Your refrigerator is the most used appliance in your home. It is opened frequently throughout the day. Food and drinks are constantly being moved in and out of your fridge. Spills, crumbs and sticky drips all create a messy refrigerator situation.

Cleaning your refrigerator does not need to take a lot of time. Once you have deep cleaned your fridge and added organized storage, it can take as little as 5 to 15 mintues a week to keep your fridge nice and tidy.

1. Remove everything

The best way to deep clean a fridge is to remove everything from it. Toss any expired or questionable items as you are working your way through your fridge. Once you've removed everything, you can easily clean shelves and drawers without working around things. Centsable Mamma understands that a large fridge may take you a while to unload. But it is essential you can see all parts of your fridge before you begin cleaning.

2. Use a convenient cleaning solution

There is no need to rush out and buy a specialty cleaner for your refrigerator. You already have everything you need in your kitchen to thoroughly deep clean your fridge. Clean Mama recommends using the simple combination of water, baking soda and dish soap. For her cleaning method and more tips see this tutorial.

CLEAN MAMA

3. Keep those shelves lined

Refrigerator shelf liners create a barrier between your food and your shelves. They allow for the quick and easy cleanup of spills and drips. This inexpensive tutorial uses dollar store place mats to create customized and unique decorative shelf liners. You can choose any pattern to match your kitchen.

ONE GOOD THING BY JILLEE

4. Organize like items together

Make it easy to find things in your refrigerator by organizing like items together. Cheese in the cheese drawer, veggies in the crisper, dairy on its own shelf -- categorizing items together makes for quick and easy organiztion. Two Twenty One showcases how she organizes her space here.

TWO TWENTY ONE

5. Label things

Make sure everyone knows where to put things with these crafty labels. Perfect for clear organizing drawers, these labels allow you to quickly see where the cheese goes. Clean and Scentsible offers the free printable here.

CLEAN AND SCENTSIBLE

6. Create extra shelving

Turn file folder holders on their sides to create new shelves for smaller items. Bottles of water, yogurts and cheese can all fit in these creative shelves. Buzzfeed suggests also using them to store your tall vegetables, such as celery and carrots.

BUZZFEED

7. Use baskets to hold things

Baskets are a great way to contain items that roll around in your refrigerator drawers and on shelves. Apples, oranges and soda cans can all be organized using a simple plastic basket. IHeart Organizing uses a small basket to keep apples from rolling around the produce drawer.

IHEART ORGANIZING

8. Clean your icemaker

The most overlooked part of your refridgerator may just be the dirtiest part. The Shabby Creek Cottage was surprised at how much gunk accumulated in her ice maker. She suggests using a steam cleaner to thoroughly clean and disinfect your icemaker for a healthier kitchen.

THE SHABBY CREEK COTTAGE

Once your refridgerator is nicely organized, cleaning is an easy task. If you take a few minutes once a week to wipe out your fridge before putting in new groceries, your fridge will stay clean all the time. Share with your friends and family on Facebook!

RESOURCES IHEART ORGANIZING, CENTSABLE MOMMA, CLEAN MAMA, ONE GOOD THING BY JILLEE, TWO TWENTY ONE, CLEAN AND SCENTSIBLE, BUZZFEED, IHEART ORGANIZING, AND THE SHABBY CREEK COTTAGE