Are the drawers of the freezer section of your fridge-freezer sliding open and close with difficulty? Are some of the items on the top shelf getting stuck? You might be experiencing an ice build-up situation in your freezer, which is not good.
Why postpone? I just cleaned our freezer in less than half an hour. Which, when the going gets tuff is just difficult to find.
Here is the quick way:
Apparatus needed includes:
- Cool-bag / news papers / blanket / sleeping bag
- Hairdryer in working order with long enough cord (or extension cord)
- Serving tray / oven pan / biggish bowl
- Egg-lifter
- Detergent (preferably a spray bottle)
- Soft clean cloth
Noooo, it looks worse than it is: switch off, empty, hot air, help ice off with egg-lifter, throw ice in tray, clean & dry, switch on and repack—now for the detail:
- Switch the appliance off.
- Take a cool-bag (one of those that keep the meat and/or drinks cold when going for a picnic/braai) and pack it with the content of the freezer, to avoid any defrosting—if you do not have a cool-bag, use newspaper and wrap every item quite thick or pack the content on a blanket / sleeping bag and cover.
- Pull all the drawers out—those that are iced, place them on the kitchen sink to defrost—the clean drawers out of the way.
- Place a tray / oven pan / biggish bowl in front of the freezer
- Grab your or your partner's hairdryer; switch it to its warmest setting and full blast—do not put it down in the freezer, because it might cause an electric shock—do not just quickly go to the loo / attend to a child's needs / make a call while leaving the hairdryer on in the freezer.
- Start from the top and blow hot air over the ice layers.
- When you start seeing tiny trickles of water, grab the egg-lifter in one hand and continue blowing hot air with the hairdryer in the other.
- Gently help pieces of ice to let go of the sides of the freezer, by bumping lightly with the lifting edge of the egg-lifter.
- Through the pieces of ice that come loose into the tray / oven pan / bowl.
- Once all the ice is off, switch off the hairdryer and put safely aside and put the egg-lifter down.
- Wipe the worse of the water off the inside of the freezer; wrench the cloth dry and move the tray / oven pan / bowl aside.
- Spray some detergent on most surfaces and wipe the inside of the freezer clean.
- Rinse the cloth in clean water, wrench dry and wipe the inside of the freezer once more.
- Wash/wipe all the drawers and top shelf clean and insert in appropriate slots.
- Move the fridge-freezer into its appropriate position and switch it back on.
- Pack the content back in the freezer—pay attention to dates and place the oldest content on top in order to use first.
- Throw the ice pieces on the lawn or spread it among your flower boxes of pot pants (take care not to cause frostbite) in order to defrost and serve a good purpose.
Cleaning the fridge section is even easier. I normally do not even switch it off. Empty the fridge; wash entire inside, shelves and veggies tray with water with detergent and cloth; dry and replace shelves and veggies tray. Inspect content, return the edible stuff and dump the rest in the rubbish bin. Easy?
