The Refrigerator Challenge

It's not easy being friends with someone who's a green cleaning freak. This I know.
I am sure that over the years I have been an  annoyance to some. I can live with that.

One example is when I deep cleaned the downstairs of a two-story residence, where someone had lived for many years in, let's call it 'less than pristine conditions.'  The entire place had to be completely overhauled, to the point walls, ceilings and floors had to be removed and replaced. Were the appliances able to be saved? They still had years of good service in them, but were unclean to the point of wondering if they could be restored and made to smell clean. Big challenge.

The man who owned the building knows my green ethic, but doubted it could do the job. He bought heavy duty (ie, harmful chemical) cleaners and was using them on the part he was cleaning and he wanted me to use them too. I asked him to let me do it my way and see if we could reach a satisfactory clean.

Because he is both a friend and had time to indulge me, I was able to work on the refrigerator over a period of days. If this had been a residential cleaning job for someone I didn't know I never could have done what I did, because it took hours and repeat visits to achieve satisfactory results. This is something people can do in their own homes, but not something a person could do for a one time deep clean in conditions that happened over years. It took time to get that filthy and it takes time to undo that.

My approach to the fridge was to clean it several times. Each time the build up of dirt, grease and nicotine lessened. Yes, the interior was scummy with nicotine build up, as were the surfaces of the entire apartment, making the 'tear out and rebuild' necessary, among other factors. I was amazed that nicotine coated the fridge interior. Each time the door was opened the stink of mildew and old nicotine wafted out. Each time I returned to the place my first job was to soak the interior with a blend of ingredients that included Sal Suds, Borax and Washing Soda and let it set while I moved onto the rest of the place. When I got ready to leave I rinsed it down with an essential oil blend, wedged a block of wood at the door, so it would stay slightly open, then left it to air out.

One day we took every single removable piece and then some off, to soak and scrub in the sink, then I went at all the cracks and crevices with the same cleaning blend I used for the surfaces. I spent hours on that fridge, over several days. And it worked. By the end of the remodel the appliance was not only pristine, there was no trace of odor even after it was plugged in, turned on, and door kept closed.

I don't know whether a chemical cleaner would have been able to do that and in my experience it would not. Yes, it would probably cut through a lot of the grease and nicotine, but I don't know that it would thoroughly remove the residual smell that always seems to return to appliances that haven't been kept clean over time. It is also my opinion that the chemical cleaners themselves leave behind an unpleasant odor that taints surfaces and absorbs into materials and plastics. An example of this is a washing machine, which has rubber seals and components that absorb the smell of detergents over time. A lot of people have smelly washing machine interiors. Mine does not smell. At all. It has remained clean and free of the mildewy, chemical odor detected in a lot of machines. It is because I don't use the laundry detergents stores sell. They are made by chemical corporations and contain harmful petro-chemical substances. Petro-chemicals give off an odor over time as they build up in your clothing fibers and washing machine.