Besides the bathroom, the kitchen is one of the messiest rooms in the house. It’s unavoidable — cooking is a messy business. But if the kitchen doesn’t stay clean, you attract unwanted pests into the house. However, keeping a kitchen clean can feel like constant work.
So, how do you keep a kitchen clean? These eight kitchen cleaning tips make this chore less cumbersome.
1. Keep a Cleaning Schedule
An organized cleaning schedule helps you remember to clean the kitchen. A cleaning schedule may feel overwhelming, but it can get you on track. A continuous cleaning schedule morphs into a cleaning routine, and a cleaning routine keeps your life organized.
There's two ways to do this:
- Pick a day of the week to hunker down and scrub the entire kitchen spotless.
- Break up the cleaning tasks by day, week, and month.
These options don’t include daily tasks, like washing and drying kitchen items, picking up spills and messes, and taking the trash out. This kitchen schedule is for a top-to-bottom thorough cleaning. Tasks could include washing the countertop/workstation, cleaning the stovetop, and wiping down small kitchen appliances.
Monthly tasks include cleaning out the oven, the sink, the fridge exterior, the cabinet door, the freezer, pantry, and the range hood.
2. Clean From Top to Bottom
Here, you’ll start with the highest areas of the kitchen and work your way down.
Grab a sink stopper like StopShroom, and fill the sink with hot water and dishwashing liquid. Remove hanging items from the ceiling, wall, or the side of cabinets before cleaning. Grab a soft scrub sponge and a reusable cloth like microfiber or repurposed rags from unwanted clothes, and start scrubbing and wiping. Avoid using paper towels because it increases paper waste that harms the environment. Check out more sustainable home tips here.
Start with the upper cabinets, the range hood, and the top of the refrigerator. Then, clean the faucet, oven, stovetop, backsplash, countertop, lower cabinets, drawers, dishwasher, tables, and chairs. End with the kitchen floor and wastebasket. After cleaning, drain the water. Clean the sink.
Take the sink stopper off when complete. Wash the sponge and cloth for reuse.
3. Clean up as You Cook
You spend the time waiting around the cooking area as the stove, oven, or microwave cooks the meals. A kitchen cleaning tip is to use that in-between time to clean the kitchen. There are moments during prep, after the food begins cooking, and after flipping food inside the skillet or stirring the pot where things can get done.
Place used bowls, silverware, dishes, measuring tools, a microwave turntable, utensils, cutting board, strainers, graters, a toaster crumb tray, cookware, and bakeware in the dishwasher or sink. Wipe up the stove, microwave, countertop, and prep area spills with a kitchen towel, microfiber cloth, or repurposed rag. Move the wastebasket and recycling container closer to the workstation to throw away food waste, lids, caps, boxes, wrappers, empty bottles, and empty jars.
By cleaning as you go, there is less to do when the cooking is complete. It makes cleaning up the kitchen less like a chore and helps ease the cleaning schedule.
4. Wake Up to an Empty Sink and Dishwasher
Nothing ruins the beginning of the day like walking in the kitchen to find dirty dishes from yesterday. A second mood killer is opening the dishwasher and realizing it contains dirty kitchenware from yesterday. The smell of food stuck on dirty kitchenware attracts bugs, rodents, and drain flies to your kitchen, and the overflow of the pests will force you to do something about them and the dirty items. Don't wait that long — wash dishes right away.
If you like to hand wash dishes, use a sink stopper like StopShroom Plug to keep the soapy water in the sink. Then, let cookware, bakeware, and silverware soak for a few minutes if the food is stuck on. Next, let it drip dry on a dish rack, and clean the items with a cloth, rag, or kitchen towel after 30 minutes.
If you prefer the dishwasher, load the dishwasher with dirty dishes and turn it on. As soon as the dishwasher is clean, unload it. Don't leave clean dishes in the dishwasher. Place the items in the cabinet, drawer, or pantry. It gets stressful when dirty kitchen items need a place to land, and the clean dishes need to go somewhere else.
5. Insert a Sink Strainer
You want to keep objects out of the drain, but you still want water to flow through. That’s a perfect job for the Kitchen SinkShroom. The 304 stainless steel sink strainer gathers food crumbs inside the basket while allowing water to pass through. It continues this process even after the drain catcher is full.
The drain strainer contains a handle in the center so you can remove it from the drain and throw away its contents. Turn on the faucet and rinse the drain strainer under the running water to clean it.
Without a sink strainer, gunk and objects will get stuck in the drain, and the build-up can cause a clog. While you’re focused on the clog, the food on the stove, in the oven, and inside the microwave overcooks, burns, and smokes. Fans must push the smoky smell through the range hood or through the window to remove it. Be sure to turn off the stove to prevent fires.
Avoid this stress by adding Kitchen SinkShroom into the drain. The sink strainer also stops garbage disposals from clogging and catches dirt and debris from the sponge and cloth during cleaning. A clean kitchen isn’t complete without a clean drain.
6. Baking Soda and Vinegar Are Your Friends
The countless uses of baking soda and vinegar are more than just cooking. Baking soda and vinegar are used for kitchen cleaning tips on many green cleaning blogs, and it makes sense. The vinegar is a disinfectant, baking soda is a scrubbing agent, and both deodorize.
Combined, baking soda and vinegar clean burnt pots, unclog drains, clean the garbage disposal, and remove coffee stains. Baking soda and vinegar blended with water can even polish silverware.
Vinegar alone cleans stains from glass drinkware and textiles. It also removes limescale from faucets and cleans the coffee maker. Sit a bowl of vinegar inside the dishwasher (and turn it on) to remove stuck-on glass stains. With boiling water, vinegar eliminates cooking and leftover smells lingering in the air.
By itself, baking soda removes scratches from dishes, deodorizes wastebaskets, and cleans sink basins. With water, baking soda becomes a paste that cleans stuck-on grime from the oven floor, removes rust, cuts through grease, and cleans the refrigerator.
7. Create DIY Kitchen Cleaners
In an empty spray bottle, add one cup of baking soda and two cups of vinegar. Fill the rest of the bottle with water for an all-purpose kitchen cleaning product. A vinegar-based, multi-purpose cleaner cleans floors and surfaces. Add 30 drops of essential oil (or freshly squeezed lemon juice) for a refreshing scent.
Some name-brand kitchen cleaners contain ingredients that fume and pollute indoor air. Store-bought green kitchen cleaners are too expensive. A homemade kitchen cleaner made from an empty spray bottle and items already around the house generates the same results as its counterparts. Furthermore, it is the primary way to keep the kitchen clean because it saves money, is safe to use, and protects the environment.
8. Befriend Lemon and Dish Soap
Dishwashing liquid isn’t just for cleaning dishes and cookware — when combined with hot water, it unclogs grease-filled kitchen drains. Pour a cup down the drain. After sitting for 30 minutes, it’ll help get rid of animal fat, oil, and cooking grease. Rinse with hot water.
The same method is a clog prevention technique. Use dish soap combined with water as a cleaning combo to wash countertops, stovetops, and sinks when baking soda, vinegar, and kitchen cleaners aren't available. Just add 3 drops of dish liquid to a wet dish towel, kitchen towel, cloth, or rag and start cleaning.
A fresh lemon rind freshens up garbage disposals. Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain. Cut a lemon in half and squeeze the juice of one half down the drain. Let it sit in the drain for 30 minutes before flushing it down with hot water.
Take the other lemon half and squeeze it in a bowl. Next, add 1 cup of water. Then, cut up the half into quarters and put it in the lemon water. Stir. Then, heat the bowl in the microwave for 4 minutes to evaporate the lemon water. Keep the door closed for an additional 5 minutes to loosen stuck-on gunk and deodorize smells. Clean the microwave afterward.
Additionally, lemon juice disinfects, cleans, and freshens wood cutting boards. Blend sliced or squeezed lemon, dishwashing soap, and water inside the blender to clean it.
Kitchen Cleaning Tips to Brighten the Room
Use these eight tips to keep the kitchen clean. Expect great-smelling, spotless, and safe results. Additionally, the solutions listed cost little to nothing out of pocket. These eco-friendly home remedies can help you remove tough stains, keep drains clear, and deodorize odorous scents.
Are you looking to eliminate plumbing problems and clogged drains for good? Look no further than our complete 'Shroom drain protection line! We have award-winning solutions for every drain in your home.
Check out these two great videos for more kitchen cleaning tips.
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