Make The Inside Of Your Fridge Sparkle Again With The Help Of A Dishwasher Tablet

When you crack open the doors of your refrigerator to grab a to-go box from last night's dinner, it may be hard to imagine the first day you moved in and filled those shelves. Thanks to that layer of unexplainable grime and that stain from the leaking container of strawberries in the corner, you hardly even remember the days when the shelves of your fridge were shiny and new. Fortunately, you don't need a fancy concoction or an expensive cleaning product to revive those crumb-filled fridge shelves — you just need a dishwashing tablet.

While you can also use a dishwasher tablet to leave our oven doors spotless, that unsuspecting little pod can be incredibly useful in the fridge too. To begin, grab a bucket or large bowl of hot water and toss in a dishwashing tablet, letting it dissolve completely before moving any further. Then, empty out the contents of your fridge into a cooler or cooler bags and pick up a microfiber cloth, thoroughly dampening it with the dissolved tablet solution. From here, use the soapy cloth to scrub and wipe down your fridge from back to front, spending a little extra time on the nooks and crannies (like the fridge gasket). Just make sure you follow these 12 do's and don'ts of cleaning your fridge.

In a perfect world, we'd all be wiping down our fridges at least once per week and giving them a good deep cleaning every three to four months — but let's be real... When was the last time any of us truly took the time to scrub every inch of the interior of our refrigerators? Cleaning your fridge on the regular or deep cleaning it with a dishwashing tablet more often will help prevent unwelcome smells, sticky messes, stains, and the potential for bacteria. Dishwashing tablet solutions are incredibly effective at removing grease and food residue, making them an easy sidekick for an efficient fridge deep-cleaning.

Dishwashing tablet ingredients vary by brand, but typically they consist of surfactants, enzymes, builders, bleaching agents, rinse aids, anti-corrosion agents, and other fragrances. The surfactants, enzymes, and builders are the stars of the deep-cleaning show, as these ingredients are specifically meant to break down grease, proteins, starches, and food-based minerals. The rinse aid in the tablet means that your fridge shelves won't be left with streaky lines and dried water droplets, while the anti-corrosion agent will prevent any metal bits from rusting. While some dishwashing tablets contain bleach agents, meant to remove stains and serve as a disinfectant, experts generally agree that you shouldn't clean your fridge with bleach, so it might be best to search for a tablet without it.