Post Fridge Cleaning

Guess what I have! That's right, a clean fridge! It was a lengthy process, but it's all clean(erish) and pretty and white and lovely. My roommate even pulled the big bastard out and cleaned behind it. It's a thing of beauty. It was also less drama than we thought it would be.  I can think of several reasons for that.

First of all, we planned this. No one should ever randomly decide "oh, I'm going to clean the fridge today." You can do it, but it causes a lot of hassle. Actually, in the past we have had to do it that way, but only because the fridge we had at the time was screwing up. This time, we knew we were going to do it, so we took so steps to make the process easier.

• The rest of the kitchen was clean.  Okay, not the floors, really, but the majority of everything else. No dirty dishes. No cluttered surfaces.  This meant we could access the sink for washing of fridge shelves and had plenty of room to stack things as they were coming out of it. 
• There was a place for everything to stay during displacement. We had room in the freezers for freezery things and room in the other fridge for everything else. What didn't go into the smaller fridge was placed in an ice chest. 
• Everyone had designated roles. My roommate is taller than I am and more physically mobile. He cleaned the top of the fridge and the insides of it while I worked on all the shelves and racks. One person could have done this alone, but it would have taken a lot longer and been rather overwhelming. Given how filthy things were, I can see it being deeply overwhelming.

Speaking of not getting overwhelmed, the fact that we took measures to make sure this didn't happen is another reason the cleaning was successful. My roommate and I believe in the theory of cleaning in small spaces of time. We try to only work on cleaning the house somewhere between ten and thirty minutes a day. If a project is going to last longer than that, we still make sure to take breaks from it.

Another thing that made it easier had to do with the methods of cleaning we use.  Quite often during those breaks, we leave things soaking. Yes, scrubbing can be easier sometimes, but with certain messes, it's best just to allow it to soak off. I'm also quite fond of putting bigger items in the bathtub. There is ample room to wash the whole surface, plus the stronger sprays of water from the shower head.

For me, the primary and most effective cleaning tool is a mascara brush. Yes, that's right, like the kind you use to make your lashes look longer. I read about them on a Lifehacker post and thought it was a great idea. Mascara brushes have a nice fuzzy end that can get into just about every crevice and an easily maneuvered handle. While you can save them when your mascara runs out, cleaning them is a messy process. It's better and probably cheaper just to buy them in bulk.

I use them on everything. I clean my keyboard with them, I clean fans with them, and today, I cleaned all the small open spaces on the vent from the bottom of the fridge with one.  It took what would have been at least an hour of annoyance down to about five minutes. I'm telling you, the things are worth their weight in gold.

So here it is, the end of the day, and I'm sitting pretty knowing I have a clean fridge in the kitchen. I'm not bitter or injured or traumatized because of the process . .  . and believe me, there have been times when I was all of the above. We planned this out though. We took steps to make sure it was as pain free as possible. This little bit of preparation really worked for us.