The freezer is one of my least favorite places to clean, right next to my oven. The freezer is one of the areas that gets cleaned the least amount in my house. The fact that everything in your freezer is frozen doesn’t exactly make it the easiest place to clean. Back when my mom’s cleaning business used to do a lot of move out cleanings, it was always the area I dreaded the most. Over the years, I learned a few tips along the way that have made cleaning my own freezer a much simpler process. These tips came in handy this weekend, after an entire bottle of wine exploded in our freezer (yes, an entire bottle – it was a valuable lesson for my husband).

Below are the steps I take to clean my freezer:

1. Take Everything Out of Your Freezer First

When you’re not looking forward to cleaning your freezer, it’s very tempting to just wipe around the food that’s already in your freezer and not take everything out. I’ve been guilty of doing that on more than one occassion. The problem with this method is you’re not truly getting everything clean. Trust me, spilled food or liquid manages to get everywhere, even the areas you can’t see easily. I hadn’t even realized how much wine exploded this weekend until I took everything out. By taking everything out, you get a clear picture of what shape your freezer is in. Plus, it also makes it a lot easier to clean your freezer, even if it does take a little more time. Trust me, it’s worth it in the end.

Once you’ve taken everything out, start by cleaning the top of the freezer and working your way down. When you work in sections, you won’t feel as overwhelmed. As you’re wiping down the sides, it’s very likely that food will fall to the bottom. If you start at the top, you can get everything that falls to the bottom of the freezer at the end when you’re done.

For the types of products I use to clean my freezer, I’ll generally switch between a sponge soaked in hot water and Dawn Dish Soap or a multi purpose cleaner. The benefit of using a cleaning product with your hot water is it helps sanitize your freezer, along with making it easier to clean out any food or frozen liquid.

2. Use Hot Water

This photo above would be sticky wine stuck at the bottom of my freezer. Sadly, this was only a small amount of wine that got all over. This step may seem simple, but it will make a night and day difference when cleaning your freezer. The most difficult part about cleaning your freezer is everything is frozen. When I set out to clean my freezer this weekend, I set the faucet water as hot as it would go and used a sponge to wipe down the surfaces of the section I’m working on, before the water can cool down much. It makes everything come off easier. Since hot water does tend to work the best, I reheat my sponge frequently using hot water.

If there is something really sticky on the freezer (like wine), try heating up a cup of water to get it really hot and pouring it on the sticky liquid or food in the freezer. However, you don’t want to let the water sit in the freezer for too long or it’ll quickly freeze. After you pour the hot water, quickly use a scrubby (like Scrub Daddy) to start loosening up the sticky material. Once it feels like most of the stickiness has loosened, you can use a cloth or sponge to wipe it up.

I’ve also tried putting hot water and dish soap in a spray bottle and spraying it on the freezer surfaces as I’m cleaning. This does help, but I found I still needed to heat up my sponge with hot water frequently. The water in the spray bottle cooled down faster than I’d like, so I didn’t find that step beneficial for myself.

3. Use a Toothbrush for Tight Spaces

Many freezers will have small spaces that are hard to get to when you’re using a sponge or cloth. For example: My freezer has slots for where the shelves go in. You can bet when a bottle of wine explodes, wine ends up in all of these tiny spots. To get the small areas that aren’t easily reachable with my sponge, I use a toothbrush. I love this small double sided cleaning toothbrush for getting the hard to reach spots in multiple areas of my home. It worked like a charm for getting the hidden wine.

You can use an extra toothbrush you have around the house (that you don’t use of course) or you can purchase cleaning specific toothbrushes on Amazon. If you’re using a regular toothbrush, you’ll want to make sure it’s thin enough to get into the small spaces that you need it to for cleaning. The benefit of buying cleaning toothbrushes on Amazon is you can find options that come with a variety of sizes. Different sizes can be used to clean different areas around your home.

4. Soak Freezer Shelves in Dawn Dish Soap

In most freezers, the shelves can get gross with sticky liquid or food that freezes and gets stuck. This normal. I’d say 95% of the freezers we cleaned during move out cleanings had sticky material stuck to the shelves. To make it easier to clean the shelves, I soak them in Dawn Dish Soap and let them sit while I’m cleaning out the rest of the freezer. By the time I’m ready to scrub them at the end, any food comes off a lot easier. Similar to off the rest of the freezer, remember to use hot water when you’re cleaning the shelves to help everything come off without extra force.

I use Dawn in so many different ways around my home. There will likely be a future blog post completely dedicated to the many ways I love using Dawn for cleaning. There are so many more ways to use it than simply to wash your dishes. If I had to pick one cleaning product I couldn’t live without, it’d be Dawn.

5. Use Storage Containers to Keep It Organized

I’m a huge fan of all things organization, which I plan on diving a lot more into during future blog posts. However, storage is important to mention when you’re cleaning your freezer or fridge. Using storage containers help you keep your freezer looking clean, long after you’ve done the actual cleaning. Items are easier to see and it looks more put together. When you’re running late in the morning and need to pull meat out of the freezer, the last thing you want to do is spend extra time looking through miles of food to find what you’re looking for (I’ve been there).

This past weekend, I found some extra storage containers I wasn’t using and started using them in the freezer instead. As you can see in the picture above, I used them to separate different types of frozen meat in the freezer. You can also use them to separate frozen veggies or anything you have a lot of in your freezer. You can find great storage containers for affordable prices on Amazon (this is where I’ve gotten all of my storage containers).

After using the steps above, your freezer will be sparkling clean in no time! These steps work well for when you’re routinely cleaning your freezer and even when there’s a sticky mess you have to clean unexpectedly. Share in the comments how often you like to clean your freezer and what step stood out to you the most!