Anjali Athavaley wrote in the fourth section of The Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2010, (“Why Won’t Anyone Clean Me?”) about how most Americans clean their refrigerators only once or twice a year and how refrigerator manufacturers are trying to make their new appliances a weapon in the fight against dirty kitchens.
It came as a shock to me that most Americans actually clean their refrigerator twice a year. I have been in my Man Cave for two years and have not cleaned my refrigerator once. During the 55 or so years my wife and I shared a home I am sure she cleaned our refrigerator regularly, at least I never found reason to complain. Of course, when you have five children at home there not much food that lingers long enough in a refrigerator to resemble “science projects” or cause bacteria problems. (My wife now lives in a nursing home and I am in my second period of bachelorhood, the first being the time between when I left home to enter the Air Force and when I married.)
A cleaning service comes to my apartment weekly and does the necessary, but things like refrigerators are a special service and separate arrangements must be made. My good intentions to get this done seem to disappear in the time it takes to close the refrigerator and put the task out of sight. After reading Miss Athavaley’s article this morning I was determined to get in there and “clean and sanitize.” I put on some old pants and shoes and went to work.
First, I emptied all the food out of the refrigerator and stacked it on the counter and stove top in the kitchen. I don’t keep a lot of food as I take most of my meals in the dining room of the retirement community where I live, or I eat elsewhere. (Occasionally, falling back on “the kindness of strangers.”) As I pulled each item I gave it the smell test and looked it over carefully for signs of something that might cure the H1N1 virus.
Then I commenced to take out all the shelves, compartments and humidity controlled containers. I washed each of these pieces in the kitchen sick with hot water and detergent and as I did so I put them on towels I had laid out on the dinette table and leather sofa to air dry. It surprised me how easily all these parts came out and it later surprised me even more that they all went back in.
When it came time to restore the food I carefully noted the advice in the article and put the condiments on the door shelf (the warmest part of the refrigerator and not the place for the milk carton). I only have one potato, an apple and three oranges that are likely to spoil if they are still around on Labor Day but I put them front where I will see every time I open the door. I looked at the “use by dates” and chucked a couple of items into the trash.
All in all it was not a time consuming task, nor something beyond a man with only a Masters degree in international relations. I did the job in about an hour and took some pictures as I went along in case I am compelled to prove that I cleaned my refrigerator during the 21st Century. I suspect that when some congress person(s) read the article there will be an attempt to create a refrigerator police force. Such is the way of life.
(From my blog.)
