Day 12: Clean Refrigerator and Freezer

Updated on March 29, 2022

Welcome to day 12 of the ‘31 Days of Deep Cleaning Your Home‘ series!

Today’s task is to clean your refrigerator.

I have major leftovers in my fridge that need to be thrown away!

You can do this one of two ways. You can completely empty it and go to town cleaning it, or you can do it one shelf at a time. I am a fan of the one shelf at a time because I often have to stop what I am doing to do things with the kids and I don’t want a bunch of food sitting out spoiling. But, if you think your refrigerator needs some rearranging, you may need to take everything out so you can move your shelves around after they are clean.

I take out each shelf and wash it in the sink with some hot, soapy water. You use a paste of baking soda and water to clean off really stuck on food. While the shelf is drying a bit, I wash the walls of the fridge behind where I removed the shelf with a damp cloth. Dry the shelf and put it back.

As you are returning items to your fridge, be sure to dispose of any expired or mystery items you may find in there. (I had a quite a collection myself!)

Nice clean shelves!

Once the inside of the fridge is clean, focus your attention around the edge of the door. The rubber gasket can get pretty dirty. Just wipe it out with a damp cloth.

Next, do the same steps with your freezer. You may need to get out a cooler to put your food in, but if you work fast, you can often clean it out pretty quickly and get everything back in there without anything defrosting. Use hot water if you can. Since it is so cold in your freezer, your cloth cools off quickly and can make it hard to get any sticky drips off.

Dump out your ice and clean your ice maker basket (if you have one). I like to do this every once in a while. I don’t know about you, but I rarely use all the ice. Who knows how long the bottom ice has been sitting in there? I usually save the ice in a plastic bag in our stand up freezer for when I have to pack coolers for camping, but you can just dump it down the sink.

Now we are going to clean the top of our fridge. Spray with an all purpose cleaner and wipe clean. I use a mixture of vinegar and water.

Check at the bottom of your refrigerator. There should be a grate you can pull off. Wash this grate in the sink with some warm, soapy water.

Now, we are going to grab our helper and carefully pull our refrigerators out from the wall. Take everything off the outside of the fridge, and wipe down the front, sides, and back. (If you have a stainless steel refrigerator, use whatever stainless steel cleaner that works best for you.) Pay particular attention to the door handles. These can get really gross and germy. A magic eraser can help to get any really stuck on dirt.

Now focus on the floor behind your fridge. Vacuum or sweep this area and wipe down with a damp cloth.

Move your refrigerator back in place with your helper.

See you back here tomorrow for day 13 of 31 Days of Deep Cleaning Your Home.