8 Tips on How to Organise and Clean the Workplace Fridge

Keeping your office is often a top priority for busy organisations. You’ll see your cleaning team hard at work, from the carpets to the walls, from office chairs to the windows, and everything in between. But the humble office refrigerator is often overlooked and not seen as a priority, which is concerning when you consider a large portion of your team will be keeping lunch in there, and if they are exposed to moulds and other toxins, they could soon be off sick – a cost you could avoid by simply cleaning the office fridge.

If you’re not outsourcing the cleaning, here are a few steps to clean your office fridge thoroughly.

8 Steps to Cleaning the Workplace Fridge

1. Warn the team

Nothing causes strife in an office like disappearing food, so give your team a couple of days’ notice that the fridge will be out of action while you clean it. They will need to remove everything from the machine.

2. Unplug the refrigerator

No one wants to get a shock while cleaning, so unplug the fridge before you start cleaning the workplace fridge.

3. Clear out the refrigerator

Take any remaining food from the fridge and throw it away—the team was told! You can make your own judgement for long-lasting condiments like bottles of sauce, but if they are going back in the fridge (once you’re finished), give them a wipe-down with a cloth and disinfectant.

4. Remove any drawers and shelves

The best way to sanitise the drawers and shelves if they allow it. Once out, use a bowl of warm, soapy water and a cloth/sponge to clean thoroughly. Be sure to work into the corners of the drawers as these are prone to collecting the remains of spills and mould.

5. Wipe down the interior of the work fridge

Continue with the bowl of soapy water and cloth, wiping around every surface in your work fridge to remove dirt. Break out a soft-bristled scrubbing brush for any thick gunk that may have congealed. If there are some areas you can’t reach, an old toothbrush is ideal for getting around obstructions and reaching tricky spots.

After you’ve finished scrubbing the fridge, rinse the surfaces with water to cleanse them.

6. Disinfect with sanitiser

Once you’ve cleaned out the visible dirt, wipe the surfaces with a food-safe disinfectant to kill bacteria and mould. As you’ve already cleaned the interior, you just need to give it all a quick wipe-over; there’s no need to get the scrubbing brush out a second time.

7. Vacuum the condenser and coils

If you can access the rear of your fridge, you’ll find the condenser and coils. Over time, these can become coated in dust and debris, reducing the efficiency of your fridge and leaving you with higher energy bills and a chance that your fridge will break down.

Some guides will advise you to remove the protective grill, but if this seems excessive or you lack the confidence to try this, don’t worry! Use the smaller nozzle of your vacuum and suck away any loose dust that you can access. Doing this regularly will help remove the worst of the dust and prolong the life of the workplace fridge.

8. Clean above and below the workplace fridge

While you have the fridge out, be sure to clean the fridge top and the area underneath where the fridge sits. You’ll typically find dust on the top, which can be vacuumed away, while underneath, it can be a sticky mess that may need some serious cleaning power. Check out our guide to sugar soap if you need some serious cleaning firepower.

How to reorganise the workplace fridge

Once the cleaning is complete, plug the fridge back in and let your team start reusing the fridge. To help keep the fridge in the best working order and make it easy for your team to keep using your workplace fridge, consider these organisational tips:

Use Organising Baskets

Add sorting baskets to the fridge to allow easy organisation. This is ideal if your workplace offers shared snacks, condiments, etc. In addition, keeping your food compartmentalised in baskets reduces the risk of spills and makes it much easier to clean up when they happen.

Labels

Get your colleagues to label their lunches with their names and the date they were put in the fridge. This will help avoid confusion and also make it simple to clear out food that has passed its best-before date.

Friday Food Deadline

Alternatively, some workplaces have a Friday Food deadline policy, where any food left in the fridge on Friday afternoon is thrown away, regardless of what it is. The fridge is then given a quick wipe-over with food-safe sanitiser to ensure it remains a mould—and bacteria-free place for your food the following week.

Why Should You Clean the Workplace Fridge

With your workplace fridge constantly opening and closing, spills, bacteria, and dirt are inevitable. Food can also be forgotten and left to rot in the back of the fridge, leading to smells and mould.

Food can become contaminated with spores and make people feel ill, or worse, so it’s crucial to maintain a hygienic workplace refrigerator.

What To Do If Your Team Don’t Want You to Throw Away Their Old Food

One of the most important aspects of cleaning the workplace fridge is getting your team all on the same page. If you get pushback from team members who object to your cleaning of the fridge and the tossing of their unused food products, it’s worth having a conversation with them so that you can:

• Emphasise the problems a dirty workplace fridge can cause: By now, you’ve seen that a dirty fridge can be a breeding ground for germs and bacteria.
• Explain to them that most office bugs lurk on the fridge door handles and that foodborne illnesses can come from rotting, smelly, uneaten food.
• Explain that it is a team effort—everyone should be able to see the benefits of keeping things clean. Whether that requires a regular routine of disposing of leftover food or rules on what can and cannot be left in the fridge and for how long, those rules will need to be followed by everyone.

Cleanco Commercial Cleaning – Brisbane’s Premier Cleaning Company

We are happy to help clean the workplace fridge as part of our commercial cleaning process. Our services are targeted at offices, medical centres, childcare centres, and schools, among many others. For a complete list of the types of sites we cover, check our cleaning services page.

For commercial cleaning, contact us today, and we’ll be happy to provide you with a custom quote for ridding your property of stubborn grime and leaving it sparkling.