Dear Home-Ec 101,
I’m gearing myself up to finally tackling the scary fridge. It hasn’t been cleaned since the dawn of refrigeration, so there’s a ton of ultra-scary-ew-nasty-what-is-that-gunk in the fridge. But, I don’t want to use any harsh chemicals, as I’m concerned about the smell/taste of it transferring over to the food once I’m done. Is there some sort of magic baking soda/vinegar/lemon juice/elbow grease combination that might get the ew nasty out of my fridge?
Thanks!
On the right track
Ivy says:
You’re definitely on the right track there. Baking soda, vinegar, and lemons are all important parts of my cleaning process. One of the things I do when I’m scrubbing spots from the fridge is to take a lemon, sprinkle it with baking soda, and then use that to scrub the spot. It really works well on both cleaning and de-smelling. To clean the fridge itself, I pull out all the parts that come out, and hand wash them in regular dishwashing detergent (my favorite brand is Dawn) and then use a 50/50 water and vinegar mix to spray down the inside of the fridge. I then use the baking soda/lemon trick for any stubborn spots.
Keeping an open box of baking soda in your fridge really does help with keeping the smell down. Just make sure you never use that baking soda in recipes, because it absorbs the smell and then you end up with stinky cookies. That’s right, Ivy learns the hard way so you don’t have to!
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