Tuesday, February 17, 2015

How to Get Rid of Bad Odor from your Refrigerator

Stinky smelling fridge not only irritates your nose when you are about to prepare your food but can cause other health concerns for your family later on. The bad odor can be caused by spoiled foods, spill on the bottom shelf, or even molds.



Here are some ways to get rid and prevent bad odor from your refrigerator:

1. Clean your fridge thoroughly - The basic and best thing to do is of course clean your fridge or put it in your weekly or bi-weekly general cleaning schedule.

Start cleaning by turning off your refrigerator. Keep the remaining food in a cooler with ice while you are cleaning the fridge.

Then remove all the items inside your fridge, sort out and discard the spoiled foods or anything rotten like fruits/vegetables, meat, fish that are causing the stinky smell. Wash the containers especially plastic containers that already absorbed the odor of spoiling foods.

Remove, wash and dry the drawers, bins and other removable parts of your fridge. Make sure also to thoroughly wipe/scrub the walls, floor, drawers, egg slots, crisper.

Clean and dispose water from the dip tray located beneath the refrigerator. It is essential to regularly clean the dip tray as it contains dirty water that could be another reason for the bad odor in your refrigerator.

2. Natural Cleaning Solutions. Use natural cleaning solutions since this will directly affect your food, you can use any of the following:
-  use mixture of half (1/2) cup baking soda into a sink of filled of warm water
-  mix handful of salt into a gallon of warm water
-  mix equal parts of water and white vinegar 

Leave the refrigerator's door open to let the air circulate.

3. Removing Odors in your Fridge/Odor Prevention. After cleaning,place odor remover inside the fridge. You can use any of the following to deodorize and maintain pleasant odor inside your fridge:

a. Baking Soda - spread baking soda across a baking sheet and place it inside the refrigerator, close it until the bad odor disappears then discard the used baking soda. You can leave an open box of baking soda inside your fridge to counteract daily odors.
             
b. White Vinegar - put an open cup or bowl filled with white vinegar inside the fridge, this will help neutralize bad odor inside fridge

c. Oats - put a bowl or cup of oats inside your fridge to absorb the odor

d. Dry coffee - place dry coffee in a shallow bowls, place in different levels inside your refrigerator

e. Charcoal - place bowl of charcoal inside your ref, bad odor could be removed in few days

f. Vanilla / lemon - dampen a cotton ball with vanilla extract and place it on a shelf , it will serve as deodorizer and smell good
       

4. Be Organize Inside your Fridge:

   - Prioritize eating/consuming the fresh foods by keeping them easily visible in the fridge, this way you could plan which food to consume first thus avoiding spoilage, putting label and date of  leftovers will also help

  - Put your food in airtight containers to avoid spread of bad odor if in case they spoil or to avoid spreading the smell of your leftovers like pizza, noodles. Putting food in airtight containers will also help it to stay edible for a longer period.

   - Defrost regularly to avoid the bad odors get mixed with the ice found in the freezer

   - Regularly clean and dispose water from the dip tray
   
 
Got other tips in removing or preventing bad odor from fridge? Share in comments below. 
 
(Image Credit: Refrigerator Interior from Flickr)