Eek. I keep my milk in the fridge itself but I am guilty of over-crowding. But I do have roommates. It's good to crowd your freezer though.

Whoever left that pitcher of oj with an open top is just begging for a funky taste, spills, etc.

Guess I'll go clean my fridge before I go to the store now!

Most people's fridges gross me out, but I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to keeping things clean. I clean my fridge once a week and date condiments so I know when it's time to toss them. It takes all kinds, I guess. Still, I don't think that manufacturers should be encouraging slovenly habits--it's not healthy. Another thing that's scary is how high the temps are in some people's refrigerators, especially if you eat meat.

I can't stand dirty fridges. I think it's one of the most unappetizing sights, especially if it's a house/apartment that you are going to eat in.

Growing up on my dad's family's side one of my aunts and grandparents refrigerators smelled, I never wanted to eat at their houses! On the other hand my mom's family is almost OCD about being minimalist. I like keeping a full enough fridge/freezer and pantry to do two relatively small shopping trips a week, and one major a month.

I don't think it's that hard to take inventory of your goods every few days, condiments longer, get rid of what's old, and to take some disinfectant wipes to your shelves and drawers now and again, with a real thorough cleaning twice a year. I keep a running inventory list on the outside of my chest freezer and that's defrosted and cleaned once a year as well.

I also make sure every Friday there are no leftovers that are too old, use any produce that is turning in weekend meals, and breads get turned into croutons and breadcrumbs. If you stay on top of it, it's not hard work, and not a problem.

Alton Brown has done "Good Eats" on filling freezers and fridges and provided a lot of useful information.

I agree about other peoples' dirty fridges. Spills, smears, and splatters gross me out. I don't have a regular schedule for cleaning my fridge but if something drips, I definitely clean it up right away!

Why does this make me want to gag... more than once I've been offered a century-old, sticky condiment jar from the door. Yuck.

Cleaning a refrigerator once a year -- that is beyond nasty!

You people seriously have time to clean your fridge THAT often? Good grief.

I'll be the first then to say I wipe up spills but I ain't gonna go through and check everything once a week and vacuume the little shreds of veggie leaves out or anything. I don't have time. I toss leftovers when I get around to it and condiments when I notice they have gone bad and let the rest take care of itself. I have better things to do.

I have a teensy tiny apartment fridge that is always chock full. I'm constantly rearranging in order to fit everything in. Cleaning however? Who has time to empty a full fridge, scrub it out, and put everything back in? If anything is growing mold or past its expiration date, I toss it. If not, who cares?

The [brand-new] fridge in our house (bought by the previous owner) has a design flaw: a gallon of milk doesn't fit anywhere BUT on the door. The shelves are adjustable, but there is no arrangement that makes a shelf tall enough to hold a gallon of milk. Huge bummer, but the fridge is brand-new, so it's not getting replaced anytime soon (it's also too big for the space, jutting out past the cabinets, but whatever).

The lesson: don't buy a fridge from a company that primarily makes cars and DVD players. Or, just get a fridge with fully-adjustable shelves. :)

The fact that this study was done by a company that is offering a new product to solve the problem they are asking about makes me highly suspicious. I have known people with disgusting refrigerators, and those with pristine refrigerators, but most fall somewhere in between. If they mean a full scale, take out everything and use a toothbrush on the groves once or twice a year sounds about right. If they mean a general get rid of anything spoiled, or about to spoil, wipe down spills and get rid of crumbs I would imagine most people do it somewhere between once a week and once a month. We don't know how the questions were phrased and it could make a big difference. To me this just seems like an attempt to sell more appliances.

...see, I break all the rules of where things should go in the fridge - I keep my milk in the door, and it invariably lasts several days beyond the best-before date (not sure quite how much longer, as it tends to be used before then). So I guess that's either a temperate-climate thing, or a doesn't-open-the-fridge-that-often thing.

I saw this article last week when it first appeared and I had to laugh as I'm not the only one who hates cleaning their fridge. Now, I'm not one to let moldy, old food pile up nor do I let spills remain without a quick wipe to clean it up but I am certainly not vigiliant in my efforts. I shop and therefore cook and eat mindfully so there is very little waste or leftovers gathering up. I've always used the FIFO accounting principle to the perishables in our fridge, "first in, first out" and this has served me well. Luckily, my husband has adopted this habit as well.

I agree with being grossed out by other people's fridges. My mother's is one of them. Her fridge is always packed full, and I have definitely pulled out expired items before. The sad thing is that they have ANOTHER fridge in the basement simply for soda and beer! I love to shop, especially for groceries, but even with that our fridge is not usually overly full. Milk, eggs (lots of these - I'm big into baking), butter, a few bottles of beer, shredded cheese and yogurts are about all we usually keep in there. And leftovers for lunches. We drink soda at room temp, if we have any at all. And if anything ever spills, I am right there cleaning it up. I don't scrub it all the time, maybe once every 5 weeks or so, but cleaning it out is a bi-weekly project, if not more often. I think the trick is to develop a no-waste attitude. That way leftovers and condiments get used up, and don't have a chance to go bad and grow all kinds of funky smells and molds in the fridge.

I'm surprised those who criticize others' homes get invited there in the first place.

"Milk and eggs are on a shelf on the door. This is the warmest part of the refrigerator and shouldn't house highly-perishable items."

I've always wondered, if eggs are not meant to be kept in the door, then why do refrigerators come with egg holders in the door?

I clean my refridgerator once a month. And by clean, I mean, taking everything out, taking out the drawers, washing them, and putting them back in. Also, if we get a spill, that junk gets cleaned out asap.

On top of this, I do general cleanings. I have a good idea of what's in my fridge, and when to throw it out. We also tend to buy mostly fresh foods that need to be eaten quickly, so that helps. I didn't know you weren't supposed to put the milk in the door though! It never occured to me, because it seems like there's this whole spot designed for them and everything. Thanks for letting us know!

Anyone else completely distracted by the supersh*ts in the middle of the picture? Right above the Activia, too.

That said, I'm terrible about cleaning my fridge as well. Luckily I rarely have spillable things in there, so a glance in will look pretty clean (a few leaves from greens seem to always show up, even if I don't have any in the house).

I'm sad that my egg holder is not a good idea - it's so handy!

Whirlpool, for instance, just spent months creating a shelf that is specially designed to hold an entire can of spilled soda pop.

Why does this make me sad?

Oh and ROTFL at supersh!ts!

I remember the article had a thing about people not keeping produce in the crisper drawers, and putting drinks in there instead. Y'know, because it totally stays fresh in the crisper drawer...

Every time I put anything in there, it got gross within three days. I leave it out in the fridge, it stays good for a week.

I find it a lot easier to clean the fridge incrementally: wipe up any spills right as they occur, and take a moment to wipe up any spills on the outside of containers before replacing them in the fridge so the mess doesn't spread.

I like to keep a damp kitchen towel in one of my crisper drawers, to keep everything a little more humid, and that needs replacing about once a week. Since we also do our major shopping on a weekly cycle, that's a good time to replace the towel and either wipe out or scrub the drawer. The other drawer is drier and used for roots and cabbage; the dirty roots mean it also needs regular cleaning but it's not a big job unless we let something go bad.

Getting those long low bins is useful because they can be cleaned separately as they get dirty. Our fridge was crowded with shelves: it was impossible to keep milk on more than one shelf. So I moved some shelves up very close to the shelves above them, slid bins in as "drawers" and keep our nuts, tubs of cottage cheese, miso, and yogurt, and eggs in there. Anything that won't fit in the door because it's flat or shouldn't go in the door because it needs more cold is great in there. And now I can keep milk and stock pots on the bottom shelf, too!

I was ecstatic a couple of years ago when buying a new fridge for the first time in nearly 20 years to find that all the shelves, even in the door, were completely & easily removable for cleaning in the sink. My old one had wire shelves that were so hard to take in and out and the door shelves were molded into the door--impossible to clean. Love these new designs!

Question - for some reason, there is ALWAYS condensation on the top shelf of our fridge, any ideas as to the cause? It makes everything up there soggy :(

my trick to keep it clean is to put everything in airtight containers. it's not only much easier to organize your fridge that way, being able to stack and all, but you also have way fewer 'items', and so removing three containers to give the shelf a wipe takes a second, rather than having to undo your game of tetris and then redo your tetris. In addition, the containers go into the dishwasher, so that job is not for you.

um, eggs don't need to be refrigerated in the first place, so the idea that it's bad to keep them in the door is quite ridiculous.

Eggs sold commercially in the US do need to be refrigerated because their protective coating has been washed off.

I would clean my fridge more often if it were easier to get the shelves and drawers out of there! Maybe they should design a refrigerator that is easier to clean rather than easier to leave messy.

Where else are you supposed to keep milk, surely the door is the only place tall enough? Certainly is in my fridge.

Guilty as charged...although for some reason I am obsessive about cleaning the seals around the fridge and freezer doors. I absolutely HATE how they get all grimy and I impulsively have to clean them if I see the dirtiness.

Haha, I keep eggs OUTSIDE, as the woman at the farmers market in Southern France advised me! Imagine that, OCDers. I leave the milk in the fridge door, I clean the fridge about once a year and I never regard sell-by, eat-by or throw-by dates. Yet I am never ill. I must be immune.

You can keep eggs outside of the fridge if they are fresh and you will use them up fairly quickly, but most North Americans probably don't buy their eggs super fresh, nor do they use them up right away.

I always intend to clean out my fridge once a month, but I don't. I clean up spills and throw out bad food. I really need to do a total clean out though, because it's a bit disorganized and I end up forgetting about food and end up throwing it out.