Help! My Fridge Has No Doors!

OK, so they are actually back on again *now*!

We have an old Amana refrigerator that is about 15 years old now. It is Almond color, and I must say it has sufficed in keeping our "keep refrigerated" items for all of these years. In fact, were that poor old refrigerator able to speak, I do believe it would tell such tales of woe....

In this world, there are "compliant" and "strong-willed" children. Compliant children are those who are told what to do and eagerly attend to matters at hand so as to greatly please their parents. Strong-willed are the children I was dealt...

When Michelle and Ben were born, they BOTH learned at an early age that when Mama said "NO!", she more than likely hid whatever was forbidden atop the fridge...I do think you can see where this is going? Yes, rather than getting a chair and climbing to see if the forbidden contreband was nestled on top of the fridge, they merely opened the doors and climbed!!!

Over the past several years, the pile of broken plastic parts built up and grew...a broken shelf for the door, another shelf, the piece that held up the shelf for the crisper drawers, the *handle*....ugh! I do believe Mark tried many different compounds, trying (in vain) to mend the offending cracks and breaks.

I have NO idea *how* it happened, but over the past few months, the gasket for the refrigerator door began to "sag". I kept trying to shove it back up onto the door, but to no avail. I really didn't want to trouble Mark with this, but it became so obvious....the big rubber gasket hanging down on the bottom, like a jumprope!

Mark and I have been trying to come up with a plan to remodel the kitchen (yay!!!) but today, he told me that we REALLY need to fix the fridge! So, Michelle climbed up on a chair to release the freezer door. (yup...she is too big to climb up the shelves anymore!!!)She began ratcheting the bolts and within minutes, the freezer door was off! Then came the refrigerator door. Mark worked on the table, unscrewing the screws that held the gasket on.

I THOUGHT I was a fairly CLEAN person until I saw the CRUD growing inside the gasket! BLECH!!! I was delegated to the sink to scrub the gasket clean. I did the frezer one first. After finishing the gasket, I cleaned the inner door panel, which Mark also removed. I cannot believe the price of refrigerators....they really are NOT all that complicated! Lots of foam insulation with a metal shroud!

After getting the freezer door done, I had to do the refrigerator door. That one was a disaster! I couldn't get over how dirty the bottom of the door was! After all those years of splashing stuff on it, it was a total mess. Goo,glue,icky poo...I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. And, after a while, it began to look CLEAN!

We worked like banshees for about two hours. My poor fingers got so tired from scrubbing gaskets with a toothbrush to eliminate all the "ickies" trapped inside. I teased Mark that now since the fridge is so CLEAN, we don't *need* a new one!HAHAHA!