How to Clean a Fridge and Defrost a Freezer

The best time to clean the fridge is just before a food shop, when it's at its emptiest. Have a cool bag or cool box ready for anything that needs to stay cold, and plan to work reasonably quickly.

The Food Standards Agency recommends keeping your fridge at 5°C or below. A fridge thermometer is cheap and tells you whether yours is actually doing that – worth checking once it's clean and restocked.

Take everything out and be ruthless. Bin anything past its use-by date, anything you can't identify and the half-dozen sauces you'll never finish. Wipe sticky jar bottoms before they go back in, or they'll leave fresh rings on your clean shelves.

Take out the removable shelves, drawers and door racks. Wash them in warm soapy water and dry them. Let glass shelves come up to room temperature first – cold glass in very hot water can crack.

Wipe the interior with warm water and a little washing-up liquid, or a solution of bicarbonate of soda in warm water, which is gentle and helps neutralise smells. Work from the top down so drips fall onto areas you haven't cleaned yet.

Pay attention to the door seals – crumbs and spills collect in the folds and can lead to mould. An old toothbrush helps here. Many fridges have a small drain hole at the back of the main compartment: if water is pooling at the bottom, it may be blocked, and the manual will show you how to clear it.

Dry everything with a clean cloth before putting shelves back. Return food in sensible zones: ready-to-eat food on the upper shelves, raw meat and fish sealed on the bottom shelf so it can't drip onto anything else, and fruit and veg in the drawers.

Most smells come from something that's gone off – usually in a drawer or at the back. Once that's gone and the fridge is clean, an open tub of bicarbonate of soda on a shelf can help absorb lingering odours. Replace it every few months.

Frost-free freezers rarely need defrosting, but older or chest freezers lose efficiency once ice builds up. Here's the safe way to do it:

The trick is a quick weekly check rather than a monthly rescue mission. The night before bin day, take a minute to look through the shelves and drawers, throw out anything past its use-by date and wipe up any drips. It takes less time than making a cup of tea.

Storing food in lidded containers, keeping a tray under raw meat and putting a sheet of kitchen roll in the bottom of the salad drawer to catch moisture all reduce the mess that builds up. Don't overfill the fridge either – cold air needs to circulate to keep everything at a safe temperature.

Black specks in the folds of the door seal are usually mould, encouraged by moisture and food crumbs. Clean them with warm soapy water and an old toothbrush, then dry thoroughly. If the seal is split or no longer grips the cabinet, the fridge has to work harder to stay cold, and the seal may need replacing.

A simple test: close the door on a sheet of paper. If it slides out easily, the seal may not be sealing properly at that point.

Wipe the handles (one of the most-touched surfaces in the kitchen), the door and the top, where dust and grease settle. If you can safely pull the fridge out, vacuum the dust from the back and the floor underneath – it's often surprisingly grim and it helps the appliance run efficiently.

Fridge and freezer interiors are a standard part of an end of tenancy clean and usually an extra on a regular clean, so mention them when you request quotes.