National Clean Your Fridge Day

It might seem odd to promote one day a year when you should clean your fridge, but highlighting the potential danger that can harbour in fridges might help to increase the frequency for even the most stubborn fridge cleaners.

One of those jobs that you mean to do and yet it can easily slip by, but you could be harming your family. It is surprising, but your fridge could be hiding more germs than what you would find on your toilet seat.

Fight Germs With A Clean Fridge

It is important that you fight the battle with the germs in your fridge, a clean fridge is a healthy fridge. Ideally you should at the very least be cleaning your fridge once a week, I try to keep up with mine on a daily basis so I don’t have to find special time during the week to clean.

Wiping items that are in some sort of packaging before placing them in the fridge will help to reduce the potential for a germ entering the fridge in the first place, this can be items that need to be stored in the fridge to keep them from spoiling. You should always do this with your milk cartons and items like this, they are often dirty on the outside and if you place these directly into your fridge you are depositing the dirt too.

Also, when you return an item make sure there isn’t a drip on the outside of the packaging that can end up being a breeding ground for germs.

Your Fridge Organization

It is important that you are careful with the items that you put into your fridge, if you are going to put something that is too warm into your fridge you will raise the temperature and this could increase the growth of germs. It is important that you let items cool naturally before placing them into your fridge.

Be careful when and where you put items; you don’t want things to drip down into food lower down the fridge, so don’t put a piece of meat to defrost on the top shelf because of the potential for cross contamination.

Also, it is important that you cover the food that you store in the fridge, this can also prevent cross contamination of food which can quickly lead to the spread of germs, which can harm your family’s health.

The fuller that your fridge is the less energy you use meaning it is kinder on your pocket with running costs. However, this can also cause a problem, the more items that you have in your fridge the more likely you will have an item that is in the back of your fridge that you quickly forget about and it starts to decay. With this can bring a bad smell and an increase in the germs that are in your fridge.

To combat this you must organize your fridge with care, as well as your meal plans, to ensure that the food gets consumed within the specified guidelines from the food manufacturer.

If you smell something has gone off it is important to remove this as quickly as possible to protect the health of your family. Dispose of the item carefully; you don’t want to transfer the smell from your fridge to your bin. Empty your bin daily and this will reduce the potential of odour from this source too.

Therefore, it might be an annual idea to urge you to clean your fridge, but it is important to do this more than annually, ideally weekly or at the very least monthly, to ensure that your fridge is clean and germ free.