My fridge stinks!

[Girl In The Fire]

I cant figure it out, for the past week or so my fridge smells like rotten meat. I have checked several times and there are not lost packages of meat anywhere in my fridge, and there is nothing else old or out of date. I cant figure it out! What would make my fridge smell like that and how can I get rid of it? Would my freezer make the fridge part smell bad? I have quite a bit of frozen meat in there but it certainly is not rotten and never was rotten. I am considering taking everythign out bleaching, soft scrubbing, and 409ing every shelf nook and cranny even though I did that about a month ago :

[~member~]

I am considering taking everythign out bleaching, soft scrubbing, and 409ing every shelf nook and cranny

I don't remember where, but I thought it was dangerous to use those types of cleaners for your fridge.
We have always used baking soda.
My sister is a professional cleaner, and she, too, only uses baking soda for the fridge.

Did you clean the catch pan under your fridge? That could have meat juices that are rotting and stinking everything up.

[alicia622]

I second using baking soda. It really is a great cleaner/deodorizer.

[FreeThinkinMama]

We had that problem once, but it was when we first moved in. We tried baking soda first but that didn't work. Then we tried bleach, ammonia, pine sol, lysol and every other cleaning product I could find LOL. It was so bad that we couldn't leave any food in there that wasn't completely sealed or the food would TASTE like it smelled ewwww! After a week we had the landlord replace the fridge entirely.

[sevenkids]

it's probably the drip pan in the back, they can stink even from vegetable matter.

[Samjm]

If you put some baking soda in a small bowl in the back of your fridge, it will help absorb odors.

[PajamaMama]

also, you might want to look under the drawers in the bottom of the fridge. If there is any blood dripped under there it'd reek after a couple of days.

[ramlita]

Instant coffee's another great odor absorber.
How jars of it get into my house, I'm really not sure.

[RiverSky]

Oooo, absolutely don't use 409 and preferably not bleach, they are far too toxic and will just stay in your fridge, contaminating your food forever.

Plain white vinegar, full strength, in a spray bottle or just poured into dirty sections of the fridge, then scrubbed/wiped off will work very well. Add baking soda for more scrubbing power. Use a scrub brush (a clean one, that has not been used in any gross or filthy areas) and remove all the shelves and baskets that you can. Wash those in hot, soapy water (with dish soap). I always wear rubber gloves and use the hottest water that will come out of my tap for cleaning, with a scrubby sponge and dish soap (natural stuff works great), then I use towels/rags and even sometimes paper towels to get rid of the worst stuff. The great thing is that even though many people do not like the smell of vinegar, it actually goes away in hours, completely and is a great deodorizer. Using baking soda is only a mask (and not even that great of one, imo) but actually cleaning and sanitizing the fridge with vinegar will remove the causes of the odor.

Good luck! It's a messy disgusting job but oh so gratifying once it's done.