This is slightly embarrassing, but I have a confession to make… You guys know I’m all about saving time and money, right? And I’ve shared before how a clean refrigerator can help save both.
Well, the truth is I honestly cannot remember the last time I’ve deep cleaned my refrigerator. I can’t even begin to describe the terrible state it had reached, so I’ll show you a photo:
Everything stuffed in haphazardly, crumbs, stickiness — who knows what’s lurking in the back?!? But the worst of it wasn’t even revealed until I removed the long snack drawer on the bottom…
Apparently at some point several months ago (at least), my kids spilled a significant amount of milk inside the fridge. While they must have thought they wiped up the mess, they clearly did not realize that most of it ran down under the snack drawer. I’m gagging just thinking about it. I will have nightmares about scrubbing that funk out for the next year!
It took a good 45 minutes and a lot of elbow grease, but I turned on some music and started scrubbing. Several Viva Towels later I had this:
Much better, isn’t it?!? I took everything out, checking expiration dates as I went and tossing anything that was past its prime. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much to get rid of — I mostly just needed to organize everything better.
After pulling it all out, I was easily able to pull out the drawers (this is when I discovered the milk, blech), which made wiping the shelves and drawers down an easy task. Putting everything back into the fridge in an organized manner was much easier since I had a clean slate to work with.
Now the trick is to maintain it! Since we receive our weekly produce bins on Fridays, I’m pencilling in a quick once-over for Friday mornings with a deep-cleaning once a month.
Are You Ready To Take The Clean Refrigerator Challenge?
Now it’s your turn — I’m challenging you to whip your refrigerator into tip-top shape at some point over the next week. What’s the oldest item you had to toss or the worst mess you had to clean up in your refrigerator? Share in the comments and you could win a Viva Towels prize package valued at $50!
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This post is brought to you by Kimberly-Clark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Stephanie K
yogurt that spilled down the back of the refrigerator unknowingly
Rachel
Pickled meat sticks that were left in a fridge for at least 3 years. No one lived in the house for that amount of time before we moved in.
Kathleen M
Hummingbird nectar. ARGHHHHH it was a mess! LOL
Elaine
yogurt that was dated 1/13 in the door of the refrig.
Tamara N
The worst thing I had to clean up in the fridge was when the kids spilled a carton of chocolate milk all down the back of the fridge. It was in every corner and crevice.
Karen
Well my fridge is currently very clean as we had a power outage last week and I had to toss a bunch of stuff after. The oldest thing probably was some Arby’s Horsey Sauce packets of unknown year. :-)
Julie
that’s funny, i already had it on my to-do list to tackle the fridge this week! i suspect some outdated bottles of dressing will be making their way to the garbage…
Diana
fruit juice from a fruit salad
Selene M.
The worst mess was dried meat juice under the vegetable drawers.
Melissa M
Someone spilled baked beans in my fridge once.
shelleyb
It was an older fridge, to remove drawers was close to impossible so rarely came all the way out. But, when finally removed them, there was the worse mess-mystery crud hiding in the crevices. I love my new fridge and try to do frequent wipe downs. Try being key word.
Rebecca D
We had some fruit juice leak out of its container and I didn’t know about it for awhile. It was a sticky mess to clean up.
Kay S
Fruit juice has been the most messy spill to clean up.
Tara
I can’t remember the oldest thing I’ve taken out of my fridge, but a couple months back I found some condiment in my mom’s fridge that was maybe 7 or 8 years old!!
Tim
The last time I pulled the salsa out it had hair and fuzz growing in it!
Katie Culpepper
It was some sort of spilled juice… I don’t know when it was from only visible when I pulled the drawer out… it was furry.
Wendy
Dried on egg that had leaked out of a broken egg hiding in the carton.
bn100
spilled fruit juice
Melvin
A container of dip that was gross from last year
Cheryl Rahkonen
The oldest item in my refrigerator was jalapeno peppers a neighbor had given me. They had got stuffed under other produce and forgotten about. It took me awhile to identify some other items in the produce drawer. I threw it all out, bleached the drawer and placed fresh Viva towels in the bottom.
Melissa
the worst mess recently was a broken soda bottle. so much stickiness :(
ET Pruitt
A container of spilled beets is the worst mess I’ve cleaned.
Lisa Brown
worst mess: eggs fell on the shelf in the frig and most broke; yucky mess, took a while to clean.
bill
pickles from 2011!
Janet
We almost always have old salad dressing in the fridge. Constantly have to check expirations on that stuff!
jennifer
Sour cream seems to always get old and moldy. Yuck.
kathy f
The worst mess I had to clean in my refrigerator was spilled milk that went under the vegetable and fruit bins. It was a crusty mess.
Margaret
worst mess was spilled juice
Shawnda
Vegetables that gone moldy and mushy. Ugh!
Diane G
Mayo in a small bottle that got hidden behind some other stuff. 2 years past expiration. Yuck!