Tips for Cleaning Out Your Refrigerator

It is quite possibly the most dreaded household task of all. The toxic fumes, gag inducing sights, and inevitable necessity of cleaning out the refrigerator produces dread and nausea among the strongest domestic dudes and divas. Cleaning out the refrigerator is a truly nasty task that must be done, at least a few times a year. There is no possible way to make the task enjoyable; however, there are some tips that will at least make it bearable. Try these ideas for making cleaning out your refrigerator sufferable for all involved.

Store leftovers in disposable containers. Save your nicer storage containers for toting work lunches or transporting potluck dishes. For leftovers, use disposable containers. If you end up eating the leftovers, great! If you don’t, you can throw the entire container away without having to endure the sights or smells of three month old lasagna.

Schedule a leftover meal. Choose a meal of the week that is your leftover meal. Perhaps it is Monday night supper, or maybe you will choose Sunday lunch. Just pick a meal time and make that the leftover meal. Instead of cooking something new, just draw upon the leftovers you already have in your refrigerator. Don’t have enough? You can always add in a simple salad or can of vegetables to make the meal complete.

Have your dishwater ready. If you don’t use all disposable containers and thus must wash some items, have hot, soapy water in the sink ready to go as you clean out your refrigerator. As each item is scraped clean, throw the dirty dish immediately in the sink. This will help keep those offensive odors at bay.

Remove unwanted packaging when unloading groceries. A less disgusting part of cleaning out the refrigerator includes removing all of the unneeded packaging that comes on many food items. If you purchase a six pack of yogurt, for instance, go ahead and remove the outer carton as you are unloading your groceries. If you have purchased a package of drink boxes, take them out of the box. Getting rid of this excess packaging before you put the items in the fridge will make keeping it clean and tidy a bit easier.

Don’t forget the baking soda! A small container of baking soda really does absorb unwanted odors in the refrigerator. The key here is that the container needs to be switched out every three months or so for the best effectiveness. Baking soda is a very inexpensive way to keep your refrigerator smelling fresh, even if there are some two month old grapes lurking in the crisper.

Clean it out on trash night. When you decide to clean out your refrigerator try to do it the night before your trash goes out. All of the rotting food is going to have an extremely strong smell. You may be offended by it, but area wildlife and domestic animals will be intrigued. To help keep your garbage bags intact, wait until trash night to clean out your refrigerator.

Cleaning out the refrigerator is a household task that doesn’t have to be done often, thank goodness. When it does have to be done, it can be a nasty job. Follow these tips to make cleaning out your refrigerator as painless (and odorless) as possible.