How to Clean the Bottom of a Freezer Door

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Alright, see this pic below?  That is what has been on the bottom of my freezer for way too long!

I couldn’t clean it right away, because I wasn’t able to reach it with the freezer door and compartment in the way.  Trust me, I tried.

It happened when I did some Once a Month Cooking and one of my freezer bags leaked out, onto the bottom of the freezer.

I finally decided enough was enough and just went to town figuring out how to access it to clean.

Turns out while it is a pain, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought.

Then, just after cleaning the basket insert I thought to myself “well, that was pretty quick and easy” and then I lifted the basket up by it’s side to put it back in the freezer.  And this sauce – the same sauce that was on the bottom of my freezer oozed out.

At that point I knew I had jinxed myself.  Never think or say how easy something is until it is totally COMPLETE.

Ugh!  Well, even with that it wasn’t too bad.  Total time without the sauce incident is about 20ish minutes – start to finish.

So here is how to clean the bottom of your freezer door.

Open your freezer door all the way, make sure to push the upper basket into the freezer.  Then empty the freezer basket.  You have to tilt the freezer basket in order to get it out.  So even if you have a pristine clean freezer, you will still need to empty the freezer basket.

Remove these white things that hold the basket down.  They are located just above the back of the basket.  All I did to remove them was move them up and down and pull out while doing that.  One side was really easy and the other one, not so much.  But they both came out without much trouble.

Next, you need to remove the bottom basket/compartment.  In order to do this, you need to open your fridge doors all the way, otherwise there isn’t enough room to get the basket out.  I found in order to get my basket out, I needed to have the part that is farthest from me lift up to get it out.

Now you are going to unscrew the door.  I have a Kenmore, so if you have a different brand or model, your freezer might require something different.

I knew by unscrewing this at some point the door would fall and I didn’t want it to happen and pull the screws out that were still in the door.  So I took the screws out on the bottom of each side.  Then I took one screw out on the right side and then one screw out on the left.

At this point I made sure my feet were under the door and somewhat supporting it.  I unscrewed the top screw one side, while holding the door up with my foot, then unscrewed the last screw on the other side.  The door was totally free at this point, so I put it in a safe spot.

Then I used some hot soapy water and a microfiber towel to clean out the bottom.  This was super easy to clean up – even though the spill had been there for awhile.

I then put the freezer door back on.  To do this, I first screwed the top screw on one side (again balancing the door on my feet), then one screw in the other side.

I couldn’t get the screw to line up quite right the first time putting them in, so what worked the best was to get one in on each side, then put the next one in on each side and those would line up correctly.  After those two were in, I undid the first ones that weren’t alined and redid those.

Then I did the bottom screw.  After the door was all attached again, I cleaned out the drawer insert.

I had this all cleaned up and grabbed one side to carry it back out and sauce came oozing out of the divider – gross!

I tried to take the divider out, but I needed a screwdriver that didn’t go out very far or immediately went to an angle and I didn’t have one.

So I did the next best thing and I put it in the bath.  I used the shower sprayer and the bath faucet to put water into that area and would dump it out.  I did this until the water was clear coming out of the divider, then a few more times.

I then put this shelf/basket back into the freezer door and it was good to go!

TIPS FOR NEXT TIME

I would try cleaning the bottom out without taking the freezer door off.  I didn’t think it would be possible for me to get in there and do it.  The shelf wiped clean so easily I don’t think it would be that hard to do.

I consider myself “average” – not small and not large and it was possible for me to get in between the door and the freezer when the basket was removed.

I would also use a bucket with the hot soapy water in it.  I just walked back and forth from my sink, but if I was inbetween the door and freezer it would be harder to get in and out of that area, so having a bucket next to me would work well.