If you’re looking for a neat tip to help you clean the exterior of your refrigerator, try this one! Finally got around to cleaning my refrigerator’s exterior this past weekend. It was covered in a lot of grease splatter, among other stuff that I won’t mention. So, I tried different things to help me clean the outside of the refrigerator. Some didn’t work as well as others. Who knew that I would end up going with using toothpaste. Just happened to have a tube of toothpaste sitting on my kitchen table. I found out that…yeah….toothpaste is actually great at cleaning the outside of the fridge. I tried lemon and baking soda, lemon juice, and a baking soda paste I made. No success. Toothpaste ended up working fantastic. I’m sure that any kind of toothpaste would work just as well as the one that I used.
Items needed:
- toothpaste ( I used Colgate Baking Soda & Peroxide Whitening)
- 2 damp towel
- vinegar
Instructions:
First, here is pic of the outside of my refrigerator. This doesn’t just wash off. I’m going to get better at washing the refrigerator off on a regular basis. If your refrigerator looks anywhere close to this one, try the steps below.
Using a damp towel, spread a little bit of toothpaste on the towel and rub into towel. You don’t have to use a lot, just enough to get it completely blended into towel. Rub on refrigerator. Let dry for a few minutes. It doesn’t have to stay on a long time. However, you might have to let it sit longer on spots that have tougher stains.
Here is a really IMPORTANT step. After allowing it to dry, spray with vinegar. Use a clean, damp towel to wash off vinegar and toothpaste. I used full strength vinegar. I didn’t water it down. (I keep vinegar in a spray bottle to use for getting rid of ants. See here.) You want to use vinegar because it helps to give it a shine. Then, allow it to dry completely on its own. If you don’t use the vinegar, you’re going to end up with a dull finish.
Note: Don’t use a paper towel to dry it off. It will look horrible. Very dull. Also, I found out that it’s best to use something else for the handles on doors. (Perhaps, try a glass cleaner. The material on the handle seems to be more of a plastic-type material on my refrigerator.)
I didn’t take this picture until the next day because I wanted to make sure that the refrigerator wouldn’t have a dull finish. However, it looked great on the next day! No dull finish. I was scared that it might be shiny on one day and dull on the next day, but it looks fabulous. Toothpaste is a keeper for me…
Lol! This is an unusual method of cleaning 🙂
have you ever tried soda?
It came as a bit of a shock to me that you can actually clean your fridge with toothpaste. Thanks for the advice!
Toothpaste is a good improve to cleaning your fridge
Amazing homemade cleaning solution. I thought toothpaste cannot be used anywhere else. Now I will not buy any cleaning solution from stores. Thank for sharing great cleaning recipe.
Love this. I’ve always thought baking soda is the ultimate hack for a natural clean, but toothpaste is better for this job.
Thank Leo! Yes….toothpaste is fabulous!
Great share !!!
I never use this. Well, I have One more tip here:
For cleaning the exterior of a stainless steel refrigerator, you can soak white vinegar in a microfiber cloth and rub it on the surface in the direction of the grain. To enhance the shine, you may put a few drops of olive oil on a clean piece of cloth and rub it on the exterior.
Wow! I never thought that toothpaste can actually use for cleaning refrigator’s exterior. Awesome! Great tips by the way.
Great tips! Will be sure to use a couple of these when I start my deep kitchen cleaning this weekend. It will be my first time to try not using any chemical cleaning agents. I hope vinegar and baking soda does a good job! I’m so happy I ditched toxic cleaners a while ago. I mostly use soapnuts, vinegar and baking soda for cleaning. Great roundup of DIY cleaners! I love making my own cleaners and other household products using basic ingredients I can find in my pantry and some of my favorite essential oils.
I had no idea that toothpaste and vinegar could make a fridge shine like that. I probably would have done what you did at first and tried baking soda and lemon juice, since baking soda is so good at cleaning other things. I’ll definitely have to try using toothpaste next time my fridge’s exterior gets really dirty. Thanks for the suggestion!
Pretty useful tips! I plan to clean my fridge soon and I feel overwhelmed when I think of how much work is to clean the fridge. I definitely need to make a list and have a good plan before I start. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve been in the housecleaning business for over thirty years and had never heard this idea. The final picture speaks for itself!
! never would have thought of that!