How to clean a very very dirty fridge

[TheGander]

My brother has been in a mental health rehab unit for about 9 months. Due to his breakdown his house was in a state, and we are now looking at preparing for his discharge home. His fridge is filthy. I’ve managed to prise the trays out and clean them using a combination of fairy liquid, soda crystals and lye. The inside is caked in a kind of putrid smear composed of old rotten food. . How to clean it ? I’m not sure how to go about it. Chucking the fridge out and getting a new one isn’t t an option due to finances. Any advice appreciated.

Would it scrape off with a paint scraper?
Brillo pad? Or would that be too abrasive?

What a horrible thing to deal with. I hope your brother is in a better state of mind now.

You mention finances - is a replacement second hand fridge out of the question?

If it has to be cleaned, I'd set about it by spraying the inside with a cleaning spray that includes bleach, leave it to 'soak' overnight, then get as much of the dirt off as I could easily, and keep repeating that process. A steam cleaner might help shift it, if you have one.

Best of luck

Hot soapy water. Hold a hot, wet (not just damp)flannel over areas to loosen the dirt to get the thick off. Spray the remainder with kitchen cleaner and leave for a while before taking to it again with the more abrasive side of a washing up sponge, toothbrushes and washing up brushes. I helped my neice move into a new house with such a fridge and we got it looking really good but it took absolutely ages and required lots of elbow grease.

Id scrub it with Pink Stuff, then wash off with washing up liquid in hot water.

Oven cleaner spray

Consider contacting your local authority, there are many pots of money to assist people with things like this. Local assistance scheme, household support fund, even homeless prevention fund. Any of those can supply funds for a fridge.

Or, we have a homeless support charity locally that would also help.

Astonish oven and cookware cleaner paste might help too alongside a scourer sponge.

I have often seen fridge freezers being given away on the local Freecycle groups, so it is worth signing up for that. Also, look at Facebook Marketplace.

I wonder if placing a couple of bowls or saucepans of boiling water in and closing the door for a while would help to loosen things. This is what I do with our microwave.

Thanks everyone I didn’t think I’d get so many replies so quickly. I’m going round today, interesting that @InDubiousBattle dealt with something similar, I’m going to try loosening the muck with very hot water on a sponge then using the most powerful kitchen cleaner I can find in his kitchen, from memory there are a few. Will update with a pic afterwards if anyone is up for that. I realise it might take several visits. It’s a really nice Siemens fridge freezer so it would be a shame to lose it.

Hot soapy water and a scraper. Don't use strong kitchen cleaners or oven sprays ,you need something safe for food.
Hot cloths on the worst of it to loosen the caked on bits.
Bicarb is fantastic so use some of that too. If it's still whiffy then a bowl of bicarb left in will absorb the smell.

Don't use anything containing bleach. It will discolour the plastic and it's not what you what for food storage. Hot soapy water then bicarb in water for the final clean. Leave it open, switched off, to dry and air if you can.

Ah ok good point re very strong cleaners. I wouldn’t use oven cleaner. I’m a big believer in bicarbonate as a multi use product so will try that first.

I'd wet/spray thoroughly then put wet kitchen towel over and leave to soak..

For bad smells put a couple of blocks of charcoal in there.

You need a scraper! You can buy kitchen/hob/cleaning scrapers on Amazon, they're ace for really gross stuck on stuff.

Can you borrow a steam cleaner? Like a karcher?

Well it came off better than I thought. In the end I used soda crystals, a sponge and very hot water. I’ll need to go over it again and bring cotton buds for the little corners and ledges. I didn’t want to leave it open after I left as I was worried insects eg flies might get inside and lay eggs. Here’s a before and after pic

A toothbrush is better

Lots of dental brushes are great for cleaning. I use a toothbrush, a denture brush and one of those tiny interdental brushes on a long handle that are good for nooks and crannies

These are good for cleaning the holes in the roof bit of your dispenser drawer of your washing machine too

Wow! You did an amazing job

How - that’s impressive!! Much better than throwing it away.

Thanks everyone. I agree a toothbrush will do better than earbuds for the corners. The smell of the fridge is still in my nostrils. I took a shower as soon as I got home! There’s still the freezer drawers to do but then it’ll be done.

Milton.