It is no secret or surprise that over time refrigerators pick up the smells of the foods in your fridge, especially if anything was left in the fridge too long. Routine fridge cleaning can help reduce the smell, but a deeper cleaning periodically can help eliminate bad smells all together. Let’s look at some cleaning tips the pros use to deep clean refrigerators and eliminate smells.
Step One
The first step in eliminating smells from your refrigerator is deep cleaning it. This means removing all food, both expired and not, so you can clean every inch of the inside of the fridge thoroughly. After everything has been removed from the fridge, you can remove any shelves and bins (crisper tray, etc.) to be scrubbed and washed using a mixture of warm water and baking soda. The baking soda wash will get rid of any germs while also removing the smell. Once you’ve cleaned all of the removable parts of the refrigerator, you want to scrub down the walls of the refrigerator as well as the top and bottom. Finally, you want to clean the drip tray located under the refrigerator. This is an important step because the drip tray can hold lots of dirty water leaving your refrigerator smelly even if it’s otherwise clean. If you’ve done all of these steps and still feel your refrigerator smells, you can spread some baking soda on a baking sheet and set it in the refrigerator for a while to absorb any lingering smells. During the step you want to close the refrigerator doors to contain the smell to the fridge.
Step Two
Once the refrigerator has been thoroughly cleaned, you want to ensure that it doesn’t start to smell again in the future. Placing boxes of baking soda throughout the fridge will help reduce smells by absorbing them. Another way to illuminate smells in the future is to place a bowl of vinegar in the fridge. Like baking soda, vinegar will eliminate any lingering smells. If, for some reason, you would rather not use baking soda or vinegar, coffee grounds, cat litter, and activated charcoal can all replace vinegar or baking soda with the same results.
Dealing with a Smelly Freezer
If your freezer smells, it’s likely that something has expired and gone bad in the freezer. To clean the freezer, remove all food items, check the dates, and throw away anything that is out of date. To clean the freezer you’ll need to defrost it by turning the refrigerating unit off. You’ll need to defrost it and melt any ice that has accumulated in the freezer before cleaning it as this can be a source of the smell. Once the freezer has been defrosted, you clean it the same way you clean the fridge. After it has been cleaned you also want to put a box of baking soda or similar product in the freezer to prevent smells in the future.
Having a smelly refrigerator or freezer does not mean that you need to purchase a new one; a deep thorough cleaning and regular maintenance cleaning should ensure your refrigerator lasts and lasts. At Immaculate Clean, we offer add-on services like refrigerator deep cleaning. If your refrigerator is in need of a cleaning because of odors, give us a call today!
