Emptying a fridge freezer for moving

[Isthiscorrect]

Does anyone know how much time before moving I need to empty and unplug and wash and clean my fridge freezer so it can be put into storage? Tia

Well it needs to defrost, so I'd say you need to unplug it a couple of days before hand.

Ours doesn't have any frost? I hadn't thought about that, although I do have memories of hot water bottles and a hair dryer to defrost the fridge when I was much younger 30 years ago.

if it is a frost-free freezer, it may still have deposits of ice in the air ducts inside the back.

When you turn it off and leave it open, wait until water has stopped dripping into the cabinet, and into the dish on top of the motor. Two days is not unusual.

Mop out the dish with kitchen roll so that it does not splash out onto the carpets when it is moved.

Thanks pigletjohn. Two days is the kind of advice I was looking for. We have already started to eat a variety of odd ball meals from freezer food.

When we moved house last year we were told we didn't need to empty the freezer. They left it until almost the last to load it on the lorry and then unloaded it early so we could keep it plugged in.

You may want to talk to your removal company and make an assessment on how long the journey is, ours was ~30 minutes.

Thanks Kate, top tip, but this is actually going into storage for a few months, so total defrost and ultra clean is the way ahead I think. The shipment is planned for October and will probably take 5-6 weeks so it could be grim if we don't sort it correctly.

After you've cleaned it make sure you leave the door propped open for about 24 hours to fully dry - I didn't and opened the door later to find lots of lovely mildew

Thanks Sidge, that's one of my hundred plus nightmares.