Tips to clean your Fridge and remove bad smells

Nowadays refrigerator is the element of our fridge that is constantly being used without even a second of break.

Except for that, there are plenty of leftovers or fluid that leave horrible smell, sticky shelves, and many other problems like spoiled or rotten food that cannot be eaten.

That is why people need to remember about cleaning your refrigerator every now and then. Sadly, the whole process is not as simple as cleaning other appliances.

What You Will Learn:

The following article will show you how to clean refrigerator properly, but do not forget to familiarize yourself with the instructions given by the producer.

How to clean refrigerator that smells?

1. Turn off the device by unplugging it or using the button on your appliance.
2. Take all the food out of refrigerator. To avoid spoiling your food, take a bag of ice cubs, put it in the container, and place all the fragile cuisine inside.
3. Take out all the removable parts of your refrigerator (it involves slots, counters, and shelves)
4. Combine warm water with a dish soap and put all these elements into your sink. Bathe them for a while.Keep in mind that putting glass or ceramic parts of your refrigerator into warm water may result in cracking or breaking. Therefore, make sure they stay at the room temperature for a moment.
5. Now let’s clean the refrigerator itself. Use towel or piece of cloth and soak it with mild cleaner. Remember that some soap detergents may leave an odour, which needs to be removed before our food absorbs it. Therefore, we can use homemade ingredients like for example warm water mixed with wine vinegar or just the combination of baking soda and warm water.While trying to remove more difficult stains, we recommend toothpaste, white in particular. Take plastic brush that won’t scratch the layer. You can always take a piece of cloth that is soaked with washing fluid and leave it on problematic places for couple of minutes. They will be easier to remove.
6. In order to get rid of dirty elements from corners, slits, and other problematic spots, toothbrush is the best option. Don’t forget to immerse it with detergent.If you want to clean gaskets without damaging it, you should choose everyday cleaner or just take a white vinegar, which also prevents from occurring mildew.
7. Find the drip pan in your refrigerator and clean it with the use of soapy water (keep it warm!) or use the mix of water and vinegar in 1:1 ratio. Before you put it back in place, make sure it has fully dried.
8. Stainless steel in some refrigerators can be also cleaned with white vinegar. Make sure you soak it with microfiber cloth and rub it with circular movements on the whole surface. If you want to make stainless steel more shiny, you can always take several drops of olive oil on new, clean piece of cloth and polish the whole exterior with it.An alternative method uses special stainless steel spray that is designed for this particular job. If; however, you are not sure about the material of which your refrigerator is filled with, take a look at multipurpose cleaners. Do not forget about spots around your handles!
9. If you don’t want to deal with streaks after cleaning, make sure the interior of your fridge is dry.
10. Now you can turn everything on and put all the elements back where they belong. Remember about drying them first!It takes approximately 20-30 minutes to clean the whole refrigerator. Everything depends on the level of dirt and how thorough we want to be! Remember than in case of mould problems, it is better to use the solution of bleach and water to get rid of all signs of mould. Before you put everything back inside, make sure to check if anything that was stored in your fridge hasn’t spoiled or their expiry date is overdue.

How to stop fridge smelling?

Remove All Contaminants With Warm Dish Soap Solution

Fridge smells but no rotten food? In the first place, you need to remove all the leftovers from the freezer. To do that, we recommend combining dish detergent with hot water. However, before you start, make sure your freezer is unplugged and turned off, so all the remains can liquefy. Now, take 2 teaspoons of your detergent and mix it with 3 cups of warm water. Now, take piece of cloth, soap it with the mixture, and wipe down the whole interior of your freezer. Remember to get rid of all parts of fish from the freezer before carrying on.

How to get rid of fish smell in fridge?

Every time we store our fish in the freezer, we are at risk. Of course frozen fish that is stored for couple of hours or a several days should never cause any issues. Serious problem occurs when we forget about our reserves and once the power goes down, we have to face disastrous results.

The odor of fish guts in the freezer is one of the most difficult things to get rid of. It usually happens that we have to unplug our freezer for days just to limit the smell. If; however, you don’t want to wait so long and you wish to leave all smelly problems behind, then the best thing to do is follow simple instruction we provide below.

How to get rid of smell in fridge? – 7 methods

Fridge smells bad even after cleaning? Use one of the following methods:

• Clean fridge with Baking Soda

This particular powder is quite popular in household accessories. For decades people were using them for treating and absorbing odours. Use a lot of baking soda and sprinkle it on the whole floor. Now close the door and wait for 2-3 days. After that, you can sweep all the baking soda from the freezer and turn on the device. If you ask yourself a question: how to get smell out of refrigerator after power outage? Baking Soda will be the best.

• Use the extract of Vanilla and Crumpled Newspaper

Once you take all the remains from the freezer, you may start on getting rid of all the fishy smells. The first idea is the use of newspaper, which was dipped in the vanilla extract and then crumpled into the freezer. It is one of the most popular ways or removing odor and you just need a small amount of vanilla extract. Just dip the edges of newspaper and place it inside the freezer for 2-3 days. This is how it takes for the paper to absorb all the odor of the fish. If you ask yourself a question: how to get fish smell out of fridge? Vanilla will be the best.

• Clean refrigerator with Vinegar (Boiled Apple Cider Vinegar)

It may seem strange to boil apple cider vinegar and lace it in your freezer. Nonetheless, as you could read above, vinegar itself is very efficient in fighting the stains and it also works very well against fish odours in confined spaces. Boil the combination of apple cider vinegar and water in 1:3 ratio. When it starts boiling, pour the content to the bowl, which is resistant to heat and put it in the freezer very quickly. It takes 4-6 hours for this solution to take out the smell. Don’t forget to wipe the interior of the freezer with cloth to take out the steam. If you ask yourself a question: how to clean mold out of a fridge? Vinegar will be the best.

• Freezer Floor Filled With Coffee Grounds

Coffee beans are something more than just an ingredient for your lovely beverage. Absorbing bad smells, like for example fish odours, is yet another reason why coffee grounds are great. They will replace it with the unique scent of coffee beans. For this method to work, you need to unplug your freezer and get rid of all moisture inside. Now, take two cups of coffee grounds and cover the whole floor of your freezer. Bear in mind you need to cover the whole bottom, without any uncovered areas. After 2-3 days coffee grounds will get rid of all fish odour and provide you with original scent. How to get rid of fish smell in fridge? Coffee Grounds is as effective as Vanilla.

• Charcoal Briquettes

If you decide to cover the whole freezer floor with activated charcoal briquettes, then it will surely do a lot to remove all the bad smells. Just take 10-12 charcoal briquettes and spread them evenly on the floor of your freezer. This method takes 5-7 days. After that, charcoal will get rid of all unpleasing odours that fish left. After a week you can take off all briquettes. How to fish get smell out of refrigerator after power outage? Charocoal Briquettes is as effective as Vanilla but this method takes one week.

• Lemon Juice Spray

Lemon and its citric attributes are well-known for its capabilities of removing odour and replacing it with freshness. In order to prepare Lemon Juice Spray, take lemon juice, water, and mix these two ingredients in 1:4 ratio. Once you spray everything inside the freezer, close it for next 12 hours. After that, remember to remove the juice from the freezer’s interior with hot water. If you use all above methods and fridge smells bad even after cleaning, lemon juice spray will be very good.

• Taking it out

This is good idea how to clean a fridge that has been unplugged. If it is possible to take out the freezer outside, then this option will work as a great deodorizing measure. On the open space we can hope for plenty of elements that will neutralize the organic odor of the fish. The combination of fresh air with ultra violet rays, and of course the sun itself will be much more effective than other ideas in the closed space. To make this method work, we need to set up the freezer in the way, the outside of it will be placed towards the sun. Thanks to that ultra violet rays will have the access to the exterior of the freezer. It takes 2-3 sunny days for the freezer to be ready to use. Remember that when we place it face to the sun, we need to lay something underneath, so dirt or other elements won’t contaminate the coils and other parts of our appliance.

How to clean refrigerator door outside?

Read our article about best way to clean fridge outside: click here.