WOW! It’s been a long couple of years of hanging out at home. You’ve binge-watched The Home Edit and watched reel after reel of organizing and cleaning videos. If you are like us, we are ready to deep clean our spaces and head outside to enjoy everything Spring has to offer!

Even though the one purpose of the refrigerator is to keep your food safe – by chilling it enough to slow bacterial growth and rot – it actually poses some risks to your health! When you think about it, it makes sense: it’s one of the few places you go in and out of multiple times per day. When you do, you’re typically moving around food, in the middle of cooking (hello, yucky hands!), or putting away new packages (which have picked up who-knows-what along their way).
While there are a few spots you would probably guess are gross and germy (like the door handles), the worst spot is pretty surprising.
The dirtiest spot is actually your vegetable drawer! This may come as a surprise, because veggies seem sort of innocent. Yes, you’re supposed to wash them, but they aren’t as obvious a risk as chicken or other raw meats. But in a series of tests, experts have found germs like Salmonella and Listeria, as well as yeast and old, in the veggie drawer. The problem isn’t veggies themselves but that they become cross-contaminated with other items, including meat juices, in your shopping cart, grocery bag, and other food handling. Most of us are very safe when it comes to handling meat, but we just don’t think about it the same way.

How to Fix It

What’s the fix? Start using Nellie’s Fruit & Veggie Wash to clean your produce as soon as it’s home from the grocery store or farmer’s market. It leaves no taste behind, but cleans all pesticides, contaminants, and preservatives. Plus, it’s gluten free, vegan, and biodegradable so it’s safe for you and the planet. Next, take out the veggies and wash the drawer in the sink with your favourite One Soap and some hot water. Either let it air-dry on your counter or pat dry with paper towels before replacing it in the fridge. Easy peasy!

Preparing for big holiday dinners is by no means a one-day affair. If you're hosting, you've been getting your house and kitchen ready, and spent days making lists, shopping, and cooking. Once the feasting is over, the last thing you want to do is spend hours cleaning up—and you shouldn't have to! Here's our fail-proof, get-it-done method for getting your kitchen back in shape so you can relax.

First, Your New Motto:

Four Words: Clean as You Go

This should be a standard working-in-the-kitchen habit, but when you're making large portions of multiple dishes, the principle will save you from epic messes and keep your kitchen running smoothly even as you're still cooking.
Clean up small messes as you go. Put a paper towel under the teaspoon you're using to measure vanilla, and wipe spills from counters right away with the rag you have at arms-length. Also clean cooking utensils as you're done with them. We recommend filling one side of the sink with hot water and the One Soap and toss used tools in there until you’re done cooking.
If you've split your preparations into a few days' time, cleaning as you go is especially manageable. The goal is a clean kitchen at the end of each preparatory task.

Get a Helper, if You Need to

Solicit the help of a friend or family member who can wash dishes while you're cooking. This will save you time and energy, and you'll be giving someone who wants to help the opportunity to be useful and keep you company while you're working
When it comes time to clean after your meal, let everyone who wants to lend a helping hand. But don't be afraid to communicate how you want things done: If your china doesn't go in the dishwasher, let your helpers know how to handle it or give them another task.

The After-Thanksgiving Plan

Clear the table

First things first: Clear the table thoroughly. This is an easy way to have others pitch in. Try to have a close family member or someone familiar with your household involved so they can immediately put away things like salt and pepper shakers, etc. in the right places. Have helpers scrape any uneaten food from the plates into the compost and toss any paper napkins as well. Make sure the table is all the way cleared, to the point that it can be wiped. Now you've got one all-clean space and you can turn your attention to the kitchen itself.

Put away leftovers

Besides the food safety reasons for not leaving food out for too long, getting the leftovers put away first thing allows you to move on to the next step of sorting the types of dishes you will need to wash.

Soak pots and pans

Inevitably, there will be some cooking items that you weren't able to "clean as you went." Soak difficult-to-clean pots, pans, and any empty serving dishes that are aren't being used to store leftovers with hot water and the One Soap. Depending on your kitchen's layout, consider setting these soaking dishes on the stove top while you address everything else.

Hand wash and load the dishwasher

While heavily soiled dishes are soaking, tackle the rest of the pile. You're going to batch process so everything goes as quickly as possible. Again, this is a great job for helpers. Wash items that require handwashing, if there are any. Finally, you'll be left with dishes that, since they're already clear of food bits, simply need to be loaded into the dishwasher. Load them, and start the wash cycle with the Dishwasher Powder!

Wash the big stuff

Only one big washing task is left in your nearly-clean kitchen. While you might be tempted to stop here, remember that cleanliness begets cleanliness and it'll be easier to encourage yourself and others to maintain a clean kitchen if it's clean in the first place. However, definitely don't be afraid to delegate! Since all the other dishes and food are put away, you'll have plenty of room to scrub the roasting pan, etc. and when you're done with these, you are just about couch ready.

Give the kitchen a quick clean

Ride the momentum of whipping a kitchen into shape and give your counters, the outside of your fridge, and your sink a quick clean. Your floors could also probably use a cursory clean-up. Don't deep clean by any means, but getting your kitchen in tip-top working order will prevent a messy kitchen from overshadowing your post-meal glow. The All-Purpose Cleaner will take care of any mess, leaving you with a sparkling kitchen once again!

As Mom always said, you’ve got to eat your veggies! But did you know that most fruits and vegetables are covered in pesticides and contaminants from being transported from the farm? Yes, even the organic ones! That’s why we’ve launched Nellie’s Fruit & Veggie Wash, which helps make sure that the healthy food you’re eating is clean (just like your home).
Nellie’s Fruit & Veggie Wash helps remove surface pesticides, preservatives, and other contaminants from your produce. Most importantly, it’s odourless and tasteless, gluten free, vegan, biodegradable, and made with no animal by-products. Yum!

How to Use

Spray directly onto your fruits and vegetables, or dilute a tablespoon with water in a bowl. Rub gently for thirty seconds, and then rinse thoroughly with clean water. Nellie recommends washing your fruits and veggies right away so they’re ready to eat when you are. Enjoy!

Introducing your dishwasher’s best friend and the newest addition to the Nellie’s family, the dish refill pouch! It’s the same beloved formula we use in our Dishwasher Powder tins – easily penetrating grease, food particles, and more, leaving every plate spotless! It even takes care of stubborn baked-on foods, so you have nothing to worry about when your mother-in-law unexpectedly knocks on the door. In fact, she may even be so impressed with your sparkling dishes she stays for dessert! (Sorry about that)
Plus, our phosphate-free formula provides an eco-friendly cleaning experience, so the environment is left as clean as your plates and glasses. Shop the new Nellie’s Dishwasher Powder pouch here.
Why does Nellie’s use powder? Liquid detergents are made of largely of water. We don’t think selling and moving water around the planet is a very good idea. The fact is, more cleaning power can be packed into a smaller space using powder! You can learn more here.