How to Defrost A Freezer

It’s Tuesday, and here on the blog, that means another cleaning tip. Today I’m giving you the low-down on defrosting your freezer, and I’ll share how I almost electrocuted myself while doing so… okay, I probably didn’t almost electrocute myself, but it sure felt like it could have happened.

We have a deep freezer out in our garage because our side-by-side doesn’t have enough room for all our frozen food. I noticed a lot of ice building up on the sides, so I knew it was time to do a little defrosting.

Truth-be-told, I think you’re supposed to defrost your freezer, like, once a year, and this was the first time I’d done it since we bought it about 5 years ago. The reason you want to defrost your freezer is to melt any built-up ice, allowing your freezer to run more efficiently; and let’s be honest, the more ice that builds up, the less room for your delicious food.

Here’s What You’ll Need

Old Towels
All Purpose Cleaner (Here’s my DIY version)
Sponge

Not much needed really…

Directions

Start by unplugging your freezer. Then empty out all the food. (I wish I had thought of doing this defrosting project before I went grocery shopping, but I don’t often do what’s easiest.) The food you pull out needs to be kept cold, so you can transfer it to another freezer, or place large food items in the refrigerator. (There is no way an entire turkey is going to thaw in the amount of time needed to defrost your freezer).

Once your freezer has been emptied, place towels on the bottom to absorb all the water accumulation from the melting ice.

If it’s a nice, summery day outside, you can leave the lid/door to your freezer open, allowing the warm air to melt the ice. I thought I would try to speed up the process by using a hair dryer…

While effective at melting the ice, my hair dryer started sparking. At first I was determined to get the ice melted, so I kept right on going while sparks kept flying. Eventually, I figured this was a bad sign and stopped, but afterwards, I checked online (you know; where all information is absolute truth), and the hair dryer method is supposed to be an effective way to speed the process. (My hair dryer has been acting a bit weird for the past few months, so it may have more to do with my defective hair dryer, but I’m not going to recommend you try this.)

Another idea I read was placing a pan of hot water in the freezer and closing the lid/door to allow the steam to melt the ice. I did not try this, but it sounds reasonable.

It happened to be in the 70s the day I did this, so waiting for the ice to melt was fine. Once all the ice was off the walls, I took my DIY all-purpose spray, and washed the bottom and sides. I couldn’t believe how dirty it was in there!