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.
amber
the worst mess was when I spilled pickle juice everywhere
Brittany Denton
Apparently some meat that I had gotten and placed in the bottom of the fridge had leaked out some blood and I did not know it. When cleaning out my fridge and pulling out the drawers I seen there was dried blood underneath the shelving that had slipped back there from the meat! It was a disgusting mess!!! UGH!
Dacia Dale
Spilled juice or milk
Christina Foley
The worst mess was probably a container that was pushed to the back of the fridge and tipped on its side, it leaked and I didn’t realize it for a few days. It was ll over the shelf, ran down the back of the fridge and was a huge pain to clean all up. The oldest item was probably some produce (not even sure what it was lol) that was accidently put in our 2nd fridge (used mostly for drinks and when we have gatherings, etc). I didn’t know it was in there until it was a watery mess.
Samantha
The worst mess I’ve had to clean up is blood from a package of roast (uncooked meat) that fell off the defrosting plate I have in the fridge, it dripped down the back of the fridge, through all the veggies. It was horrible and I had to throw away a lot of it.
Becky Cole
ancient cream cheese, yuck!
Jenny
Broccoli. Broccoli is the worst thing ever to let go bad in the Fridge. Just take it from me ;)
Julia
My hubby put some grease in the freezer without a lid and didn’t tell me. I bumped it before it was hardened and it got all over the freezer and fridge and was a horrible mess to clean.
Leigh Anne Borders
We had some bagged fruit in the refrigerator for smoothies and it leaked from the top shelf all the way down. It was extremely sticky and messy to clean up. Had to literally take everything out.
Erika
Yikes! This kind of thing happens a little too much but I think the worst is when a bottle of soy sauce spilled on half of my fridge.
Teresa
Someone knocked over an opened, melted container of orange juice concentrate. That was a sticky mess.
Kris I.
I recently had to clean up some rotten cucumbers in my fridge! Yuk!
Shonda Abercrombie
Something greenish-black in a baggie.
Maralea
Just the other day I tossed out a bowl of nasty slimy lettuce.
nicole
The worst thing I had to toss in the refrigerator was a container of old Chinese food. The smell was so awful.
dina
At this moment there is a storage bowl with fuzzy green pasta in it. I’m trying to decide if I want to attempt to save the bowl or just toss is all…
:/
Megan S.
Not too bad, but celery that had mold on it. It take celery a really long time to get moldy, so that’s really bad!
Mike
Old beans, they stink so bad.
wendy rozema
The oldest item I found in my fridge was 2 week old meatloaf – Gross!!
Noreen
A jar of kimchee (fermented cabbage with spiced) that lids was not on right and it fell over on the top shelf and spilled all the way to the bottom.
s.w.
Spilled molded green beans that I had to clean up. the juice of the green beans were everywhere , eww!
Renee
The worst mess I ever cleaned was mildew that formed on spilled coke that was all over the bottom of my fridge.
ali
My youngest daughter didn’t put the lid on the syrup it was the hardest to clean up had to scrape it out.
Misty Swearingen
Something had dripped down under the veggie drawer and liberally spread it’s self all over. I don’t know what it was, I’m not sure I WANT to know what it was, but it was a nasty, gunky mess that had hardened and was like cement that had to be chip off bit by bit, then cleaned up the stickiness underneath! EW EW EW.
bri garnica
well, i just had to deep clean the fridge, but not by choice. the storms out here took out our power for 2 days. everything melted-so it had to be done.
Katy P
I’ve had an old pepper I found in the back of a drawer that was moldy.
Cori Westphal
I think some of the worst messes in a fridge are those mystery ones! I was cleaning out my fridge and found a long, drippy smear behind the drawers. It was brown, sticky, and super hard to get off. I have no idea what it was but it was horrible!
coriwestphal at msn dot com
Laura J
Oh my biggest mess was last year…I was making 2 of my jello salads for the holidays! My fridge was full….and they tipped over! Oh my…..was so messy as they all spilled everywhere on on everything…then set! UGH
Valentine
I know I have some fennel in my vegetable drawer that I wanted to turn into soup. I know that was over a month ago – I dread having to deal with it! But trash pickup is in 2 days and your post is giving me the kick in the butt I need to take care of it (and probably some other stuff, too) and deep clean my fridge!
Tabathia B
Probably some cream cheese that was way past date