How and When to Clean Your Refrigerator

How often do you clean your refrigerator? Because, as it happens, you may not be cleaning it frequently enough. Advice from manufacturers and experts now points toward a broadly similar set of guidelines for refrigerator cleaning. So, while mopping up spills is a given, how often should we be deep cleaning our fridges?

It turns out the frequency with which we should reportedly be cleaning our refrigerators is easy to remember. Manufacturers and experts alike, including those at men’s lifestyle magazine GQ, all recommend seasonal cleaning.

Thoroughly cleaning a refrigerator every three months, it seems, is optimal. Manufacturers, experts, and researchers all now point toward a very similar schedule for cleaning fridges almost across the board. Those in professional environments, of course, are an exception. However, at home, the same set of rules apply to all refrigerators.

The recommendations is four major fridge cleanings per year.. Any more deep cleaning is generally considered unnecessary. That said, falling behind and cleaning a fridge fewer than three or four times every 12 months can potentially lead to unsanitary conditions. With that, it’s vital to stay on top of periodic refrigerator cleaning.

Keeping a refrigerator clean and tidy day-to-day is often half of the battle. Immediately mopping up any spills and regularly disposing of unwanted or expired food and drink should be a weekly check. Beyond that, periodic seasonal deep cleaning should then consist of a combination of removing a refrigerator’s contents and washing any removable parts before putting everything back together.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend starting by throwing out any unwanted food. Then, remove the remaining food you wish to save, placing it safely to one side. Next, any shelving, drawers, and other removable parts should also be taken out. After, wipe down all interior surfaces.

Wash the shelves, drawers, and other removable parts in hot, soapy water. Once washed, they should be promptly towel-dried and returned to the refrigerator. Remember to put each shelf and drawer back in its original position to ensure the correct fit.

With a fridge’s interior surfaces, shelves, drawers, and other removable parts clean, its contents can be returned. Be sure to wipe down any bottles with food remnants on the outsides first. After, your hands should be washed with soap and water. Surfaces used to hold anything that was removed from the fridge temporarily should also be wiped down. Finish up by washing the towels used to dry the refrigerator parts before using them again.

Frequent checks and regularly scheduled cleaning are among the best ways of keeping any refrigerator in tip-top shape. But what about other precautions? The truth is that most modern fridges are simple to look after and should last for many years when properly cared for.

Any potential issues must therefore be addressed as soon as they appear. That includes even minor manufacturer defects as well as other faults and failures. Traditionally, these have invariably been costly to fix, especially once a fridge is out of its manufacturer warranty period.

Extending such warranties has, therefore, always been a popular choice. Increasingly costly, though, comprehensive coverage has grown prohibitively expensive in many cases. Thankfully, Upsie is on hand to help.

Upsie is proud to offer warranties for major appliances, including extended warranty coverage for refrigerators. Unlike with appliance warranties sold by manufacturers and retailers, Upsie cuts out the middleman and passes on the savings to its customers. As a result, Upsie’s major appliance warranty solutions are up to 70 percent more affordable.

Upsie coverage is comparable or superior to major appliance warranties sold elsewhere. Benefits of choosing Upsie include comprehensive coverage in the event of manufacturer defects, mechanical failures, and non-accidental damage. Coverage includes failures from power, cooling, and drains. Issues with motors, gears, ball bearings, tubing, computer chips, rotors, and other internal moving parts are also covered.

All of this is available with no deductibles or hidden fees. Repairs for large appliances are done in-home by certified technicians. To find out more or to lock in a comprehensive, low-cost refrigerator warranty from Upsie, head to upsie.com/major-appliance-warranty.