How To Clean & Organize a Commercial Fridge

Let’s see… you’re struggling with keeping your inventory organized, or your products and ingredients in check, or even keeping your refrigerator clean and organized! Owning a food business is a hard thing in itself and keeping your workplace and inventory clean and organized is even harder! A fridge can be a place to keep everything fresh and if you don’t clean it and organize it well, it may as well become a great place for some germs and bacterias to grow in.

So let’s figure out a simple plan to make it easier for you to keep it well maintained, clean and organized.

Steps to Clean Your Refrigerator

1.Cut The Power!

Unplugging your refrigerator without actually starting to clean it is very important if you don’t want to get electrocuted.

2. Get Your Masks And Gloves!

Put on some rubber gloves and wear a face mask. Get a bucket of hot soapy water, some clean towels and some bleach and water to disinfect the fridge.

3. Throw It Out! Throw It Out!

Before anything else, throw out any food that may have caused any kind of complaints or simply the food that has gone bad or any recalled food (if any). Once the culprit is out, remember to throw out any other food item that has come in touch with the recalled food. Always remember that “one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch”.

4. Remove Everything

Empty out your refrigerator completely before starting to clean it and set the rest of the food on a counter or a cart temporarily. You can also put them in another refrigerator or a cool area for a while. Take out the shelving, the drawers and all the removable parts to wash them separately.

5. Sucker For You

Vacuum the condenser and coils. Remove and scrape away any frozen spillages. Use a brush to remove the dust from the handle of the refrigerator and use the vacuum cleaner to get off any dust around and under the refrigerator.

6. Hot, Soapy Water Makes It All Better!

Clean all the removable parts by hand with hot, soapy water and dry them out with a clean towel.

7. Pay Attention To The Insides!

Clean the insides of the empty refrigerator using hot, soapy water, rinse off the soap and wipe them, and dry them out with a clean dry towel. Don’t forget to clean the doors of the refrigerator and any drawers or shelving that is not removable.

8. Sanitize It

Use a solution of 1 tablespoon of liquid bleach in 1 gallon of water to sanitize your refrigerator after you have cleaned it with soap water. And wait until the bleach water is completely dried out before restocking the refrigerator.

Don’t forget to clean your hands and wash them carefully with handwash. Store the rubber gloves, soap water, used towels etc. away from your refrigerator to avoid any spillage while reloading your refrigerator. Clean the counters where you kept the food items temporarily. Wash the towels used to clean the refrigerator and store them in a clean place to reuse.

Steps to Organize Your Refrigerator

Organizing your refrigerator is really important. Just think of it like your closet. You wouldn’t want your regular or frequently used clothes to get mixed in with the rest of your clothes right? Arranging your closet according to your need (or on the basis of how frequently you use certain clothing objects) is a great way to keep it organized for a longer time. If you keep what you need in the most easily accessible area, you won’t need to disturb or even touch the rest of the stuff when you want to reach it.

Think of the shelves of the refrigerator as the level of importance based on the usage of the products.

1. Top Shelf

Top shelves are often warmer than the middle and bottom shelves so you can store the food that doesn’t need to be super cool here. Keep all your ready-to-eat foods, produce, butter, condiments. and precooked foods here or even your tomatoes, berries and other fruits.

2. Middle Shelf

It’s usually colder than the top shelf, so use this to store your beverages and meat in here.

3. Bottom Shelf

This is usually the coldest shelf of any refrigerator so you can store your highly perishable food items in this shelf such as leftovers, eggs, or any raw meats that you have. It’s especially better to store your raw meats in here to avoid the juices from dropping down on any veggies.

4. Crisper Drawers

They’re usually used to store veggies and fruits that need to be kept at a particular temperature setting as crisper drawers usually have a different level of humidity from the rest of the refrigerator to optimize freshness in fruits and vegetables.

5. Bottom Drawers

You can use it for pretty much whatever you want. You can store your deli, meats or beverages in it and most refrigerators will adjust the temperature accordingly.

6. Doors

Doors of a refrigerator are the warmest part of any refrigerator. You can keep your ketchup, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, and other less perishable items and frequently needed items in the door space.

In addition to organizing stuff on a “shelf-by-shelf basis” you can also use other storage containers and products to keep your refrigerator even more organized and handy to clean.

7. Acrylic containers

These are great and perfect for storing and holding drinks, juice boxes, condiments. and the miscellaneous items that don’t really go anywhere.

8. Wine racks

They’re a great way to store your bottles without letting them take up too much space.

9. Jugs

Jugs can be used to store any liquid like milk and juice that you may have lying around.

10. Baskets

Storing your berries and cherries in baskets really makes them very accessible and handy to take out anytime you want.

11. Mason Jars

For storing practically anything, Mason jars are ideal. From herbs to jams and sauces… Mason jars can be used to store ’em all!

So what are your thoughts on keeping your refrigerator clean and organized? Did you enjoy reading this article? Let us know what your thoughts are on these tips!