It's possible that the refrigerator in the break room is the most inconvenient amenity at work. Coworkers may not always remember the golden principles of sharing in a common environment, which may lead to unpleasant odours and difficult situations. With a few simple rules in place, the office fridge can go back to being just another item in the office that makes life easier for everyone, whether you're the type to bring in leftovers and conveniently forget them, the type to bring in all the ingredients for a gourmet one-person lunch every day, or the type to just sneak a drop of milk for your coffee. Follow our office cleaning tips to end the office fridge battle.
Office Cleaning Tips 2022: End The Office Fridge Battle
Edomey Enterprises Ltd. - Jay Do
1. Organize The Fridge
An organized fridge is a happy fridge. Here are some easy ways to maintain order and avoid arguments as they relax.
- You should stock the fridge with masking tape and a pen so that employees may designate their food as their own or as "fair game" if they want to share it with others.
- If you want to prevent yoghurt poaching and misunderstanding, buy tiny plastic baskets and label them with everyone's name who uses the fridge.
- It's not a good idea to store cardboard takeout cartons in the fridge. Food can stay fresher for longer if you store it in airtight containers rather than cardboard takeaway boxes or plastic bags.
- Place all shared products like cooking oil, salt, and pepper in a clearly marked "community" cupboard. Place this in a communal plastic basket or on the fridge door.
More office cleaning tips could be found in Edomey's blog.
2. Fridge Cleaning Policy
When the refrigerator is shared, upkeep falls on all of its users.
- Everyone in an organization, from executives to interns, should be covered by a fair use policy.
- One individual should take leadership and make a weekly cleaning plan that is shared through the fridge and everyone's electronic calendar.
- Make it such that each week a new pair of workers is responsible for emptying and cleaning the refrigerator. This will ensure consistent and equitable upkeep. As an added bonus, having to clean up after others will make everyone more careful about how they utilize shared areas in the future.
3. Clean The Refrigerator Properly
When cleaning the refrigerator, keep in mind the following office cleaning tips:
- The sink needs some warm soapy water. If you need to clean up after handling food, don't use bleach or anything else that can harm it. When cleaning a kitchen, never use bleach, detergent, or anything else harsh that might potentially contaminate the food.
- Have anything from flowers to scientific projects to leftover pizza to be removed from the fridge.
- When you've finished using the refrigerator, take out all the shelves and drawers and soak them in the soapy water. Wash them in batches if the sink is too small.
- Use a clean, non-scratch kitchen sponge and warm, soapy water to wash off the interior of the refrigerator.
- Make a paste of baking soda and water, then use a sponge to clean the area in a circular motion to remove the residue.
- Make use of a paper towel to clean the interior of the fridge.
- Prepare a sink for washing and drying the cabinets and drawers.
- Using a hand vacuum, remove the dust and dirt that has settled into the crevices of the fridge's shelves and drawers before restocking it. (Rather of using a vacuum cleaner that is also used on the floor, it is simpler and more hygienic to have a separate handheld vacuum cleaner for kitchen surfaces.)
- If your refrigerator's coils are on the floor (either in front of or behind the appliance), you may clean them with a regular vacuum cleaner to improve efficiency and save money.
- Place the cabinets and drawers back where they belong.
- Back of the fridge is a great spot for an open container of baking soda or ground coffee to absorb lingering aromas from expired food.
- Before placing condiments like jam, dressing, mustard, and other sticky items back in the fridge, wipe them off.
- Only the correctly labelled, non-expired articles should be replaced; everything else should be thrown away or left out.
4. Know Whether To Keep It Or Toss It
Once a week, on Friday after lunch, you should clean out the workplace fridge. To ensure that no important documents or personal belongings are lost, it is a good idea to send a weekly lunchtime reminder to your staff reminding them to put their names on any items that should not be discarded and to retrieve their individual storage containers. Remove all of the food from the refrigerator once a week so that it may be thoroughly cleaned. Then, you may take a look at what's inside and decide what to retain and what to dump before putting it back in the fridge.
- Disposable containers, the leftovers must go!
- Collect all of your individual containers and place them in a central spot, like the kitchen counter, where everyone can see them. Lost property may be discarded with the garbage if no one claims it.
- Find out what has an expiry date and throw it away.
- Do not eat any mouldy or rotten food. You may put a "last chance!" sign on the produce that is becoming a little stale and leave it out on the counter. Throw away or mix up for a tasty afternoon smoothie anything isn't consumed that day.
- Once you've cleaned out the fridge, you should only put back perishable items like frozen meals, nut butters, and sauces.
5. Good Fridge Etiquette Is The Key
Although passive hostile, signs do have an effect. Put up a notice next to the fridge as a friendly reminder of some basic rules. You may use these guidelines as a starting point, but feel free to add your own.
- Bear in mind that it is a communal fridge and use it accordingly.
- Do not help yourself to someone else's food or drink.
- Put a label on whatever you don't want other people to use.
- Immediately respond to spills and clean them up.
- Use containers that won't let liquids escape to store food and drink.
- Never store perishables in an open container in the fridge.
- Don't take up too much space in the fridge, share it with the community.
- Please close the refrigerator and freezer doors completely and securely.
- We ask that you leave the thermostat alone.