5 Steps to a Sparkling Clean Fridge

The end of May is nearing, which means you have probably already done your spring-cleaning for the year. The lights have been dusted, the floors mopped, and the stovetop rid of burnt food. Did you also know that your refrigerator is probably the most neglected part of your kitchen?

Here are some tips to getting the squeaky-clean fridge and preventing those sticky, smelly messes in the future! Remember to turn off your fridge before cleaning it out – you will save quite a bit of energy!

De-clutter your fridge

Start by cleaning the inside of the fridge shelf-by-shelf, starting from the top and working your way down. As you start consolidating, use your counter space to group similar items together. Staying organized minimizes future items from becoming expired. Be sure to check the expiration date and toss anything that’s long overdue. Check for spoilage or awful odors on any items without an expiration stamp. When in doubt, throw it out! Everything else that made the cut should be placed in ice in a cooler to avoid spoiling.

DIY Cleaners

Before you break out the chemicals to clean, there are great DIY cleaners that you can make using household items. Vinegar is great for scrubbing your shelves and eliminating bacteria. Another option is to use equal parts baking soda and water. Used all your baking soda to soak up those odors in the fridge? That’s okay! An alternative is to use salt, water, and lemon. Get one cup of salt and dissolve it into a gallon of hot water. Squeeze fresh lemon juice in your solution, and you’re ready to scrub!

Time to Clean!

Grab a microfiber cloth and start scrubbing those shelves and bins to eliminate any stickiness, dried up leaks, and any other grime that has been sitting there all winter long. Remove any drawers and shelves to make cleaning easier!

Check the seals of the fridge doors. It’s a guarantee you will find dust, grime, food particles, and even pet hair lodged in the crevices of the seals. Grab some hot water with a little bit of vinegar and a microfiber cloth and watch the gunk come out! Be sure to wash that rag once you’re done. The rag itself may need a little extra attention!

Be sure not to neglect the outside of the fridge! The door handles are full of bacteria since they are touched most often! Grab a clean rag to disinfect the handles and exterior. Vinegar is also stainless steel friendly, so don’t be timid using it on your shiny reflection.

Keep Your Fridge Smelling Fresh

Store a box of baking soda in the back of your fridge to trap foul odors. Be sure to swap out the box every three months or your remedy will become ineffective. Don’t forget to label your fresh box with a date as a reminder of when you need to swap it out. Though baking soda may be a well-known remedy, soaking a cotton ball with vanilla extract is another great alternative. If your fridge needs a little more help than an open box of baking soda, kick it up a notch by adding fresh coffee grounds to your baking soda. The coffee smell will fade in time, taking the odors with it.

Keep It Simple

To make cleaning easier the next time you tackle your beastly fridge, consider putting Cling Wrap or Press N Seal on your freshly cleaned shelves. When you clear everything out next time, just lift and pull. Toss that sticky mess in the trash and replace it with a new layer.

Don’t forget to plug your fridge back in! Now that you’re inspired to cook, avoid putting food directly back in until your fridge has reach appropriate temperatures.

Performing a deep clean on a regular basis helps remove unwanted bacteria and germs that can be a health risk to you and your family. Use the best, sturdiest cleaning materials around by ordering yours from US Wiping! Find our many products online at www.uswiping.com!

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How 9 Famous Landmarks You Know and Love Get Cleaned!

Spring is the time of year when we clean our homes of all the filth and dust from the winter season. While we might be scrubbing down our homes and prepping our wardrobe for the impending summer weather, there are other important things that are getting spruced up as well, like famous landmarks, statues, and monuments. Sometimes this happens once every few years while others get a good cleaning more than once a year.

Here’s how some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks get cleaned!

Big Ben – Big Ben (or the Great Westminster Clock) requires a lot of time and patience to clean. Each of the 4 dials is 23 square feet, and there are 312 panes on each face. Time doesn’t stop marching on when the clock needs cleaning either; cleaners attached to nylon ropes are forced to dodge the moving hands with the minute hand moving about a foot a minute.

The Coliseum in Rome – Did you know that the Roman Coliseum has never been cleaned? It’s true! In fact, for the first time in its 2,000-year history, it is being cleaned of all the dirt and grime from the past. Those who are cleaning it are using toothbrushes and water to get the huge arena clean, along with larger brushes for the larger areas. The Coliseum is slated to be totally clean by 2016.

The Eiffel Tower – This 124-year-old structure that frequently adorns our walls and décor gets cleaned annually. It takes 4 tons of wipes (yes, TONS!), 25,000 garbage bags, 105 gallons of metal cleaning solution, and 10,000 doses of detergent to get this structure looking all shiny and new. In addition to its annual cleaning, the Eiffel Tower is repainted every 7 years by hand with lead-free paint in three different shades of brown, a system that requires almost 60 tons of paint. This paint job lasts up to 18 months.

The Empire State Building – How do you clean the windows of a building that doesn’t have a flat roof? That’s what window washers who clean the 102-story Empire State Building deal with whenever they clean this landmark. They tackle this problem by hooking harnesses to eyebolts that are embedded inside the building since they can’t attach ropes to the rooftop.

Lincoln Memorial – Honest Abe (or at least his inanimate doppelganger in Washington D.C.) gets a thorough power washing from a hose twice a year to keep him shining and sparkling like new!

Mount Rushmore – This well-known monument, which was completed back in 1941, had received its very first cleaning in the summer of 2005. The 60-foot-tall granite faces of 4 American presidents were cleaned by highly-pressurized 150-degree water. That causes all the dirt, moss, and grime to be wiped totally away!

The Space Needle – First opened for the 1962 World’s Faire, the Space Needle that graces the Seattle skies received its first cleaning in 2008. The same company that cleaned Mt. Rushmore worked only at night and used water pressure up to 2,610.6 psi heated to 194 degrees Fahrenheit on the 604-foot-tall structure. How did they do it? The cleaners lowered themselves by rope from the very top of the tower. Talk about bravery!

Statue of Liberty – Until the 1930s, this symbolic monument gifted from France received an annual wash but not a scrubbing. That’s because the green patina on the statue protects the copper underneath. Now we know why the statue is green!

Taj Mahal – This iconic monument in India is quite difficult to keep white and beautiful as it constantly fights the pollution in the area. When it’s time to clean it, workers use something unexpected to get the job done – mud. Mud clay is applied and left to dry over the areas overnight and is removed using soft nylon brushes and water the next morning. This has been done to the monument in 1994, 2001, and 2008.

You may not have a big task of cleaning a huge monument that graces tourists’ photos, but it can be a tough job to keep your home, workspace, or business clean. Come to US Wiping for all your cleaning needs! Check out our stock at www.uswiping.com to learn more!