Cleaning a Freezer After a Power Failure?

Our daughter's small chest type freezer was off for about 3 weeks and she did not know it. She did not have much meat in it but had a lot of frozen tomatoes. It was full of food and it smelled rotten. We took it out on the deck, scooped out the liquid mess and put it in 5 gallon buckets and poured it out in the woods. The smell about got us.

After getting it cleaned out, we scrubbed it with Clorox water and that did not get rid of the odor. Then we tried white vinegar and still it smelled bad.

We also cleaned with lemon juice and soda. It still smelled bad so we let it sit outside in the hot sun with the top open for a couple of days. It still had the odor in it and I thought she would have to junk it but we took it back inside and plugged it up and let it run.

She put a bag of charcoal in it and gradually filled it with jugs of water so it would be full. After a few months, the odor was gone and the freezer was fine. No odor at all.

Please remember when the electricity is off inside of your home because of ice storm or snow it will be at or below freezing outside your home. I usually clean my freezor in winter by loading all the food in ice chests or boxes and set them in my car. With temperatures around the freezing mark I have plenty of time to clean it throughly. So the next time your power is out take the food outside of your home stored in protected containers and either place in a vehicle on the north side of your home or put in protective containers to keep the vermits out and save your hard work.

I have done this in the winter when the power is out and have never lost anything yet. As for the smell, I like to use natural products and would probable make a paste of vinegar and baking sode and clean throughtly and leave in the sun for a few days to air out.