It's A Crazy Life.....

With all the sunshine and fresh air and somewhat warmer temps, the spring cleaning bug has hit me hard!  If you follow my other blog Destination-Organization, you'll see that I started with some heavy duty cleaning and decluttering back at the beginning of the year.  Of course, you'll notice that I keep up with that blog about as well as this one as well!  But in the last week or so it's hit me even harder....guess I should update that other blog with some news!

Anyway, this week I decided to take on the refridgerator.  What a mess!  Back in January, I tackled the top of the fridge - it had become a catch-all for anything and everything.  There were things up there that I didn't even know we ever had!  And the dust!!  Yikes!  Also, I had cleaned out behind the fridge about three weeks ago or so when I was painting in the kitchen.  We dusted out underneath and vaccummed out the coils and such.  Even just that made a difference.  But from the front and inside....well, it was still pretty scary!

So I started by taking down everyting that was attached to the outside.  Then I took some cleaner and scrubbed down the sides and front.  It always amazes me what sticky things get stuck on the doors.  And all those gooey little fingerprints - well, with four wee things running around, it's bound to happen.  So that was step one.  After that, I went through all the papers, business cards, pieces of scrap paper, school papers and notes, pictures and such that had been pinned to the fridge and sorted and tossed and filed.  Then I put up the ones I wanted or needed to keep on there.  On the side by the door was all our school schedules (we do have three to keep up with, you know!) and phone numbers and important notes.  On the side by the stove, I tried to keep everything off as much as possible - too easy for stove splatter to reach it.  The only thing left on there now is my baggie of Campbell's labels and box tops, which seems to take forever to fill since we don't buy a lot of items with those things.  But I still like to save them for the kids' school.  And on the front is any pictures of the kids and family I wanted to keep up.  Also the school lunch menu and "Smiley Face" or "Starred" papers that come home from school.  Recipts go there as well, until I'm done with them.  And anything that needs urgent attention.  It looks so much cleaner and neater now.

Then came the inside!  UCK!

I started with the freezer side as it wasn't quite as bad.  I took everything out shelf by shelf and wiped the sides down.  The shelves themselves are wire racks instead of solid shelves, so that helps a bit.  I wiped them down as well and actually washed a couple that had something sticking to them (I don't even want to think about how that happened!)  Then I reorganzied as I went.  It's still full and crazy busy looking, but at least I know what is in there now and where it's at!

The refridgerator side was much worse.  I did the same process, with taking each shelf out and washing it down.  It appears that there was dried blood on the top shelf from when we defrosted some meat or another.  Ick!  The veggie and meat drawers were pretty bad as well.  A few mystery foods stored at the back, two bags of spoiled, mushy veggies in the bottom of the drawer and one jar of moldy applesauce.  But overall, not too bad.  The worst part was scrubbing down the walls and shelves.

I did run out of time and I still need to clean the grill at the bottom of the front, but it looks and feels and smells so much better!  Somehow, having a clean fridge makes me want to cook and bake more!

Next up....the pantry.....there was a mystery smell coming from there last night!  UGH!

***Linking up to The Nourishing Groumet's Spring Cleaning Carnival***