An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? So $10 of prevention should save you forever. This inexpensive solution to spills and grime inside your hardest-to-clean kitchen appliance — the refrigerator — is guaranteed to save you from a lifetime of scrubbing.
Not only is cleaning refrigerator shelves on your hands and knees a pain, but it's a money-waster and unsafe, too. Cleaning your fridge with the door open can waste tons of energy and puts the food safety of your fridge contents at risk.
To avoid it — forever — just take a crisp Hamilton down to the grocery store and grab a roll of super-sticky press and seal plastic wrap, like The Virtous Wife recently did on her blog:
Press and seal wrap is different from most regular cling wrap because it's super-sticky on one side (Glad makes one variety, but you might be able to find a generic version at your local store). This makes it great for sticking down to refrigerator shleves like you would with a drawer liner in your dresser.
So the next time you find a spill or leak in your fridge, just clear the shelf and lift off the layer of plastic wrap. Voila! Clean fridge all over again in an instant. Just remember to re-stick another layer of press and seal wrap before you put everything back in its place.
Via: The Virtuous Wife
(Images: Shutterstock, The Virtuous Wife)
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It's a clever idea, I just wish Glad made a non-patterned variety. I can't help but think it would look a little tacky to have snowflakes or fruit patterns all over the insides of my refrigerator.
Are you kidding me? I saw this on Pinterest and thought the same thing then - is it really that hard to give each shelf a quick spray with diluted vinegar and wipe it down? In fact, it probably takes less time to do that than it does to lay down some ugly plastic wrap. This is also incredibly wasteful.
That looks awful! I'd rather wipe it down as needed.
Yeah, I'm going to agree it probably takes more time to lay down plastic wrap than doing a wipe with water and vinegar. Plus, that wrap makes the shelves took dirty; the patterns look like stains to me.
As an alternative I just use cookie sheets, actually jellyroll pans because they have a raised edge on all 4 sides, to hold everything stored in my fridge. It means I can easily pull an entire pan out if needed or for cleaning but it really serves to contain spills inside the fridge. It helps reduce cleaning time dramatically and I happened to have extra pans but they're easy to pick up for a few bucks (and there's nothing to throw away).
Wow, AT. . . that's incredibly wasteful. I wish that this site could find a cohesive point of view towards convenience, ease, and sustainability. It seems like one post will be about reducing waste and the next is about generating more!
Rucy- Brilliant. Must make it easier to find things at the back of the fridge as well.
Mrs. T - good point and something that seems to be happening more and more on this site. It is a problem with all media. Be skinny- love who you are, and the like.
Wow! I can't believe the negativity on this post. I think this is a brilliant idea and I do it myself. My press and seal has no pattern and makes all the difference in the world when it comes to sticky spills like maple syrup and strawberry jam. A quick spray of vinegar and water can't compete with that. Makes me wonder if these commenters have kids -- mine are geniuses at making messes in the fridge!
Most fridge shelves are removeable so you shouldn't be wasting energy by allowing the door to hang open while you clean.
I have no problem cleaning my fridge shelves. I use aluminum foil in the door's condiment shelves. It can be washed and reused.
Hmm. Just what the world needs: more thrown-away plastic.
Or, the easier way: re-use the plastic covers from containers such as coffee cans or
take-out salads as coasters beneath the drip-prone items. No need to deface the
shelves with stick-on flowers!
dislike the look, dislike the waste and that pattern is pretty ugly.
reminds me of a plastic covered sofa. maybe uglier??
I simply empty the fridge at the end of the week when its mostly empty, take all the shelves and baskets out, scrub them well with soap and baking soda if need be, rinse, let air dry, wipe the inside walls with vinegar.. all done...
I like Rucy's jelly roll tray idea. I'll have to try it.
no thank you
You know those cheap flimsy cutting boards? Those work too. And they're clear. Remove, clean, replace. Works better for me than taking the shelves out because while mine are technically removable, they're not easy to get out.
Glad does make plain press'n'seal wrap as well, it works well for covering bowls and things that don't have lids. But this just seems like a solution to a problem I never had. All of the shelves and drawers in my fridge are removable so I can wash them in the sink as needed, and they just don't get dirty that often (granted, there are only two adults in my household and no children). I always dread cleaning the stove top and oven, baked on mess is way worse than fridge spills in my opinion.
Here's an idea...wipe your shelves with a damp sponge occasionally. Period.
Why contribute to the waste flow? Ridiculous!
Personally, I love the fact that so many people find this wasteful. It's like we're finally growing up as a society :)
I'd rather clean... if I had the time
That Glad Press-and-seal wrap is weird. Can't make up its mind if it is a wax paper or cling film. I am surprised to see a. it is still around and b. comes in different designs. I bought a small sample-sized roll when it first came out and it was plain white. Weird. (Mario Batali was in an ad for it)
I have 3 narrow plastic trays on one shelf, to hold the jars and bottles of things. I can pull them out to get to the back, and they contain any mess. The sheet pan idea is very similar, and would be good for covering a whole shelf in one go.
Plastic? Eh. Seems like it would shift or get messed up easily and defeat the purpose - plus the waste issue.
The jelly roll pan idea is brilliant, that's what should have been highlighted on the site. I love it.
This is the most ridiculous thing I've seen on here yet.
Stop buying plastic that you're only going to throw in landfill, people. I'm so sick of seeing comments about 'it works for us', or 'clearly you guys don't have kids' (I'm looking at you, Pipe Creek). Don't blame your kids/busy lifestyle/germaphobia for the fact that you are too lazy to wipe down a piece of glass.
This would get expensive quickly. I mean, if you clean your refrigerator as often as you SHOULD. This looks like it would get gross really fast.
Not impressed! This is wasteful and like others have said, if you see a spill
Just quickly wipe it down with some diluted vinegar.
Daft idea. And I agree that AT needs to get its policy sorted out. You can't encourage us to reuse and re-purpose one minute and then encourage us to do the exact opposite. And as for 'a lifetime of scrubbing' what does that mean? I have a perfectly clean fridge which takes no time at all. If spills happen just wipe them up. And if a child is old enough to get their own food out of the fridge, then they're old enough to wipe up mess.
I also don't understand "on your hands and knees" - doesn't your body bend? I have never knelt to clean a fridge. This is a very bizarre post indeed.
I just cleaned my refrigerator today...it took less than one minute to wipe down the shelves. I pulled out the drawers (and then closed my refrigerator--yes, you can do that) and washed them before putting in our week's worth of fruits and vegetables. Yes, I have kids, and yes they make messes, but so long as I don't go months without cleaning the fridge, I never spend more than 5 minutes MAINTAINING a clean and organized refrigerator!
There are some great ideas here, like the jellyroll thing and using plastic lids as coasters. It's almost as though AT is putting up these ridiculous posts to get READERS' ideas so they can be used in a forthcoming article, isn't it?
If you've got kids who are making frequent messes in the fridge, I can see this being a good solution. But honestly - if they're old enough to be getting into the fridge, they're probably old enough to learn how to not make a mess, or to clean it themselves.
Otherwise, totally wasteful. I only *need* to clean my fridge like every 3 months or so (I wipe down every week or so, etc, and I keep it relatively clean anyway) - this just isn't necessary! (And I have a messy husband and a preschooler, it's not like it's just me.)
Also worth mentioning - not all fridges have all-solid shelves. My top and middle shelves are both just wire bars, with the exception of the solid bit above the cheese drawer that's mounted under the middle shelf. So even if it were "needed" in my house - it wouldn't work.
hmmm. maybe i will do this on top of the fridge. i cannot stand the grimy dusty crude that quickly builds up over time. m
Great post. I like that commenters are coming up with other solutions as well. This would be great in my parent's home where a) bending down to clean the walls and get in the nooks and crannies behind the shelves is not that easy for someone who is 70+ and b) the shelves are too large to fit in the sink for a quick wash.
I don't see that much plastic here. Isn't cling wrap very thin?
I'm another who thinks that a throw away option isn't viable.
It is ecologically wasteful, keeps programming a "use and toss" mentality (which I think starts to be a "we are not worthy of good things" mentality), and frankly smells of plastic covered furniture always being for someone special, who isn't you.
Not to mention that no matter how good the seal you still have to clean your fridge. Just because you can't see a ring, a stain or something on the shelf doesn't mean it is free of pathogens that shorten food storage.
But, if you are in a multi roommate situation with people who think cleaning is a four letter word/beneath them/ isn't necessary, then I might consider this, or a mini fridge in personal space.
Every time I food shop, I quickly wipe the inside of the fridge before putting the groceries away. I don't like the thought of fresh new food going into a grimy fridge. I'm not germ-phobic but who knows what lurks?
I have some small acrylic trays in there which I bought many years ago - I think they were intended as drawer dividers/organizers. Jars go into those. My only drip problem used to be things like squeezy honey and ketchup which have to stand on their lids. So I now stand them in glass jars. If the glass jars get the drips, they are easy to rinse out.
Ok, in the interests of research I timed myself today cleaning the outside of the fridge, the door, the door shelves, the actual shelves, the walls and all the other bits and pieces. Under two minutes. And no kneeling.