A bad-smelling fridge is enough to make us lose our appetite. If every time you open your fridge, you are hit by the smell of stale food that has been stocked up since the past two weeks, you may be left wondering how to remove the stink. Often, it takes a lot of time to discover what’s causing the stench – it may be spoilt food, a spill (especially on the bottom shelf), or mold behind the door, among others.
How to clean a smelly fridge?
There are several organic and remedial ways to remove refrigerator smells, other than using artificial refrigerator deodorizing agents. Here are a few tips, mostly healthy, green and inexpensive, that can be helpful in getting your refrigerator clean, hygienic, and odorless:
1. Clean the interiors of your fridge first
- Natural air Freshener: To begin with, use a natural air freshener all over the fridge and your kitchen, especially the area around the refrigerator, and then go about working on removing the stink. Turn off your refrigerator and empty the contents while it is defrosting.
- Remove the cause: To get rid of the foul smell, remove the cause first – the spoiled or spilled food in the fridge.
- Baking soda and water: Use a thick paste of baking soda and water to clean all the shelves and drawers. It works wonders in removing food stains and is the perfect refrigerator odor remover!
- Clean the Drip Pan: Often, accumulation of water makes the area foul-smelling. Depending on the model, you can either access it from the front or the back of your appliance. After removing it, clean it with a sponge or a rag and a good dish soap, or an all-purpose cleaner, or even a bleach solution. After cleaning it, the odor should noticeably reduce.
Also read on: Quick and Easy Hacks: Refrigerator Cleaning Tips
2. Use natural cleaning products to fight the bad smell
- Check your fridge on a regular basis to ensure that food remains fresh. Remove stale food, if any.
- Put an open container filled with baking soda in the fridge and let it absorb the smell for at least 24 hours. In fact, spreading baking soda on a tray helps soak up the bad smell quickly.
- Put a plate containing evenly distributed freshly ground coffee inside the fridge for 24 hours. Coffee is known to effectively absorb the bad smell.
- A bowl of oats also works well in removing any kind of bad smell in the fridge.
- Put a vanilla essence-soaked cotton ball inside the fridge for about 12 hours to get a fresh, clean aroma.
- Use an equal mix of white vinegar and water to clean the fridge and make it shine.
- Place activated charcoal in some shallow bowls or on baking sheets in different shelves in the fridge. Set the refrigerator temperature to low and leave the door closed for a few days. The bad odor will go away.
- Setting the refrigerator temperature at an appropriate level, nor too high neither low, efficiently helps prevent food spoilage and foul smell while also cutting down on electricity bills and global warming.
If your refrigerator is made of plastic, that itself may be the cause of bad odor. Use baking soda, vanilla or even coffee beans to get rid of this problem.
3. Maintaining a clean fridge
- Use airtight containers: Store everything, from your leftover pizza, remains of a sandwich and more, in airtight containers instead of using their cardboard boxes. Don’t leave open bowls in the fridge.
- Keep the fresh foods visible: Keep the fruits and vegetables out in the open on the top shelf of the refrigerator instead of tucking them in the drawers. Then you will be more aware of when they are going bad, and you can eat them before they get spoilt.
- Label the food which you keep in the fridge: This will work efficiently in letting you know if it is good for tonight’s dinner or only fit for tomorrow’s trash.
With these hacks handy, we hope you will no longer have to deal with this problem. After all, health is wealth!
