Even if you think your kitchen is already clean enough, you’d be surprised what a few tricks can make cooking space more. Here are a few kitchen cleaning tips that you should try right now.
1. Get Some Clear Organizers
Is your pantry overwhelming you? Snag a few clear organizers to section off your pantry—and fridge!
2. Group Like-items in Your Pantry
Easier to find things when you have all the same types of foods in one place. For example, put all carbohydrate snacks together, all nuts and seed snacks together, etc.
Put all of your leftovers on one shelf (so you can always see them) and other items in different sections as well, so you can easily scan and know what you have.
3. Set a Time to Clean Your Kitchen
You’ll never actually get around to implementing these tips if you keep putting off cleaning. Fitting an exact time to clean your kitchen into your schedule will help you to make sure this chore doesn’t fall by the wayside.
4. Clean as You Go
When you go through your cooking measures place each bowl, spoon whisk, or spatula right in the dishwasher as you cook. If you don’t have a dishwasher fill up your sink with warm soapy water and soak the utensils, bowls, and pans so that when it comes time to wash up that there is no scrubbing like a maniac and things move [quickly] so.
5. Have a Garbage Bowl
Instead of walking back and forth to the garbage all the scraps go into one bowl and are thrown out at the end which means less to clean off your counters, cutting board, and floor.
6. Use a Splatter Screen
When fat flies all over your range, counters, and backsplash it can really create a difficult mess to clean once the fat cools. Placing a splatter screen over your pans when you are rendering fat or shallow-frying really ensures clean-up to be a breeze.
7. Don’t Go to Bed with A Messy Kitchen
Clean up in between all cooking sessions and vow to yourself to never go to bed with a messy kitchen. Nothing will start the morning off on the wrong foot like coming out to last night’s kitchen explosion.
8. Wipe off Your Stove
There is nothing less motivating to cook a nourishing meal than to walk into your kitchen when it’s messy. You’ll be much more inclined to use your stove if it’s clean and inviting. Deep clean your stovetop! Remove all of the crumbs and food particles to motivate yourself to cook more home-cooked meals. Your health will thank you.
9. Go Through Your Food and Pantry Items
As you’re cleaning your kitchen and going through food and pantry items be sure to organize your food based on the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method. The FIFO method refers to placing the older foods near the front or top of the fridge and pantry (assuming they’re not expired!), and the newer items behind or below the older ones.
This system will allow you to use food more efficiently and limit food waste by making sure you’re using up the foods that will expire first.”
10. Clean the Microwave Using a Lemon
Yep, that’s right—all you need is a lemon, microwave-safe bowl, and some water and you could have a clean microwave in minutes. Once you give this a shot, you’ll never use chemical-filled cleaning supplies to clean your microwave again.
11. Clean Your Cutting Boards with Lemon
And while you’re at it, you might as well clean off your cutting boards with lemon as well. Cut a lemon in half, then sprinkle some salt onto your cutting board. Scrub the board with that half of lemon (cut side facing down). It’ll leave your cutting boards smelling and looking fresh and clean.
12. Wash Your Plate with Baking Soda
It’s inevitable that your plates will start to get scratches from everyday use, but now you can get rid of those with baking soda. A mixture of baking soda and water will make this paste that’s honestly like magic. You’ll be shocked how quickly they’ll look good as new.
13. Sprinkle Baking Soda at The Bottom of Your Trash Can
If you can’t deal with the smell that’s starting to come from your trash can, all you have to do is sprinkle some baking soda at the bottom of your can before putting it in a new bag, and that smell will absolutely vanish. It’s that easy.
14. Clean Glass Stains with Vinegar
Vinegar is another one of those natural remedies that will surprise you. Cleaning your glass products with vinegar will make them shine like no other.
15. Clean your Blender With Baking Soda
How many times have you looked at your blender and thought to yourself how much it needs a deep clean? Well if you never actually brought yourself to clean it, now’s the time. All you need is water, baking soda, and dish soap for your blender to be clean as a whistle.
16. Don’t Overload Your Dishwasher
It’s easy when you don’t want to run your dishwasher too much to wait for it to get filled to the absolute brim before actually doing the dishes. But when it’s packed like that, the dishes often don’t get cleaned nearly as well. So make sure that you’re giving everything room to breathe, so your dishes actually come out clean.
17. Magically Clean Your Burnt Pots
If you have a pot that always refuses to get all the way clean because of it’s burnt insides, we’ve got a few tricks that will be a big help. Start out by trying the boiling water trick, but if that doesn’t clean it off, the baking soda and vinegar trick is sure to be a game-changer.
18. Use Baking Soda and Vinegar to Clean Out A Drain
Bet you never really think about all the things that are going down your drain—now it’s time to start. To make sure that everything stays as clean as possible and nothing gets the drain stopped up, clean it with baking soda and vinegar.
19. Clean A Cast-iron Skillet with A Potato
Since you’ve got all those potatoes stocked up in your pantry, now’s the time to put one to good use by using it to clean a cast-iron skillet. The potato in half, and wipe the inside of your skillet with it, flat-side down. You’ll have to put in some elbow grease, but it will start to clean nicely.
20. Soak Your Stove-top Grates Overnight with Ammonia
Stove-top grates are another place in the kitchen where food residue can stick and stay for weeks without getting a proper cleaning. Soaking them overnight in ammonia will make them so much easier to clean, so you can give those grates a fresh, clean start.
21. Wash Your Kitchen Curtains
Another thing you probably don’t often think about cleaning is kitchen curtains. How many times have they been exposed to heavily greasy cooking and kitchen disasters? Throw those in the washing machine ASAP.
22. Wipe the Hood Above Your Stove
Just because you probably can’t reach the hood above your stove, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t clean it. In fact, it’s probably covered with grease, so this is an area to definitely try to hit on your next cleaning day.
23. Wipe Off Your Cabinets
If you’re looking to find more hidden grease around your kitchen, the next place to look would be the cabinets. These definitely don’t get the attention they deserve when it comes to cleaning, given their prominence in the kitchen.
24. Clean Your Dish Rack
Just because you’re putting clean dishes in the dish rack, doesn’t mean it doesn’t ever need to be cleaned. It’s actually just the opposite. You should always make sure your dish rack is clean, so you’re not putting clean dishes in a dirty dish rack.
25. Clean Out your Garbage Disposal with A Toothbrush
There’s probably a whole lot of junk sticking inside the rubber guard of your garbage disposal. Carefully lift it up wearing a pair of gloves, and wipe off the grime using an old toothbrush.