There's nothing glamorous about cleaning out the Fridge.

There is less glamour in cleaning out your freezer.

And even less, in cleaning out your deep freezer.

I know.

And, I'm sorry to include this in the challenge.

I actually hated it.

It was not fun.

Not even a little bit.

But,

I LOVED having it done.

Which is why I did decide to include it!

I don't know what it is about me,

but, somehow, I don't really seem to see how disgusting my fridge gets.

Like, really disgusting.

Like, jam stuck on the shelves.

And spilled juice that runs into the sides and brackets

and eventually becomes a part of the fridge itself.

And rotten food festering in the crispers.

I mean, I like to consider myself a fairly clean person.

I'm not saying you could eat off the floors in my house,

(that would be gross in any house, I don't care how clean it is!)

but, all in all I do a fairly good job at housekeeping.

My girlfriends tend to think I keep an immaculate house,

and while I do straighten things up a bit before company comes over,

I rarely feel the need to run around like a mad woman before the doorbell rings.

But,

I just can't seem to keep a clean fridge.

And I have absolutely no excuse for it.

It's not that I don't see the mess it's in.....

I do.

I just don't like cleaning it,

so I open the fridge,

grab what I need,

and then shut the door on it.

Bam!

Out of sight, out of mind.

But,

because it was really getting bad,

and because I've issued this Simplify Challenge,

I figured I should sort of step up to the plate myself, you know?

So yeah.

I did.

And like I said,

I LOVE it, now that it's done!

It looks so clean and neat and tidy.

And, I don't feel the need to shut the door on my hand before I even have my peanut butter out.

It's really great!

The little freezer in the fridge was also gross.

I actually had to take the vacuum to it before I could even wash it out.

I mean, how embarrassing for me!

(I can't believe I even admitted that to you.......)

Again though,

it was so great to have it done!

The deep freezer was the absolute worst though.

But mostly because I had so much frost build up in there

that I had to defrost it before I could actually clean it out.

Again though,

once it was done I just felt really good about it!

It was really great because I could actually move the little shelves that had been previously been frosted in place.

Bonus!

So, anyhow,

this is a fairly straight forward challenge.

Obviously, you'll want to throw out anything that is outdated.

All those yogurts that your daughter said she would eat but didn't?

Garbage.

And the sour milk you were keeping to use for baking recipes that call for sour milk,

that you purposed in your heart to bake, but, now the milk has actually gone and solidified?

Chuck it.

All of those little packets of soy sauce

and marinades and dressings

that have accumulated in your fridge

over the past year or two

that you were totally planning on using

because you HATE waste

but that you didn't ever use?

Please throw those in the trash.

They are not doing you any favors

taking up space in your fridge door shelves.

Also, that package of spinach that you forgot was in the crisper

and now has actually turned to slime?

Feed that to your worms for compost.

What????

You don't have a bid of worms for composting stored in your laundry room?

Ok, then........

I guess you should just throw it in the garbage......

And those freezer burned hot dog buns, all three packages,

that you couldn't really justify throwing out because you could maybe make a bread pudding with them?

Just go ahead and throw them in the garbage, ok?

I'm fairly certain that you will end up with more left over bread in there at some point in the near future,

that you can use to make your family a bread pudding.

But for today, our job is not making bread pudding.

Our job is to clean out the fridge, the freezer and the deep freezer.

And, while I know this is a Simplify Challenge and not a "cleaning challenge"

do yourself a favor and clean out these appliances as well.

You might as well, right?

Then, when you put back all of your food,

it will look so fantastic

and you will feel so darn accomplished!

Whoot!

Alrighty then!

Let's get to it!

Post your pics in the daily thread on my Barefoot Warrior Facebook page!

I can't wait to see your progress!

#simpleliving #organize #declutter