Cleaning out the refrigerator

Are you avoiding this project?

Are you growing a specimen worthy of an award-winning science project in the back?

Rest assured it will take less than an hour to have a sparkling clean refrigerator again. Since my little one spilled a liquid-filled bowl of fruit all over mine, it was the perfect time to clean it.

Step 1: Preparation

Line a trashcan with a new bag. Use a heavy duty lawn leaf bag if you are going to be tossing a lot of yucky stuff since it is less likely to leak. Keep the trashcan nearby to dump out things that aren’t going back in the refrigerator.

Remember some containers are recyclable, so rinse and recycle them.

Step 2: Empty out the refrigerator

Work your way down two shelves at a time so the food will stay cold. As you move items to the counter, check expiration dates and toss the old items.

Step 3: Wash the shelves

Fill the kitchen sink full of water with some dish-washing detergent. Wash off the shelves and dry them with a towel before returning them to the refrigerator.

Step 4: Wipe the inside walls

Before returning the shelves to their spots, wipe off the walls of the refrigerator to remove any splatters of food.

Step 5: Line the vegetable and meat drawers

The drawers stay cleaner if you line them with two layers of paper towels. Now if that cucumber you forgot about starts to ooze, you can just replace the paper towels so your vegetable/fruit bin is clean again.

Step 6: Organize your shelves

Put like items together. I have one shelve for yogurt and fruit that I call the “snack” shelve and one for dinner ingredients. Beverages are on the bottom. Find what works best for you and organize your refrigerator so things don’t get lost in the back.

Don’t put it off

It took me only 30 minutes to clean the refrigerated side.

I’m going to go admire the results again. I can see through the drawers!

What? Yes those are refrigerated cookies in the drawer. Shhh..you didn’t see that. They could ruin my bake sale reputation.

Plants need a good dusting

When you’re cleaning, don’t forget about your plants.

Dust on the leaves can reduce the plant’s ability to photosynthesize at an optimum rate.

How do you dust a plant?

You can mist smaller plants with a spray bottle. Take larger plants outdoors on a nice day and gently spray them. Allow the leaves to dry off in the sun before bringing them back inside.

Don’t forget plastic plants need love, too

My tomato plant

Dusting fake plants

Needless to say, my house is full of fake plants. I have plant shelves in almost every room in the house and greenery on each one.

Collect the fake greenery and place them in the bathtub/shower. Spray them off with the shower head and let them drip dry in the tub.

Don’t forget about the fake trees

The same goes for my fake trees which I lean into the tub and spray them off to keep the base dry.

They are dark green again!

Maintaining a home is work

Whether you are a homeowner or live in an apartment, there are big projects that need to be done once or twice a year.

When was the last time you hand-scrubbed your floors or changed the batteries in your smoke detectors?

After learning that it had been years since I had cleaned out the pantry, I created a schedule to assure the big projects, which tend to be put off, are done more often.

Spreading the cleaning/maintenance tasks over the course of the year is less overwhelming.

This is a work in progress, and I’m sure I will be adding to it.

Download the schedule

Excel version so you can adjust it to fit your needs: Big Project Schedule
PDF format if you want to follow my schedule: Big Project Schedule

Got other “Big Projects” to add to this list?

Feel free to add them in the comments section.

Pantry cleaning

It’s a DEFCOM 1 red alert in my house!

Do you hear the sirens? A parental visit is on the horizon, and I have to get my house clean. Mom clean is not the same as my kid’s friend is coming over clean, you know.

I guess that is what inspired the cleaning of the pantry this week. What started out as a simple reorganization project turned out to be a huge painting ordeal.

The pantry had reached an all time low.

I can thank the kids and their constant digging in the pantry for a snack.

I’m not sure why they think the selection changes from hour to hour, but I have to assume they are hoping that a box of Pop Tarts miraculously beamed into the pantry while they were doing homework by some device that only exists in The Jetson’s cartoon.

I don’t try to understand that logic.

Empty the pantry

Remove everything from the pantry and clean off the shelves with some vinegar and water.

I realized that after 12 years of wear and tear, mine needed a new paint job as well, and I had to wait overnight for the paint to dry before continuing.

Organize the pantry

When returning the items back to your pantry, check expiration dates on everything.

Let me point out that I thought I had done this only a year ago, but it turns out I had some items that expired in 2007. Yikes!

Did you have items older than 4 years expired? Make me feel better and let me know in the comments.