Spring Cleaning - Refrigerator Edition

Before - Yikes! It’s a mess.

I’m lucky that my bins lift right off the door so I just moved them to the counter that easily. I started with one side door, then the main area and finished with the other side door.

In warm water, I add a drop of dish washing soap, a good splash of white vinegar and a healthy sprinkling of baking soda. I use this to wash the shelves and interior walls of the fridge. I will caution you that once about ten years ago, I made the water too hot and when I put the glass shelves in, they shattered into a million pieces. I remember how fun it was to try to drain the sink and not let the pieces of glass go into the garbage disposal. Talk about learning a lesson the hard way..

If something doesn’t easily wash off, I break out the magic eraser. See all those tiny pieces, I can’t tell you how long I was scrubbing and doing nothing and in seconds, the magic eraser took it off. I even used it on the glass shelves if something wouldn’t come off.

Next, I traced with a pencil on the shelf liner.

Cut it out...

Perfect fit.

Check for expired items while you are removing everything.

I grouped like items together so that they would go back in the fridge organized.

In no time, I was seeing progress.

One side done.

Next - I purchased some bins to organize the snack \ lunch items.

Happy day! A clean organized fridge. The bins and shelf liner will help keep it clean or make it easier to clean in the future... at least I hope so! PS - I decided not to shelf liner every shelf because I liked seeing through some of them. Maybe clear shelf liner would work? Has anyone tried that?

What is your favorite refrigerator cleaning tip?

Update: Shortly after posting this I walked through the kitchen to find my daughter standing in front of the open refrigerator. I said, “I cleaned and organized the fridge.” Nonchalantly. For some reason, I expected her to reply “Really? I couldn’t tell.” Instead, She shouts, “I know! I am SHOCKED!!” I wish there was a way to convey the level of disbelief in her voice. 🤣 I almost dropped what I was carrying. You all, I am not known for my clean refrigerator ability, until now. Let’s hope that I’ve turned a corner.

Since there are already some shelf liner tutorials on Hometalk, I am adding 3 of my favorite kitchen things to make this post a little different.

This is one of my favorite things in the whole world. It is a raised dishwasher. I didn’t realize why it is wonderful until I began using it. No more bending over to load and unload the dishwasher. I am fairly tall so I really love this.

I love this magnetic knife holder. It is so fun to stick the knives to the powerful magnets. Just be careful because it will pull them right out of your hand.

The other items on the right are self adhesive V shaped towel holders. I didn’t have anywhere for a towel bar and I ended up liking these better. The towels stay in place much better.

Several days after my fridge makeover, my son did some grocery shopping. He remarked how great the refrigerator looked. Later, when I opened it, I could tell he added his items carefully and made them look as visually appealing as possible. I guess cleaning and organizing can be contagious. It kind of made my day that new items weren’t just thrown into the fridge thoughtlessly.