How to Motivate Yourself to Clean Your Freezer

The first thing we noticed when we walked into our apartment was that the freezer door was open.

Neither of us had actually eaten anything from the freezer this morning, but since it was unlikely our cats had learned to levitate while we were out, we assumed that it must not have been tightly latched when we left for work. Sometimes closing the fridge can make the freezer door pop open, if you hit it at just the right angle.

Now, I’ve had food poisoning (from chicken, who deserve to be plucked and eaten forevermore just for this audacity), and I am not willing to risk that again. We salvaged what we could, and threw the rest of our freezer food away. A fair amount of money, right when we’ve been trying to cut back and save up for the baby and our down payment fund. Ho hum.

I was too tired to really get upset over this, and ironically, we’d just been talking about needing to clean out the freezer while we were driving home. Having all your food defrosted and bacteria-filled and also covered with the juice from a leaky popsicle can really motivate you to clean up.

Jon, good sport that he is, took the trash down our three flights of stairs and out to the dumpster. I cleaned out the freezer, and used the opportunity to wash all our freezer compartments and clean out our ice bucket.

The silver lining? Our freezer is immaculately clean right now. Also, we will have room for all the food I’m planning to start stocking us up on this weekend, since it’s been more difficult to cook when I get home. I’m a little bummed that I can’t have a Skinny Cow for dessert now, because they got desecrated by bacon drippings, but now I have an excuse to eat cereal, which I’ve been craving lately anyway.

So, the bottom line is, if you want to motivate yourself to clean your freezer, leave the freezer door open and go to work for the day. It’s a little inefficient, and I’m not even going to think about the energy wasted, but unless you want to die of salmonella, you’ll sure clean up fast.

What depressing events have you turned into positive situations lately? Also, do you actually believe in salmonella, or do you think it’s one of those things people hype up when it’s not really an every day risk, like shark attacks or terrorism?