The beginning of the year is the perfect time to clean out the things you have been neglecting for an entire year. We see a lot of #newyearnewme resolutions out there, but what about #newyearcleanhouse? Right now, while you’re really kicking butt on those new year resolutions, is the perfect time to deep clean
I am also in hardcore nesting mode. There is SO FREAKING much to do in this house before little miss makes her appearance. I am pretty sure I scared Ben last Friday when I had my mental breakdown of all the tasks on my list. Don’t worry, we crushed the to-do list this weekend and I am feeling a whole hell of a lot better.
Because of the new year, and this kiddo on the way, we are starting a new series on the blog: Come Clean With Me!
I have two modes. Crazy intense clean EVERYTHING NOW and Whoops I haven’t mopped the floors in two months. I really do enjoy cleaning. It makes me feel productive, at ease in my house, and as if a weight has been lifted. I like things tidy and I like things clean.
So, basically, the fridge has been driving me nuts for weeks. Today I finally buckled down while Isaac napped, and got it DONE.
The Products I Use
As a disclaimer, my husband works at Procter and Gamble. I hate taking him grocery shopping with me because we have to slowly take a look at the products they make. He also makes the bill twice as much because he likes to test out new products. Thus, this time around I am using two newer products that I will say have worked great.
I am an All Purpose Cleaner type of gal, so Ben was excited to try out the Mr Clean Clean Freak. What I LOVE about Clean Freak is the sprayer on the bottle. It has a constant sprayer and it gets the job done without making whichever surface I’m on smell like chemicals. For the purpose of the fridge, I used this on the inside of the fridge to clean and disinfect.
When this bottle runs out I really want to the cleaners from Grove Collaborative because I have been seeing them everywhere and have heard great great things. (If you use and love please let me know why, I am really interested in trying it out!)
For the drawers and glass shelves there was a two step process. I washed them using this Dawn Dish Spray (again, a new product Ben wanted me to try) with warm water and a wash cloth. What I super like about this dish spray is that is smells like green apple and has the same sprayer the is on the Clean Freak bottle. Dawn is also AWESOME at getting off any grease that may have fallen onto the shelves, like from my bacon grease can.
As a side note: what is different about the dish spray is that you spray a dish with lots of grime, let it sit for a minute, wipe and rinse. It has been nice to use on baking dishes.
Step By Step Clean Out
So first things first, you need to clean out the fridge. It is best to just go ahead and turn off the coolant on the fridge at this point because you are going to have that door open a lot for the next hour or so. Save some energy because I forgot to do that until after I had scrubbed shelves and I was annoyed with myself for not thinking of it as step one.
I am lucky because we have a TON of counter space now that we’ve redone the kitchen (I promise I will eventually share those pictures + that process!). Probably the best thing about doing a fridge clean out is that you can easily check dates on everything and make sure you’re okay. I found a jar of jalapeno ranch dressing in the back of the fridge that I forgot we bought. Perfect opportunity.
Next thing is to pull out ALL shelves, drawers and arms. Anything that can come out should come out. This way you can do a full wipe down of the inside of the fridge and a deep clean of all surfaces.
I started with washing the shelves, drawers and arms. I ran some warm water, sprayed my dish soap and scrubbed everything down. Let me tell you, gross. Everything in my refrigerator is always closed so explain to me how jelly and different sauces end up on the shelves?
Once everything is scrubbed to perfection I space out to let everything dry as best as they can while I get to work on the inside.
This is arguably the grossest part of this whole project. I don’t know how it happens but there was my hair, dog hair, pieces of food, onion peel flecks and more all over in there. My arm got tired scrubbing scuff marks and stains, but it was so darn worth it. For this I just went out it with paper towels and Clean Freak, any all purpose cleaner does the job.
I didn’t take any pictures of the mess because I was disgusted, but trust me, you’re going to feel like the grossest person ever if you haven’t done this in awhile. You’ll also say to yourself “I need to do this more often.” Then you will work through a system in your head that starts with a once a month timeline and ends with, hm, twice a year is good.
That puppy is sparkling now.
Next up is drying all of the shelves, drawers and arms. This part is east but a pain in the ass because a lot of these pieces have small crevices. Do your best using a dish towel and then its time to put everything back together.
*I walked away for about five minutes at this point, propping the door open, to let everything have a minute of air drying while put back together. Probably wasn’t necessary but it made me feel good airing it all out.
When you are all done, stare and appreciate you’re hard work before filling it back up.
Finally you are get to reorganize and put everything back. As I did this I took a damp paper towel and made sure all items were cleaned off. For instance, at some point my Soy Sauce must have dripped when I used it and had a little film on the bottom. I worked hard and wanted to make sure everything was clean before touching my like new fridge surfaces.
And yes, my eggs are in a bowl because Mr. Man can now reach on top of surfaces and broke half of an 18 pack of eggs on my kitchen floor last week. Pray for my patience.
Finishing Touches
I did the same thing in the freezer as well. The freezer was no where near as bad and was way quicker.
To finish up, and really get a complete clean in, I used a stainless steal cleaner on the front of the doors to really make the fridge shine. Goodbye greasy fingerprint! (at least for one day. While I was at it, I did the dishwasher too 🙂
The End Result
I felt so good after getting this done that I was a little mad at myself for not doing this sooner. In reality, it was a quick and easy project that came with a tremendous before and after win.
Now I want to keep up with it better in 2020 than I did in 2019 and am aiming to do a full clean out again in June/July.
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