National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day arrives every November 15, offering the perfect pre-holiday prompt to tackle that often-neglected appliance. Take this opportunity to purge expired items, wipe down shelves, and organize your food for optimal freshness and efficiency. Get ready to embrace a sparkling clean fridge and make space for upcoming festive feasts!
History of National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day
New technology means new problems. Ever since the first household refrigerator hit the market, consumers then became burdened with a new thing to deal with – cleaning it. Whether its the moldy oranges, the brown bananas, or that milk you forgot about, cleaning a refrigerator is something that American’s over the past century can relate to.
Cleaning out the refrigerator is a big task, and it’s only natural that people would push the chore aside. Having one day to do a big clean of the refrigerator is useful because it makes everyday cleaning easier.
There’s no clear information about how the Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day came about. The general consensus is that this day was started by the Whirlpool Corporation, and later became popular throughout the country.
It is believed that the company intended for the day to be celebrated on the third Wednesday of every month, but the day took a life of its own. Later Whirlpool celebrated a Clean Out Your Refrigerator Week, but the date stuck.
National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day timeline
Scottish professor William Cullen used a pump to create a partial vacuum in the world’s first refrigeration machine
And it only took about a hundred more years for the phrase “on the rocks” to be ascribed to Scotch by bar staff
Produced by General Electric, the design was based on one by a French Cistercian monk and physics teacher, Marcel Audiffren, and primarily designed to help GE sell electricity
Founded by the folks who brought you General Motors, the brand became so popular that many Americans called any refrigerator by the name of the company
The arrival of freezers large enough to make more than ice cubes revolutionized the frozen food industry
The idea begins, possibly originating from the Whirlpool Corporation.
November 15 is to be labeled as Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day, on e-cards and blogs.
This union is to set up 4 to 10 April as Clean Your Refrigerator Week, but it doesn’t catch on.
This is the first time that Clean Your Refrigerator Day is acknowledged by the food industry.
National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day FAQs
National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day Activities
Clean your refrigerator
Stick with the intent of the holiday and actually get to work getting rid of all that unnecessary stuff in your fridge!
Help a friend or family member
Cleaning out a refrigerator can be hard work, so go on and lend a helping hand.
Donate your extra food
This is a great opportunity to reach out to people in your community who might need a little extra support, and you won’t end up wasting any food.
5 Cool Facts About Refrigerators That You Probably Didn’t Know
Refrigerators use less energy when they’re used
It is believed that not filling and overfilling refrigerators make them use up more electricity.
The U.S. uses a lot of refrigerators
Over 8 million refrigerators are sold in the country every year.
Colorful refrigerators are fairly new
Until the 1950s, the majority of refrigerators were white.
They took a while to become popular
Only 8% of households had refrigerators in the 1930s when they were first introduced.
It’s a major power sucker
About 10% of the total power usage in a household is because of the refrigerator.
Why We Love National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day
More of us than ever are sharing living spaces
The number of adults sharing a household with a roommate has surged as rents have risen more quickly than incomes across America over recent years—25% of adults now share with a roommate. The fridge is a major source of roommate tension, and cleaning it out is great for your roommate relationships. It also is good for your health—by diffusing tension, it lowers stress.
Food safety is important
A clean refrigerator is the best way to make sure no food ends up contaminated by the other.
You didn’t run out of that after all
When your fridge is cluttered, it's easy to forget you have a long-lasting sauce tucked away in the back there behind the stuff nobody wants to touch. So before you buy that second bottle of sriracha, check your own fridge! You'll save money, time, and get what basically amounts to free condiments. What's not to love about free condiments?
National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day dates
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | November 15 | Sunday |
| 2027 | November 15 | Monday |
| 2028 | November 15 | Wednesday |
| 2029 | November 15 | Thursday |
| 2030 | November 15 | Friday |
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