners of the fridge).
Next thing I know, I'm taking the shelves and drawers out of the fridge and going to town on them in the sink. I even attacked a large patch of dried maraschino cherry juice that has been congealed beneath one of the drawers for many, many months now. I can safely say our fridge has not been this clean in years, and I am very proud of myself. I know what I have in there and where to find it! Plus, there is room to spare, which should save some juggling and jigsaw puzzling the next time I need to find or store something. I even went all out and rededicated the crisper to fruits and vegetables (formerly, the entire bottom left drawer of the fridge was devoted to Diet Coke). I realize that others might do this kind of fridge cleaning regularly, but I am not one of them.
I'm sure our fridge would not meet Kate Gosselin standards, but it is a HUGE improvement. I didn't think the mess and disorganization inside was bothering that much, but given how happy I feel to have it clean, I guess it must have been getting to me a bit.
What's in your fridge and do you have a routine in place for keeping it tidy?
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I did do a little cleaning the other day when I realized a jar of olives had tipped over in the door and leaked brown juice all down it onto the floor under the fridge(the only portion of the floor I had gotten scrubbed the day before) but it is usually this kind of incident that leads me to do any sort of wiping out. I do usually do a sort and pitch after the grocery store run. You know, to make room for more things I will pitch out the next week.
I too only seem to clean the fridge when there's an obvious, sticky mess in there.
We just went grocery shopping on Saturday. Our fridge was so empty that when we got home and put all of the groceries away, it still looked empty.
But we do have bottled water, diet coke, unsalted butter from Costco, strawberries that have been in the fridge for a week and sour cream. You know, the essentials.
I clean the fridge when my mom comes to visit. She's a tad bit OCD with the cleaning, so to save my sanity, and everyone elses, I try to get the more obvious messes. So that's a couple times a year, the rest of the time it is a disaster.
What's in there right now? Crap. More crap. Four tubs of icing because it never takes a whole tub for any project and I always forget I have some left.
I recently discovered a small take-out "tupperwear" with a note on it that read: "creminis, unwashed" in my mom's handwriting. They were from Christmas Eve, leftover from a veggie lasagne my mom made while I was in the hospital having Acey.
For the record, old, old unwashed mushrooms don't necessarily look rotten. But man alive, do they smell rotten.
The only time my fridge gets the thorough, take the shelves and draws out and into the sink treatment, is when my mother visits.
We tend to collect half empty jars of salsa, hummus, and can never finish an entire head of lettuce.
Power outage of three days circa Sept. did wonders for a totally cleaned out frig. I've made lame attempts since then but mostly still riding the wave. m
At least once a week BB asks "anything in here we need to throw out?" For whatever reason, I now try to beat him to the punch so that we he poses the question I can say "no". However, he is still the one who has pulled out a shelf to clean it off more often than I have. Just yesterday I saw him remove the produce drawer to fetch a stray blueberry that was underneath. I thought to myself, "yeah, I probably just would have let that one go." I do appreicate a mostly clean fridge though. I seem to have the same issue mentioned by Bailey above...even when I've just gone to the store, my fridge still looks empty. No one in my house has starved yet though so I guess it has enough of the essentials.
As for an all out Kate cleaning (not a 4 hours one though), the only time I can say for sure that's been done was when the power was out for a few days (per "m" above), requiring most everything in the fridge and freezer to be thrown away.
Being the clean freak that I am, my frig is pretty clean and I'm pretty clumsy, so i spill things often enough that I end up wiping the shelves once a week. Maybe now that your frig is really clean and organized, you can appreciate the efficientness of it. That's what sucks me! That and I have to throw away old food or my husband will heat it up and eat it for a snack :) Gross I know, but he doesn't pay attention much!
i've always reserved that task for moving day. works out well, when you move about once a year.
however, i am pretty good at getting the stinky leftovers out of there, before they get too stinky, cuz i just hate opening the fridge and being bowled over by the stench.
raisins (homemade, not to brag...) you do crack me up so!
I try to do it once a quarter or so. It sounds silly but it seems to keep it semi-clean. I love the look of an organized fridge but seriously is that realistic. I cook and I can't seem to keep it looking great. It makes my Mom crazy...(Imagine that!) Anyway I love the thought of a great looking fridge in my future. bDavin
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