Our refrigerator’s ice maker started acting up the other day. No biggie, the ice cubes were not formed right, just throw them in the sink and start over… Well, it must have failed for real Saturday night, because we woke up to the freezer door completely frozen in place. We had a ride to do so we left everything as it was until we got back.
We still couldn’t open it Sunday afternoon, so we unplugged the fridge in hopes that it would thaw out — nothing. Yesterday morning we woke up early and with our loins girded to deal with the ice problem (it was still frozen shut), only to discover we also had a wheat moth infestation in one of our kitchen cabinets — worms everywhere. Aargh!
So, we spent all day yesterday cleaning: we ran to the store and got cleaning supplies and new cabinet liners (and also flashlights and a new cooler because ours all seem to be missing), then we dealt with the fridge by freezing some food in the big basement freezer, saving what what we could in the cooler, and throwing out a whole lot of old food. We got the fridge mostly empty, and left it open to help thaw the freezer door.
At the same time, we took out all the containers in the cabinet — mostly jars of grains and dried beans, in supposedly moth-proof jars — emptied and cleaned them, and scrubbed/disinfected the cabinets before putting the few non-infested things back. That’s basically all we did yesterday.
The freezer door was still stuck this morning, but the repair guy came and was able to open it, and sure enough, the entire bottom was a solid block of ice. We cleaned out the freezer, and the tech determined that we need a new ice-maker valve, which is now on order; as soon as the ice has melted enough to be removed we can plug the fridge back in and use it (we can live without the ice maker for a while). I’ve been removing chunks of of ice and mopping the kitchen floor all day.
When we’re done we will have at least cleaned out one cabinet, and seriously cleaned the fridge and the kitchen floor. Good thing we’re getting this behind us — we are having a picnic this weekend, and it’s not like we have nothing else to do to get ready…
