YOUR FRIDGE~how often do you clean it out? - Page 2

[Leta]

I do it just like songbird.

I have my regular upright refrigerator/freezer in my kitchen, and in the basement I have a large chest freezer and a somewhat smaller chest refrigerator (DH homebrews, cures sausage, makes fridge pickles- don't worry, it's not full of produce or anything).

So I took four wide mouth half pint mason jars (which are almost like little bowls) and drilled holes in the metal lids. Then I filled them with baking soda and took a Sharpie and wrote on the lids "1-1; 4-1; 7-1; 10-1" to remind me when to change the baking soda.

Every week, I throw stuff out and do a quickie wipe down. Takes 5, 10 minutes tops. Then, every three months, I do a major excavation wherein I take everything out, check dates on condiments, change the baking soda, etc, etc. Sounds like a lot of work, but I barely have to do anything to the stuff in the basement.

When we remodel, we are going to have four dorm size undercounter refrigerators- well, three, because one will be a freezer, but you get the idea- so I will have SIX baking soda containers to refill.

[Leta]

Oh, and another thing about cleaning the fridge: I have two rules.

1. No food in non-clear containers. Food just rots in them.

2. I deal with the produce the day we shop. I got three of those Rubbermaid produce containers, and I wash (and in the case of lettuce, spin) and cut up/peel/tear carrots, celery, and greens into sticks/bite size pieces. It gets eaten this way. Things don't rot this way, which minimizes fridge grossness. Also, I've found that for our family, three was the right number of containers because we eat this much before it goes bad.

The rest of the veggies we buy (like bell peppers, for example) come in smaller quantities, so they usually get used up faster and we don't need the container to preserve them longer.

We don't refrigerate fruit, tomatoes, potatoes, onions or garlic.

[Shera971]

I throw out stuff once a week before I go shopping.

[sunnysandiegan]

I clean on an as needed basis throughout my whole house. I do roughly 30 minutes every day in addition to the time spent doing one load of laundry from start to finish (put away is finished to me) and washing dishes. The actual tasks change all the time.

I spend time on the fridge when the fridge needs it. I often eat parts of last night's dinner for lunch. Therefore, I am hunting down food most days and at least pay partial attention to the contents of our fridge and keep things rotated, etc. We clean the rare spills immediately and that often results in a complete and thorough excavation, scrub down, and replacement. Otherwise, the thorough cleaning happens before all the major holidays. Our fridge isn't all that crammed usually, so we only need the extra room at the holidays and that prompts the whole scrub-down...

[Sharlla]

I just wipe it down weekly, keeps it from getting dirty.

[weliveintheforest]

I try to do it every week when we get our food delivery, but I've only done it once since Christmas. I am not a neat freak, but I need the fridge to be organized or I feel like I have to order pizza.

[IntuitiveJamie]

I clean out daily really. But I only wipe down the shelves as needed. Our new fridge has glass shelves and I LOVE them! They are so easy to clean. I do it often. Just did that and cleaned the drawers out yesterday!

[nolansmummy]

I toss leftovers or rotten food every time i do a big grocery trip. Wiping out, heavy duty cleaning i do once every 2 months i'd say. I wipe any large spills as they happen though. I hate cleaning the fridge, but i love the way it looks when its all sparkling and neat.

[mamadelbosque]

I try and clean out the old leftovers/spoiled stuff about once a week (usually on monday or tuesday), or whenever I find something really gross I do a deep pull-everything-out-clean only rarely. Usually only when something has leaked and just made a mess, which happens from time to time. Probably doesn't happen more than 3-6x a year though, tops.

[oneKnight]

I'm constantly makeing sure we use up the leftovers before they get old, etc. Mostly just stay on top of it as you go

Every two weeks (right before payday/shopping day) I make doubly sure nothing is left from last payday unless it is fresh leftovers. Usually by shopping day my fridge is a barren wasteland so it's not a big deal.
I don't wipe things down much, unless something leaks or it just gets icky.

[slsurface]

I go through and remove any forgotten leftovers and anything that looks icky the night before trash day - so once a week for a quick cleaning. I rarely take everything out of the frig and deep clean...maybe twice a year. Any drips or leaks are cleaned up when I find them.

[slsurface]

Originally Posted by oneKnight

Usually by shopping day my fridge is a barren wasteland so it's not a big deal.

so is mine!

[gillibean]

Originally Posted by Devaskyla

I clean out stuff that's gone bad or expired as soon as I notice. As for actually *cleaning* it....ummm...just before Christmas I pulled the shelves & drawer out & cleaned everything for the first time since we lived here....which is almost 4 years. Once a month seems extreme to me...or maybe I just don't get that much spilled in there? I can't imagine spending that much time cleaning my fridge every month. Even my mom never did it that often & she was much, much neater than I've ever been.

That is so me. I throw things away when I notice fur/colours that shouldn't be there or when I can't remember when it was even put in the fridge. The fridge itself gets spotcleaned when something spills. I can't remember the last time I saw the bottom of our chest freezer.

I'm also supposed to say that my DH can't believe that people clean their fridge every month. His words - "Yeah right".

[Eliseatthebeach]

I keep my fridge fairly clear of leftovers and expired foods and condiments.

I do a deep cleaning where everything comes out and super cleaned about every three to four months.

[rebeccalynn]

I felt slack until I saw that I was in good company. We have leftover night about twice a week and that usually takes care of leftovers. I pullout any gross things the night before trash day like pp. I do wipe up a spill when that happens, but other than that I think my mom might have taken everything out and actually cleaned it when I was in labor with my now 2yr old. #3 is die in July so maybe it will get cleaned out again then.

We are planning on defrosting the freezer this month which has not been done before (I think we bought it 5yr ago or manybe even longer)! I always try to eat things do to what can be stored in the small freezer so that we can defrost but then I run into a really great sale and blow it.

[MamaFern]

well i finally got around to it on monday after reading all of these posts!

it wasnt as bad as i thought it would be. i took EVERYTHING out, washed all inside compartments, shelves, glass with soapy water and wiped down with dry cloths and put everything back in all neat and tidy like! i even organised condiments by type ( ocd much?) i only had to compost a few things (left over and forgotten pumpkin mash..some sketchy caesar salad dressing in a jar..orange juice from the food bank that didnt get used up because of allergies.. and not a whole lot more!) it wasso nice waking up and making lunches and breakfasts out of my newly sparkling fridge. i think mondays will be fridge day from now on

[thixle]

I used to clean the fridge every time we moved- so maybe every year or so
Now that we own, well, we bought the fridge in Nov... the baby is 10 weeks... mmmm... I might get around to it in a month or so?
I toss the gross stuff about every two weeks. Ok, sometimes 3.

I vote I clean mine "seasonally"

[Tangled Hill]

I toss leftovers whenever I notice something in there I can't identify.

Really, though, I don't have a schedule. I just toss things whenever I notice they're they've been in there a little while. As for deep cleaning, it's the same sort of thing. I wash it down whenever it looks as though it needs it - usually once a month, or so (with spot cleaning in between).

[marimara]

Oh, Lord, you mean I have to clean THAT thing out too?

[jrabbit]

when we move. or when we have a hurricane. whichever comes first.

seriously - I try to keep it somewhat clean, but I don't actually "clean" it unless it's disgusting or unless I have to ... if something smells, or leaks, or if I need the space for something else.

I cleaned my freezer in 2007, and I broke the ice maker, so I'm not particularly motivated to do that again. I was inspired to do a deep-kitchen-clean, and I guess I got over-zealous. Didn't do the fridge after that ... now I need to clean out my upright freezer and get it ready to sell. I've been saying that since Hurricane Ike blew through in September. We lost power, but we were able to keep the freezer cold enough with a borrowed generator.