Raising Daisies: Making the Fridge Look New Again Without Chemicals

Last week, I joined my amazing and talented friend, Mary Johansen, in her 91 Day De-Clutter Challenge. I am so excited about this challenge! She breaks the entire house down into zones each week and gives you step-by-step guidance in small, manageable tasks to de-cluttering your home. You could pay a professional organizer gobs of money for this, but Mary is providing her professional organizing expertise for FREE! Love that!

Anyway, week one was focused on the kitchen, starting with the fridge. Now, I know this challenge is just an organizing challenge, not a cleaning one. But I can't help myself. If I am going to tear apart something to organize it, by golly I am going to clean it!! Cleaning the fridge is part of my Fall Cleaning anyway, so this is perfect timing. I am a little behind with the tasks for the kitchen, but that is ok. That is what is great about this challenge. Take it at your own pace!

So if you get hate cleaning the fridge, or get overwhelmed at the thought of even starting, this post is for you! I'm going to share how you can do it without breaking a sweat or burning your nose hairs with harsh chemicals like bleach.

With all the who-knows-what that could be lurking in the fridge, it is a good idea to give it a good cleaning about every six months or so. I am pretty good about cleaning out the food, but it isn't very often I get in there and really CLEAN it. In the past, I would have to use some pretty strong cleaners to get the gunk that builds up out and give it a good coat of bleach to disinfect it. But now that I have learned the dangers of using such harsh chemicals, I don't want any of it near the food that my family eats. So, today I am going to share how I get my fridge looking new again with all natural cleaners.

So let's get started.

This is what I was going into...

I started by emptying the entire fridge of food, throwing away expired or rotting food as you go. I filled two kitchen trash bags! Yuck!

Then, I pulled off all the door shelves and took out the drawers.

Next, I filled the sink with hot water and a tablespoon of my favorite all-purpose cleaner, Basic H, and threw in the shelves. This is where the chemical-free part comes in. This stuff is 100% natural, organic and super powerful. I feel very safe cleaning the surfaces that touch our food without worrying about us ingesting toxic chemicals that come from my former cleaners.

I then gave the inside of the fridge (door and all) a good spray-down of Basic H Degreaser to let it soak while I wash the shelving.

Speaking of shelving, I hadn't cleaned my door shelves in probably 2 years. Eek. So they were pretty bad. I needed something a little stronger than soap and water to get the stains off. So I got out my trusty Scour Off.

Yuck!

Hello luv...

BAM, stains gone! Love that stuff!

While the parts are drying, I start on the inside of the fridge, wiping down the surfaces I just sprayed. The degreaser has had time to sit, so everything comes right off. No scrubbing, no sweating, and most importantly, no nose-hair burning.

Don't forget about those places under the glass at the bottom of the fridge. Crumbs and yuckies get under there too.

Now go back and wipe everything dry. Then step back and stare into that beautiful, sparkling fridge. Ahhh....

Looks like new, right? Love it!

Now its time to refill and organize to your liking. I don't really have any magic organizing advice (see Mary for that!). The only thing I like to do special is put the leftovers on the top shelf. That way, they are always the first thing you see and it helps to avoid them getting lost in the abyss.

So, let's just take one last look, shall we?