I’ve only been married for about two-and-a-half years, so I’m still getting the hang of this whole “domestic maven” thing. I mean, who knew that an apartment inhabited only by a wife, husband and toddler could get so dirty? Where does this dirt come from? I don’t remember inviting it in.
One thing which I’m still realizing is that there are easily forgettable surfaces which still get dirty! For instance, the top of the fridge. I can understand the floor, the stovetop, the oven, the counters…sure! I use those constantly. It makes sense to me that they would be dirty. But the top of the fridge? It just doesn’t make it into my cleaning rotation.
Because of this oversight, some grossness had occurred up there. I use that surface area for storing various dry goods: Cereal; coffee; snack crackers and chips; and, currently, a massive bottle of vegetable oil which I bought instead of my more common normal-sized bottle. Lately, when I’ve been getting my coffee, there has been a disturbing sound accompanying the act.
“thhhhhhhhhppppp.”
That is the sound of stickiness.
And that is when I realized that the top of the fridge needed a good scrubbing.
This post isn’t to remind you to clean the top of your fridge (although I do recommend doing it on a somewhat regular basis), but rather to share with you a great idea I got while on the phone with my mother a couple of nights ago (she said to me, “you should put that on your blog!”):
Line the top of the fridge with paper!!!!
We receive many, many fliers advertising all sorts of specials, deals, whatever. Usually they just go in the recycling. However, it occurred to me that I could use these to line things in my apartment, like the bottom of the trash can, and now, the top of the fridge!
Really, if anyone had told me ten years ago that I would be this excited about lining the top of my fridge (four exclamation marks?) so that cleaning it later would be a breeze, I would have rolled my eyes in disbelief. But, believe it! It’s a time saver! And who doesn’t love that? Plus, I’ll be saving on cleaning supplies, since all I will need to do to “clean” the top of my fridge in the future is switch out the papers. Score.
Here’s the play-by-play:
Rivki Silver ~ thoughts & music 
what an excellent tip! and lol indeed, where does all of that dirt come from?! :)
Thanks, and let me know if you find out about the dirt! ;) It’s gotta come from somewhere…
This makes me excited! I have NEVER thought to put all those paper advertisements to such great use!! Seriously, Rivki, you are much more of a “domestic maven” than I am. I’ve been married for 3 years and can’t figure out how to keep certain things clean. : )
I am seeing so many similarities between us–your walking (I detest using my car), living in an apartment, and (soon to be) having two very young children. It makes me happy when I read your posts because what you say resembles so much of what I am going through.
I’m so happy to share these tidbits which I find so useful! And believe me, there are areas of my apartment which need major work. Little by little, right? Thanks for the nice compliment; I feel the same way! Do you also not have a T.V.? Because we don’t. Hope you enjoyed your anniversary time with your husband. :)
Such a good idea! I think I’m gonna do it too. Thanks for the tip!
You are very welcome! I was soooo excited when I thought of it. :)
Ha! I know exactly what you’re going though. I do the brunt of the housework since I work from home so I’ve come across the dreaded top of the fridge issue many times. Great tip! I have a bloody cabinet right above my refrigerator so cleaning it is a serious pain. This will surely save me from pulling out what’s left of my hair. ;)
Glad the tip is helpful! We also have the cabinet issue. Whose ides was it to put cabinets up there anyways? I’m a fairly average height, but I still can’t reach up there. They are fairly useless, except for making cleaning the top of the fridge a greater challenge. We’ll foil them yet!