We all have chores we secretly enjoy. Mowing the grass is a couple of hours where we don’t have to answer our cell phones or talk to anybody else.

I don’t mind washing my car. For an hours’ worth of work, I can get in a clean car, both inside and out, until it rains again. Thanks to the drought, that clean feeling lasted weeks.

There is one chore, however, I despise. I’ll put this one off until I can’t avoid the task any longer. The job? Cleaning out the refrigerator.

My husband went on a trip for a couple of days, so I took the opportunity to clean out the fridge.

A big job requires preparation. First, put on loud music. I found a YouTube channel with hits from the 1970s and Elton John got me in the right frame of mind.

Elton and Susie were hopping and bopping to the Crocodile Rock. I was hopping and bopping to wilted lettuce and shriveled grapes.

The next step was get an empty trash bag. Check.

Next, fill the sink with hot, soapy water.

And, last, take everything out of the refrigerator and stack the bottles and cartons on the kitchen counter.

Check.

During the pandemic, I watched more cleaning videos than I care to count. I know how to shampoo a rug and that dryer sheets can remove hard-water spots from shower doors.

Thanks to the organization videos I watched, our refrigerator is filled with small baskets.

One holds packets of cheese, one has packets of pepperoni as the grandkids love making their own pizzas and one has all the little things that don’t fit in the other baskets.

Then I took inventory. The milk had expired three days ago – that went down the drain as did the yogurt containers from 2020.

There was a bag with leftover chicken. I think I baked that, what, two weeks ago? I learned a long time ago to never open the Zip-Loc bag when the food’s been hiding in the back of the fridge for a while.

Oh, here’s that small bag of ground meat.  I might’ve been wearing a sweater when I first browned that ground meat, so in the trash it went.

Once everything was out and sorted, it was time to clean the shelves. That’s where the hot, soapy water comes into play.

I remembered seeing organizers tell viewers to take the shelves out, but that was too much work, and Elton had already sung “Honky Cat,” “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man.”

I used a dishcloth and wiped the shelves clean.

Hey, I wasn’t getting graded on the cleanliness of the fridge, so spot cleaning was good enough for me.

An hour later, I was finished. The trash bag was full, all the bottles and cartons were back in the fridge and the soapy water was cold.

Goodbye, unpleasant chore. We’ll meet again right before Thanksgiving when I’ll need room for a frozen turkey to defrost.

As I patted myself on the back for a job well done, Elton was singing “I’m Still Standing.” And guess what, Elton? So was I.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.