Did you notice something green and moldy growing in the back of your refrigerator this morning? Do you commonly keep a science experiment hidden in the dark corners of your electric icebox? Or perhaps, your children are the ones who are responsible for growing that dark, green science concoction lurking in your refrigerator and stealing valuable space. If you think that it’s time to organize your refrigerator, you may be right! Use these simple ideas to make it happen.
1. To begin cleaning out your refrigerator, get a bucket of warm soapy water. Or you might decide to use vinegar and water as your cleaning solution. Put on your rubber gloves and perhaps your knit hat because it’s cold in there! Start by looking at the expiration date on the food items. See that jar of mayonnaise that’s been in the refrigerator door for 10 years? Simply look at the date. Even if that jar of mayonnaise has been in the refrigerator in the unopened, unsealed state in which you bought it, throw it out!
2. After you throw away all of the expired items, clean your refrigerator by sections. Start at the top and move down. Decide if you would like to clean the items in the refrigerator door first. Remember to clean off the bottoms of bottles that might have sticky goo on them causing rings on the door’s shelf.
3. After you clean off all of the items that left a sticky ring on the refrigerator door’s shelf, check one more time the expiration date on the bottles. Then, using the warm sudsy water in your cleaning bucket, clean off the shelves. Some people prefer to use a non-toxic cleaner. You can use a solution of vinegar and water as a non-toxic cleaner for the refrigerator. The vinegar and water solution is safe for the plastic. Some people use 1 cup distilled white vinegar to 1 gallon of water.
4. After you have reorganized the items in your refrigerator door, move to the inside of the refrigerator. Take everything out of the refrigerator and put it in an ice chest if you think it’s going to be a while before you complete the job. Most likely it will only be a few minutes so there’s probably no need to put ice in the ice chest with the items. However, if you refrigerator is so sticky and messy and dirty but it takes an hour or more, you may want to put ice in the ice chest with your items.
Finish cleaning out your refrigerator and then put everything back in. Voilà! Now your refrigerator is clean and organized once again.