Where the Foot Doth Not Tread

OK, I know I posted the poll ages and ages ago, but I'm finally getting around to responding to it. I'm proud of all you people who would actually think about cleaning out under your fridge every once in a long while. Good for you! (I'm also reassured that no one is fanatical enough to be actually doing it all the time. Makes me feel a tad bit better.)

For most of my life I fit into the category of being utterly unaware that under the fridge might even get dirty. Fridges were no different than cupboards to me, and who the heck pulls out their cabinets to clean under them? I guess I just assumed that nothing gets under the fridge so there would be no need.

My first clue that this might not be the case should have been back in my early married days when we lived in the teensy, mold-encrusted apartment in Escondido. This place didn't come with a fridge so Terence and I made one of our first big purchases-- a bottom of the line (but shiny new) refrigerator. We lived in that place about a year and a half, and of course when we moved we took the fridge with us. There was quite a bit of grime when we took the fridge out, but quite honestly, I assumed that was because we lived in such a ramshackle place, not because under my fridge might naturally get nasty. The next place we moved the fridge only sat there for maybe nine months and it didn't have time to build anything up, and after that we toted the fridge off to Sanders. The kitchen in our Sanders double-wide was carpeted, so when we removed the fridge there the dark stained carpet didn't look any different than the rest of the trashed kitchen carpet. (Seriously, who in their right mind puts carpet in the kitchen????)

My days of ignorance were numbered though. When we moved into our current home, it was a sparkling brand new house with pristine vinyl floors. And of course, it never occurred to me that even with three rather messy children that my fridge might be collecting stuff underneath.

Fast forward half a year. Due to some shoddy work on the part of one of the subcontractors, our vinyl flooring in the kitchen literally started to peel back at the seam in the middle of the floor. It was like our floor was rolling itself back up. Everything was still under warranty, so the house guys came out and determined that the entire kitchen floor needed to be redone. No problem, I thought, just as long as it gets fixed.

Well, I was so proud of myself the day the flooring guys showed up. I had cleaned up the floor and gotten the kitchen table and chairs out of the way. Didn't occur to me to move the fridge or the oven though. So when the two flooring guys went to move my fridge, they both gasped in astonishment-- and then one of them literally laughed out loud.

There was an inch thick layer of gunk on the floor where the fridge had sat. It was made up of food, hair, broken toys, pencils, dog food, you name it. Not only that, but apparently some maple syrup had coated the whole concoction and cemented it to the floor. It was a good thing they were tearing the floor out! I have to admit I was mortified. At first I tried to tell myself that these flooring dudes just didn't have young kids so they didn't know what could happen to a kitchen floor. But then it occurred to me that these guys rip out people's floors for a living, certainly including other children-filled homes, and my floor had still appalled them. Oh dear.

So now I have experienced firsthand what can happen to a brand new floor in only six months if I don't pull out my fridge and clean that spot on the floor. But have I done it again since? Nope. An area I can't see always manages to fall to the bottom of the list. So will I ever clean under there again though? Well . . . let's just put it this way, next time I need a new kitchen floor, I'm going to pull out my fridge and clean it before the flooring contractors show up! (Hey, it's better than nothing.)