So, some of my posts result from mistakes I’ve made and this is one of them. Yes, it’s humbling. Humility is a good thing so I can’t say it’s all bad. :-p I painted with an oil-based primer – which is not a bad thing in and of itself. But the oil-based primer stinks really badly.
Well, I made the mistake of putting the paint roller in the fridge so I could reuse it the next day. I do this all the time with my paint rollers and it’s usually no problem – I wrap them in several grocery bags and then I can reuse them. Well, this is fine for latex paint though I will probably never do it again b/c I’ve been sufficiently traumatized.
The next day, I open the fridge and almost passed out from the smell. I tried to eat a piece of pizza that had been in the fridge and immediately spit it out. It tasted like paint-za. Everything in the fridge was ruined. The lunchables that I bought the kids to snack on, the milk, the sandwich meat, even the stuff in the freezer was ruined (the ice especially)!
I thought (or hoped) it would air out on it’s own but it continued to stink for weeks even after I took the roller out. Everything I put in there got ruined so I knew I had to do something about it. Here’s what I did to fix it:
1.) I had to throw out all the food, drinks, ice, etc which luckily wasn’t that much b/c it wasn’t full stocked just yet.
2.) I wiped the entire fridge down with the ammonia, vinegar, baking soda mix.
3.) I aired it out by leaving the doors open until the fridge kicked on and then once I heard the fridge kick off again, I opened the doors again and kept doing this throughout the day to get fresh air circulated into the fridge.
4.) Then, I also bought some activated carbon and put it in there on a plate on both the fridge and freezer side.
5.) I also put in some sliced lemons on a plate because I heard that soaks up the smell.
Finally, the fridge smells back to normal. I really thought I’d permanently messed up the fridge. It took a couple of days to get it fully aired out, but it’s all good. Whew!
Just had this happen as well, it was even in the eggs, it penetrated the shells! Thanks for the tips
Thank you for sharing your story! I did the same thing, with rustoleum copper paint, and put it in the small fridge we use for cold water. OOF! Baking soda alone didn’t work, nor did leaving it open for a few days. I just tried baking soda and vinegar, and hoping it works!
Oh man, it’s the worst isn’t it? I think the activated carbon was one of the best things but I kept having to rotate it out and put new in so that it would keep soaking up the smell. Also, it was kind of high maintenance but opening and shutting the fridge forcing the air on kept the air circulating through so it kind of flushed it out quicker.