Green Cleaning Refrigerator and Freezer, an Essential Guide

Those Forgotten Left Over Foods Can Really Stink up the Refrigerator and Freezer!

With the best intentions we pack away left over food that remains at the end of a delicious meal. Three weeks later when rummaging through for a snack, we just can't figure out why the fridge reeks! Those little spills and old vegetables can make quite a fuss after a few weeks of neglect. Nothing screams "clean me" louder than aged cheeses or a milk spill that goes unnoticed. Here are a few tips for rescuing your by "Green Cleaning the Refrigerator and Freezer" from the smells bad blues!

When Your Freezer needs a good cleaning this is the best way to remedy the problem:

1. Remove and place all contents in a cooler full of ice temporarily.
2. Turn the temperature on the freezer side of the unit down. (If yours doen't have a separate temperature control, simply leave the freezer door open for about 5 minutes.)
3. Wipe down the interior of freezer, rinse thoroughly, replace food items, turn temperature back up.

Essential Oil Freezer Cleaning Recipe:

• ½ cup water
• 3 Tablespoons baking soda
• 7 drops eucalyptus essential oil

NOTE: For Refrigerator Cleaning use the same Cleaning recipe, just increase the essential oil amount to 10 drops.

If simply maintaining a fresh aroma in the refrigerator is your goal, give one of these Essential Oil scented Recipes a try!

A Little Bit of Joe Goes a Long Way! (For those who love the smell of coffee)

• ½ cup fresh-ground coffee beans
• 8 drops essential oil (vanilla bean, mace, or ginger are great companion fragrances with coffee)

If Vanilla is more Your Style, place a small bowl in the fridge containing this recipe:

• 2-oz Vanilla extract (imitation extracts even works with this aroma)
• 3 drops Lemon Essential oil (adding lemon makes the fridge smell like 50/50 ice-cream bars!)

Make an Essential Oils Starter Kit

If you're just starting out and don't really have any essential oils on hand, then you may need a few tips on how to get started; you know, which essential oils to get first that are also painless on the pocketbook. A sort of essential essentials list. The chart below will help you get going in no time at all!

HERBS:

Use the fresh herbs that are in bloom in your garden. Just cut a few stems of a fragrant rich plant, like sage, mint, or rosemary. Tie the sprigs together and hang them from a rack in the fridge. These super fresh herbs will keep things smelling great fro about 2 and a half weeks.

CITRUS:

Place lining on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator that has been sprinkled with 10 - 15 drops of essential oils like, lemon, lime, grapefruit, or a sweet orange/tangerine. Take this out and replace it after 2 or 3 days.

NO SCENTS AT ALL:

A fresh slice of bread placed on a saucer can absorb several odors from your fridge. For a very slight fragrance you can add 2 - 4 drops of an essential oil scent you like best.

1. Essential oils are a highly concentrated form of volatile oils extracted from plants and should always be used externally, NEVER internally.
2. A few drops of essential oil is equal to 30 to 40 cups of herbal tea.
3. Use extra caution when using food-related oils; citrus oils, in point, can be a tempting treat to a young child or pet who may think it is something tasty to eat.
4. Essential oils can be irritating to sensitive skin.

A good practice to follow is, be just as safe when handling "herbs and essential oil cleaning recipes" as with those store bought chemical formulas. Keep out of reach of children and away from pets!

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