Cleaning the Refrigerator
In our basement we have an extra refrigerator. It was the refrigerator that was in this house when we bought it, and it works fine, but when we remodeled the kitchen we went with a stainless-look refrigerator (giving up, I might add, several cubic feet of refrigerator and freezer space in our kitchen to fit it into our design, since we did not want to spring for a sub-zero).
The extra refrigerator comes in handy for storing the organic chickens and turkeys we buy from a fellow homeschooling family. But when we bring home the birds it is sometimes necessary to let them remain in the refrigerator part for a few days before moving them into the freezer. That is where the problem starts... they are in plastic bags, but the bags are not leak-proof. As a result, there was quite a mess on the shelves of the fridge, and in the freezer as well since my husband transferred them directly over without paying attention to the leaky mess.
I ignored the problem for quite a while, being too busy with many other remodeling, painting and organizing projects. But I am now all about anti-procrastination. I asked my husband to unplug the fridge so it could thaw out, and intended to have him clean it shortly thereafter.
We both forgot about it. I would only remember it late at night when we couldn't do anything about it.
But finally late one night this week I remembered before we went to bed, and made an appointment to get up at 6:30 AM the next morning so we could tackle cleaning the fridge together. It had been unplugged for several days, with the doors shut... a big no-no. I wanted to take care of it before any more mildew grew.
Here's what I know about cleaning refrigerators. You shouldn't use strong chemicals. The ideal is probably hot water and vinegar (maybe 1 gallon to 1 cup ratio). I threw in a little bit of dish soap too, since some of the mess was kind of stuck-on. Our hot tap water is very hot indeed, so I felt confident we took care of any chicken messes quite thoroughly. My husband brought all the shelves, drawers, baskets and bins upstairs and I scrubbed them while he wiped down the interior of the refrigerator and freezer.
Finally, our early morning collaboration (only took 1-1/2 hours) resulted in this:
That blue box is a generic box of baking soda, just in case of any lingering chicken odors.
Now that I know I have a clean extra refrigerator/freezer, I look forward to the next chicken butchering season, when I will learn how to make our own chicken stock and keep it stored in the freezer. I know, just what everyone dreams about, right? And I'm a vegetarian! Oh but it feels good knowing your family has whole, organic food to eat. And an extra refrigerator to store it in!
