How to Remove a Spoiled Food Odor from Your Refrigerator

There are a number of ways to remove a spoiled food odor from a refrigerator. Depending upon how severe the odor is will determine what method to use. Most methods are natural or green and won't contaminate the refrigerator with chemicals or be harmful to your family.

Step 1: Remove Spoiled Food

It goes without explanation that you will need to remove all spoiled food and discard it safely. Wear your rubber gloves while doing this and throughout this process. After the food is gone, remove all shelves, doors, drawers and other parts that will come out of the refrigerator. Be sure the refrigerator is unplugged.

Remove any ice and discard. Remove ice bins and throw away the ice. You may want to smell food that is in the refrigerator that isn't spoiled to make sure the odor hasn't penetrated into it and ruined it also. Put non spoiled food into coolers of ice.

Step 2: Cleaning

Fill the bucket with about a gallon of hot water and add one cup of bleach if the odor is extremely bad. This will not only clean the refrigerator, it should kill the odor and also sanitize it. Scrub it down from top to bottom and also be sure to wash all of the shelves and other pieces you removed from the refrigerator. Rinse thoroughly.

If at all possible, place all the extra pieces outside in the sun to air dry. Sunshine has a deodorizing quality all of its own that will be useful in this project.

If you don't like the smell of bleach or can't tolerate it, mix white vinegar into the hot water instead and use it to clean while following the above instructions. Any stubborn stains or spills can be scoured with baking soda on a wet sponge with either cleaning method.

Step 3: Air it Out

If at all possible, allow the door to remain open for about 24 hours. If you have small children you will need to secure the door to something so they can't accidentally climb into it and close the door behind them.

If this is impossible, place a bowl with baking soda or coffee beans inside the refrigerator and close the door. Plug it back in so the air will circulate. Either of these substances will remove odors. You can also leave them in the refrigerator when you start to use it again to continue to deodorize the inside.

Step 5: Vanilla

Many people like to put a bit of vanilla extract on a cotton ball and place it on the back of a shelf inside the refrigerator to maintain a nice fragrance and help deodorize the inside.