Your refrigerator is one of the hardest working appliances in your home; day-in and day-out it works tirelessly to keep your food cold or frozen. To help it do it’s job properly you should be cleaning your refrigerator often, but some tasks should be done more frequently than others. Keep reading for the daily, weekly, and seasonal tasks you should do to clean your refrigerator.
Daily
Each day you should be wiping up any spills, drips, and splats. Ideally, you should be cleaning these up immediately before they harden and are more difficult to clean up.
As you put things in your refrigerator, you should make sure they are free of drips too; wipe off the rims of bottles and containers, particularly salad dressing and condiment bottles.
You should also be keeping track of the food in your fridge and when it will reach its expiration date. Each day you should remove spoiled or spoiling food to avoid unnecessary messes.
If you need to store leaking items (like defrosting meat) in your refrigerator, be sure to place it on a plate on the bottom shelf.
When you put leftovers in your refrigerator, make sure they are stored in airtight containers to avoid smelly odors.
Weekly
Now that you’ve taken care of the daily tasks, it’s important to pay special attention to other areas that only need to be cleaned once a week. This includes wiping down the doors of your refrigerator. Use a warm cloth with soapy water to clean the door handles where sticky fingerprints easily accumulate. Don’t forget to wipe down the tops and sides of the doors too.
Seasonally
You should be cleaning the doors of your refrigerator weekly, but each season it is important to give the seal on your fridge door some TLC. The gasket helps seal and keep cool air inside your refrigerator, so you’ll want to inspect it for any cracks or rips. Use a warm rag with soap to gently wipe it down and remove any crumbs or dried spills. Thoroughly dry the seal to prevent unwanted growth.
Each season you’ll also want to do a deep clean by removing all of the contents of your refrigerator and wiping down all surfaces. You can use a mixture of baking soda and hot water to clean and remove any lingering odors. (Smelly soaps may later be absorbed into foods!) Remove the drawers and shelves and give them a good washing in the sink. Just be sure to wait until they have warmed to room-temperature and use the same baking soda/water mixture to clean.
Not only should you clean the inside, but you should clean the outside too. This includes the kick plate which can easily accumulate dust.
If your refrigerator is in need of repairs, whether big or small, be sure to call Peter’s Appliance. A refrigerator is an appliance you can’t (or don’t want) to go long without! Peter’s Appliance can get it up and running in no-time. They can also handle repairs for other appliances like your dishwasher, garbage disposal, reconditioned appliances, and even microwaves.
