Although spring weather may be unpredictable, my internal cleaning clock starts dinging after the time change telling me that it's time to start in on my yearly cleaning and organizing routine. This is our third spring living in our house and taking the time to actually take stock of all the heavily used areas of the house ( i.e. the kitchen) and see what needs to be replaced, optimized, cleaned out and just cleaned makes a huge difference for the rest of the year.
My spring clean may look a little different than other people because our house stays relatively tidy most of the time so I can focus on the high traffic and overlooked areas that I can't get to cleaning week over week.
If you need to do an entire house reset of cleaning and organizing I'd definitely suggest taking an entire month as to not overwhelm. This week my goal is to hopefully inspire you to dig into those often overlooked areas of your home and share some ideas on how to both clean and organize so your time is better used throughout the rest of the year.
Today and tomorrow is all about our food storage locations – the pantry and refrigerator. I don't know about you but 9 times out of 10 I don't have a beautifully organized TikTok fridge. It's functional, not always beautiful.
But it does make a big difference when it's cleaned from stains, spills, and sticky spots.
In today's post, I'll be sharing:
- how to get started with cleaning your fridge
- my favorite cleaning products for your fridge
- easy ways to organize & store your food
- a downloadable fridge cleaning checklist if you're a type A human like I am :)
How to Get Started Cleaning Your Fridge
This may seem like a simple statement, but especially if cleaning isn't your favorite thing in the world it can seem intimidating and unappealing. My favorite way to start is with a completely cleaned off island or large counter space and about 1 1/2 hours of time.
I'll put on a playlist and start by taking every single item out of my fridge. Empty the whole thing onto your island or table or counter. Don't take food out of containers yet or worry about looking for expiration dates or finding that moldy smell, just empty everything out.
Now you're looking at a completely empty fridge and you can easily see how to disassemble the shelves and drawers because that is an absolute must! In my opinion you can't properly clean your fridge without taking out all of the storage and shelving.
Next I would recommend wiping down the entire interior of your refrigerator. After this you can shut the door for a bit to keep it cool. Depending on the amount of food/crumbs in the bottom of your fridge you may need to vacuum it out first, but I found a quick wipe down got rid of all the fun leftovers you might find.
Fridge Cleaning Products
In preparation for this week, I picked up from both Amazon and my local Publix (don't sleep on their cleaning aisle!) a few essential products for cleaning all areas of my house, but specially the food storage areas. I used one of the products for the first time and it worked like a breeze, so these products all come highly vetted and recommended by not just me but also many other people I know.
- Dawn Powerwash Spray – Free and Clear
- Dye free Scrub Daddy Sponge with Scrub Daddy PowerPaste
- Bar mop cloths
Because it went so viral on TikTok a few months I had bought the Dawn Powerwashing Spray just to see what all the fuss was about. You know we all love a multi-purpose product and this was truly one of those products that works on pretty much everything you need to clean. From tubs to cups, it works and works well.
I had run out so instead of trying the normal formulated decided to pick up the dye-free version and I think I like it a little better. It just has a bit of a nicer scent - subtly pear is what they call it.
As for the Scrub Daddy sponge, I didn't think a nice sponge would make such a difference, but it actually does. I bought the sponge and the paste as a set in my grocery store and it is powerful! With just a quick wipe and rinse the sticky spots, greasy spots, food stains on my fridge shelves came right off.
I don't know the formulate of it but it's comparable to The Pink Stuff that everyone loves. This is definitely sticking around for those hard to clean areas of my fridge, stove, counters, etc.
Fridge Organization Products
I love having all the right containers and accessories to keep my food fresh and my fridge organized. It makes things so much simpler when I have stacking containers that fit in my fridge space, berry baskets for fresh washed fruit, an egg basket to throw away the egg carton, etc.
I listed out below some of my favorite products for both food organization and keeping my produce fresh for so much longer.
Additional links + content
- Visit my TikTok for a fridge cleaning time lapse (riveting content for sure!)
- Additional helpful cleaning products are linked in this post on LTK
- My Pinterest board | Cleaning & Organizing Tips | is a great resource for all things cleaning and organizing