Clean My Refrigerator–Why?

Oh my, my Daddy would be proud of me–it’s his birthday, you know. He celebrated his last in 1970. He always told me, “Sis, you can do anything you set your mind to.” That’s why he might be surprised that I think it’s been a year ago when I deep cleaned my refrigerator!  Yes, I just finished. If I were paying myself, I’d want at least $50.00–maybe $75.00. Oh you ‘clean freaks’ can’t believe it–you wipe down every shelf and the sides and inside the door  every time your house gets cleaned. Not me, I want to see where I’ve gone.

Know why I think it must have been a year? I prepared all the squares of red jello salad for a funeral dinner that happened early last December. Yes, I cooled the liquid gelatin mixture with ice cubes until nearly congealed, but it still sloshed when I put the trays into the refrigerator for overnight. It was either that or some of the cranberry salad I put together for Thanksgiving dinner last year. Or maybe it was some of both. Then there was the brown gunky stuff I soaked for awhile, then scraped with a knife. It’s really good this relatively new refrigerator–well, it is about five years old–has glass shelves. They do scrape clean. I’ve decided that was either remnants from the ham prepared to go with last Thanksgiving’s turkey or baked beans spilled over when the shelf was shoved too full.

I’m so glad I got this project finished even if it is 6:30 pm on Saturday night. My guests for the ‘Give Thanks’ holiday will arrive midweek. And I do remember when I was so embarrassed when one of them last year used salad dressing that didn’t ‘taste right.’ The expiration date was more than a year prior. But, you know how it is when one lives by themselves, family sized bottles of condiments last a long time. This year, I tossed Mayo with olive oil–expiration date last March. About one lb. of vanilla Greek yogurt expired 7/11/17. Yes, it went, too. And I didn’t even try to find a date on the third of a jar of probably perfectly good spaghetti sauce–I haven’t had spaghetti since summer–so that had to go also.

Somehow, as I peer at the sparking shelves, I want to laugh hysterically.  Aren’t you glad I can give thanks this ‘awful’ task that I’ve put off for weeks has been completed in an hour? And I’ll just act like when my friends and family arrive that it’s that way all the time. Oh, and why did I think of my Dad on his birthday–on the farm my room was upstairs. The only time it got really cleaned was on the few times he climbed those stairs. His motto could have been, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength. . .” (Ecclesiastes 9:10a) Most might say I follow that motto, too–but then there is my refrigerator.