Defrosting? InvoluntarySpring Cleaning

Just a few of the contents of the fridge.  Note the red step stool
is still required for me to reach the fridge bottom.

Something was rotten on Journey; more than our engine failure which is still keeping us tethered just off Water Island (click here for more about that), a wicked little dinghy hop across Gregerie Channel from St. Thomas. 

It’s not a good thing when opening your “fridge” smells – or rather, make that stinks – like a particularly fragrant burp.  Ours did.  Ugh!  To add insult to injury, it was rainy off and on which meant lots of closed hatches and little circulation. Thus, our fridge malordorously enveloped us like an unpleasant guest with B.O.

Olfactory detective work was required, rarely a pleasure when called upon by necessity – it is far more often a curse than a blessing to be endowed with a particularly sensitive sniffer. 

I took everthing out of our fridge and could tell none of those items were the culprit.  But the fridge stil reeked. Our fridge is a few inches shy of a yard, about 10” deeper than the length between my shoulder and my fingertips.

Looking down, I saw the plastic baskets we placed in the bottom of the fridge to render its contents “reachable” were mired in disgustingly gray, murky water.  I’d discovered the source of our problem.  Reluctantly, I called Wayne’s attention to it.

Recently, Wayne discovered and inserted a plug that minimizes cool air escaping our fridge, to help us conserve our energy – fridges are electricy hogs.  Our poorly insulated fridge is particularly greedy and by far the biggest suck on our battery.  Wayne realized then, when he defrosted our freezer, he left the plug in.  That meant in addition to the water, whatever else got defrosted with the ice, “scented” the water which had no place to go besides the bottom of our fridge.  Pee-you!

Trooper that he is, Wayne not only drained the fridge by puling the plug, he cleaned up the “water” that stagnated.   I love my husband for his consistent willingless to tackle these nasty jobs with grace.

My job was to thoroughly disinfect the empty, drained fridge and all of the contents going back into it.

Overlapping with the pantry moth erradification efforts (click here to read about that), it was a long couple of days of cleaning.

While I do clean up as I go along, I will never be accused of being a Martha Stewart when it comes to cleaning. I just don’t like it.  But when there’s a good reason for a deep clean, I step up to the plate and do it with diligence.

For those of you new to defrosting your galley freezer, if you don’t like spring cleaning, don’t forget to pull that plug when you’re defrosting!

With clean pantries and a clean fridge, I’m hope the nastiest part of my galley cleaning is done for a while.