How to Keep Your Refrigerator Clean ?

1. Cleaning the fridge

Remove all the food, and empty the fridge completely before starting to clean it, this would make the process easier. Remove the detachable fridge shelves and soak them in warm water (mixed with dishwashing liquid). For the nasty stain, take a wiping cloth and dap some vinegar or baking soda and wipe it on the stain and all across the interiors.  

2. Placement of food

The placement of food can also save you half the effort. To prevent unwanted drips keep raw meat and seafood on the bottom shelf of the freezer.   

3. Wipe the bottles and jars

Take out the sticky jars and wipe them clean. The stain accumulated over a long time is harder to clean. You can wipe them with a damp cloth or make a mixture of equal parts of baking soda and cooking oil. Put the mixture on top of the stain and scrub off the stain.  

4. Line the shelves

You can also put placemats on your shelves. This would save your shelves from the occasional spill. In case of spills and messes, simply remove the mat, clean it and replace.  It is always a nice idea to clean the spills when fresh, with lemon or baking soda mixture with water. 

5. Fridge Odour

Opening your fridge to a peculiar stench is never a pleasing sense.  Traditionally a handful of half cut lemon kept in any corner of the fridge is used to keep the odour at bay. You can also insert some cloves in these lemons for that sweet smell. Some also use baking soda and activated carbon to deodorize and keep your fridge smelling fresh.

Parting note: Done with cleaning the fridge? Great! Now, as you start placing your food and containers back follow these storage tips to prevent maximum mess and contamination. 

• Putting meat, vegetables and fruits in the same crisper can increase the risk of contamination and spoilage

Storing milk near doors, may not be the best idea as the temperature fluctuates the maximum around doors. Store them somewhere in the middle.

• Don’t slice your food until you are ready to consume it, choped meat, veggies and fruits are more prone to spoilage and contamination.

• Don’t put boiling hot food in the fridge, wait for it to cool come down to room temperature before putting it the refrigerator. This would prevent any bacterial buildup. 

• Take stock once every week. This would help you get rid of the leftovers you don’t need and also give you a better idea of what you need in your next round of grocery shopping.