Clean Interior of Fridge - PEP BB nest.straw.interiorfridge

Cleaned my fridge today. It didn't look too bad until I moved the milk. Apparently no-one bothered to clean up their spill. No sense crying over it, just clean it up and move on. The freezer part I cleaned around the seals only. It looked fine.

Used elbow grease along with a vinegar and lemon juice mixture with baking soda for the abrasive. Worked great. It helps to take a mixed shot of determination and work ethic before using the elbow grease though. Then the whole job gets done.

I used my go-to soapnut solution to clean my fridge. It is made with about a dozen soapnuts in a quart of water, bring to boil, turn off heat and leave it sitting on the stove until it is cool enough to handle. Then strain out the soapnuts (to be used again for the next batch). I add a splash of dishwashing liquid to add grease-fighting capability for hand washing dishes and also to keep the solution from going off in hot weather. If it sits out next to the sink for a couple of weeks in the heat of summer it will start to smell a bit rancid. Alternatively it can be kept in the fridge but I would rather have it by the sink. I use this for most cleaning tasks other than laundry and windows, in which case I leave out the dishwashing liquid and add a splash of white vinegar.

I keep the solution in a dishwashing liquid container that has been used and reused for about 7 years. And I buy dishwashing liquid in a bulk container that lasts about 5 years as all I use it for is to supplement the soapnuts.

For cleaning the fridge, I used a washcloth and a washcloth-shaped thing I crocheted out of cotton butchers string and have used for scrubbing for about 10 years. I used the pointy handle end of a large salad picker-upper spoon to poke the washcloth into tight spaces. After using the soapnut solution to clean with, I did a final wipedown and rinse with clear water. I dried the surfaces using a cotton dish towel, except I did use one paper towel to poke into the tight space in the bottom middle as I couldn't soak up the water with the dish towel. The paper towel was clean afterwards, just wet, so it is now draped over the kitchen tap to dry and will be re-used.

I did find a few things that were past their prime, see photo. With the exception of the garlic/herb flavoured cheese, which we hated and frankly I had forgotten about, most of these were down to very small quantities. The contents went into the compost. The containers were washed, sorted, and will be taken to the recyclers next time I have a load to take, unless I find a use for them in the meantime. I do have a plan for re-using the big square yogurt container.

Edit: I added a photo of the cleaned fridge with contents reassembled.
The freezer compartment had been recently cleaned and reorganized so I didn't need to do anything in there.

This happens to be the work fridge, but normally someone else is supposed to clean it. Doing this let me know they are not doing their job very well. Thankfully there was only one thing needing thrown out, but there were several spills, the biggest being under the crisper drawers. Among other things, someone dropped and broke the lid to the hot sauce so that it was caked with hardened sauce and no longer air-tight to ensure it was safe. I had to pour that out, rinse the bottle, and put the glass in the recycling. As to what I used, a blend of water, vinegar and lemon, along with elbow grease.

Note: I was having some issues with uploading the pictures, so they are a bit out of order.