When did you last deep clean your fridge?

[jo-jo]

I can't imagine a refrigerator taking 2 hours to deep clean. We have a 26 cubic foot side my side and I think it might take 15 minutes to deep clean it, and most of that time would be to unload and reload it.
I think when I was in the kid, before my parents had a frost free refrigerator, it took 2 hours to defrost the freezer.

For me,it’s not all cleaning time. 5 secs to pull out drawer, 5 mins to wash, 15 mins to get the rollers and the glides all lined up again to fit in.

 

[mumto3girls]

11 months ago - I do this every January when it’s cold outside so my items can sit outside in laundry baskets as I deep clean. It does take me awhile to do since I strip the fridge of everything to clean every surface - walls, shelves, doors, drawers in the sink with soap & water, shelves in the doors are washed with soap and water - it’s a process. I’m not sure how long it takes, I’ve never timed it, but I do know it takes over an hour.

If messes happen throughout the year, then I clean that up then.

This is similar to my process too. I take everything out including all the drawers, shelves and bins, wash them in warm, soapy water, dry them and after wiping down the inside of the refrigerator, put them all back. Getting everything back in the right spot is the hardest part! I also check the expiration dates on all the condiments, salad dressings etc and purge the stuff that is out of date or that I think we won’t use. I wipe down all those jars and bottles too. It definitely takes me 1-2 hours.

I always do it in December and then usually in the summer. When my kids were little I would do it on their first day back to school.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Do people not check what is in the fridge every so now and then and just save that for when they scrub the fridge? It still wouldn't take me 2 hours but I suppose I could see if people are waiting to go through leftovers, random containers, and other stuff in the fridge where that would add up in the time, I wouldn't consider that deep cleaning unless people just wait until they go through that stuff when they clean the fridge at the same time like that's part of their "cleaning the fridge routine"

 

[mumto3girls]

Do people not check what is in the fridge every so now and then and just save that for when they scrub the fridge? It still wouldn't take me 2 hours but I suppose I could see if people are waiting to go through leftovers, random containers, and other stuff in the fridge where that would add up in the time, I wouldn't consider that deep cleaning unless people just wait until they go through that stuff when they clean the fridge at the same time like that's part of their "cleaning the fridge routine"

Both. I daily/every few days am monitoring the leftovers in containers and the produce to see what is there, what needs to be used up or thrown out. But the stuff I mostly keep on the shelves on the door that typically have a really long expiration date, I only go through thoroughly a few times a year—jelly/jam, pickles, most condiments and salad dressings, random things I bought for a recipe that I probably am not going to use again—fish sauce for example.

It’s also probably a season of life. We have young adult/teenagers who have their own likes/dislikes who are coming and going from college and will request certain items when they are home (my vegetarian in particular) and that stuff needs to be purged occasionally, but not weekly. And honestly, they’re messier than DH and me. More likely to put a sticky bottle of jam back in there without wiping it down or making sure the lid is on well (especially those squeeze bottles that we often store upside down). I suspect the “cleaning the fridge” routine will change as they permanently leave home.

 

[Carol_]

Cleaned it.
Threw out tons of old opened bottles of what once sounded like a good idea at the time…
Then moved on to the pantry to do the same.
About 8 bags of unopened groceries taken to the food pantry charity after acknowledging that we were NEVER going to eat it.
Things my family doesn’t eat includes:
Oatmeal of any variety
Pasta that isn’t white
Vitamin C powder
Black tea
Protein bars
Macrokids energy bars
Granola bars
Pediasure
Pedialyte
Boxed dry soup mixes
So many canned vegetables…

Then, I turned to the IKEA gingerbread houses I’ve had since last year. That was last night’s project. Family managed to build two of six provided houses. They look great to me. Objectively they look quite bad, but when you’ve been waiting for over a year to get them done, the satisfaction of seeing SOMETHING done is more than enough.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It’s also probably a season of life.

I thought about that. Truthfully I grew up sorta doing this as part of kinda "it's a responsibility" thing as in everyone's tasks (I'm not saying when I was a young kid but probably around late elementary school/early middle school and then into high school when chores were more around). Like one of the chores at my mom's house I was responsible for was restocking the pop in the fridge taking it from the garage (which was down the stairs) and bringing it up to the fridge. Even at my dad's house everyone just sorta did this periodically as part of your tasks. I think I got used to just looking at the dates (and some things don't actually have dates printed on them) when using them. Or seeing something that hadn't been used in a while and checking on it and that's done very frequently in our house.

Despite the fact that my husband didn't necessarily grow up that way like I did I think he gravitated towards this (though admittedly I do it more than he does).

But the stuff I mostly keep on the shelves on the door that typically have a really long expiration date, I only go through thoroughly a few times a year

Yeah I mean we have 3 kinds of mustard in the fridge but I do def. look at the expiration dates over time. I think it's just because that's on my mind to keep track of that stuff. I think our pantry is a bit more of a black hole (like I found some balsamic vinegar that was about a year past the date but it was shoved behind other things not used much at all) but the fridge not as much. I also write on the bottle of things when we opened them. I don't do that for the mustard or ketchup or mayo though but I have with pesto, capers, jarred jalapenos, etc. We use the mustard and minced garlic enough that I just need to keep an eye on the expiration date of the yellow mustard as that's used the least of the 3 mustard varieties we have. Ranch we'll go through, etc.

More likely to put a sticky bottle of jam back in there without wiping it down or making sure the lid is on well (especially those squeeze bottles that we often store upside down).

Ugh that's like my husband but really just the agave syrup he has in the pantry for when he makes margaritas. The bottle is sticky and then the spot on the island where he puts the shaker top gets sticky because of that. We've both been pretty good about the jelly container in the fridge that is a squeeze bottle from getting to be a mess but I totally get what you mean there.

ETA: You may consider getting flip it
https://www.amazon.com/Flip-FL4X1AP...qid=1670691800&sprefix=flip+it,aps,205&sr=8-7

I get a 2 pack and though I haven't used it for the fridge yet I do use it for shampoo, body wash, etc
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079C4B8V8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

You do have to push the bottom part closed when you're done but I haven't experienced any leaks (when using the foam washers provided).

 

[Annabell]

I just did it last month, I do it few times a year.

 

[disneyseniors]

My husband just cleaned ours, and I gotta say that he does a much better job than I do, LOL

I have arthritis in my hands, so he has to do the heavy cleaning and scrubbing. I love him

 

[RoseColored97]

Funny timing, we just got a Walmart delivery and I took everything out and cleaned/wiped down before putting things away. I love to organize and make sure labels are facing the same way so when you open the fridge you know exactly where everything is.

I tried to use extra bins (Pinterest hacks...lol) to keep things organized a few months ago but it seemed to make things more difficult to find.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I tried to use extra bins (Pinterest hacks...lol) to keep things organized a few months ago but it seemed to make things more difficult to find.

Every time I saw those refilling ASMR videos on FB I thought the same thing. When it's about pantry or fridge and putting a bunch of things inside the bins I feel like you're going to eventually lose what's in there and things will end up just being chaotic after a while.

I did get food storage things for the pantry after seeing a bunch of those videos but it's so we can put more of something and easily get things out so it's just used for pasta and things like flour, sugar, etc. And those are labeled for Penne, spaghetti, rice, etc even though I can clearly see what's in it it's still labeled.

But I feel like these things can get messy real quick (though for some people it may be just the thing they need):

 

[LuvOrlando]

Every time we travel or if someone gets sick it gets a scrubbing, so it's fairly frequent, I love a nice sparking mostly empty fridge after traveling.

I have taken hours to go through if I include submerging all the shelves and glass then washing the entire inside leaving everything out to dry before putting it back & reorganizing the freezer too.

 

[HeatherC]

Do people not check what is in the fridge every so now and then and just save that for when they scrub the fridge? It still wouldn't take me 2 hours but I suppose I could see if people are waiting to go through leftovers, random containers, and other stuff in the fridge where that would add up in the time, I wouldn't consider that deep cleaning unless people just wait until they go through that stuff when they clean the fridge at the same time like that's part of their "cleaning the fridge routine"

Yes I clean my fridge. But with six people it is always full and food or unnoticed spills do get caught in the crevices. It takes time to empty, sort through all the food, scrub, dry and re assemble. Good for you that your fridge doesn’t require a deep clean every now and then.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes I clean my fridge. But with six people it is always full and food or unnoticed spills do get caught in the crevices. It takes time to empty, sort through all the food, scrub, dry and re assemble. Good for you that your fridge doesn’t require a deep clean every now and then.

That was aimed at going through items in it at the same time as your question regarding deep cleaning, not cleaning up spills or cleaning the shelves. If you're saving the times at which you're going through leftovers, packaged items, condiments, etc for when you're deep cleaning I could more see at that point the length of time at which it would take to clean. And I explained in a subsequent comment what occurs for us.

Number of people in a household does not mean your fridge is dirtier or more full than my fridge. You'll want to come see my mother-in-law's fridge--there's only 2 people that live in that house