Wondering about the best ways to keep your kitchen spick and span? Here’s a guide on how to clean it!
While it’s best to keep every room in your home neat, clean, and organized, your kitchen is one area you should pay careful attention to. Keeping your kitchen clean is important because it is an easy place for germs that can get you sick to grow. From mold to bacteria, kitchens can become filled with pathogens if they aren’t cleaned properly. Don’t get sick! Set some time aside to clean. Here’s how you can stay healthy and organized in the kitchen.
Get Rid of Things You Don’t Need
Many of us have plates, utensils, cooking tools, or even appliances that we don’t use very much. It’s a good idea to declutter a bit when you take the time to clean your kitchen. Doing so will make future cleaning easier.
Take the items you don’t need to a thrift store or recycle shop, or give them away to family and friends that might want them. Alternatively, you may be able to sell or give them away on Facebook, Jimoty, Craigslist, or other sites that help people find a new home for unwanted items.
Clean the Refrigerator
To avoid smells and food-borne illnesses, make sure to clean your refrigerator regularly. Start by going through the items in your refrigerator and throwing out anything that has spoiled or expired. Then, wipe down all of the shelves and walls in the refrigerator using disinfecting wipes or a multipurpose cleaner. Once you’re done sorting out your food and cleaning the refrigerator, re-organize it in a manner that lets you quickly find anything you’re looking for while cooking.
Scrub Out the Sink
The sink is one of the dirtiest places in your kitchen. Make sure to give it a lot of attention when you clean! If your sink has a net to catch large food particles, make sure to replace it. Then, sanitize your sink using some bleach, water, and dish soap, or a disinfectant spray. Don’t forget about the faucet – make sure to go over it and its handles. If they’re metal, using a toothbrush to scrub them can make them sparkle. After disinfecting and scrubbing down your sink, wash all of the cleaners away with some hot water.
Clean the Microwave or Toaster Oven
The microwave or toaster oven is also an often overlooked part of the kitchen to clean. Many of us don’t clean out our microwaves until some food we’re heating up explodes all over them. Don’t wait for your microwave or toaster oven to become disgusting before you clean it! Wipe down the insides and outsides on kitchen cleaning day. You may also want to scrub any grates in your toaster oven in the sink. Depending on what you like to cook, there’s a chance some food may have gotten on them. You should also take this time to clean any other kitchen appliances, like a coffee maker, that you may have.
Freshen Up Your Stove
If you have a flat-top stove, cleaning it is pretty easy. You just have to wipe it down the way you would a countertop. However, stoves with heating coils and gas burners are a little harder to clean. You’ll have to remove them from the stove and scrub when with soap and water to get them clean. If they’re really dirty and you have a hard time getting them clean with just soap and water, use baking soda and vinegar. After you’re done, dry them off and put them back on the stove. Wipe down the stove’s other surfaces and it’s looking good as new again!
Don’t Forget About High Up Storage Spaces
High cabinets and shelves in your kitchen can easily be neglected, especially if you’re too short to reach them easily. When forgotten about for a while, these cabinets and shelves can get pretty dusty. Take some time to wipe down the cabinet doors or dust off the shelves.
Finish Off By Cleaning the Floor
It’s a good idea to save cleaning the floor for the last task on your kitchen cleaning to-do list. As you clean everything higher up, dust and debris might come down and settle onto the floor. Besides, it’s not that uncommon for small pieces of food to end up on your kitchen floor. Use a mop or floor sweeper to get those floors to be sparkling clean!