At times, I feel for my kitchen for everything that it takes throughout the day – junk drawers, the cluttered fridge front, spare kitchen gadgets, dirty dishes and those stains on the countertop after a cooking session. I remember someone telling me that a messy kitchen is a sign of a happy home and even though I believe in the saying, it doesn’t really feel amazing to step foot in a kitchen that is full of mess. And what scares me the most is the effort that goes into cleaning it. You can’t just pick a cloth or a mop and expect them to do the job for you. A hygienic kitchen calls for a clean stove, stainless countertops, washed dishes, properly arranged utensils, clutter-free drawers and a spotless floor. It’s anything but easy to be a witness to a Pinterest perfect kitchen.
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Let me put it straight. With the time constraints that modern-day life presents us with, it’s hard to keep the kitchen polished throughout the day. But what’s totally possible is to clean the maximum of it in the minimum possible time with a few Kitchen cleaning hacks.
If you’re always on a tight schedule but are willing to spend a mere 20 minutes to clean your kitchen, below are a few kitchen cleaning hacks that can come handy and are extremely easy to execute:
First Things First: In order to speed clean your kitchen, you need to be ready with some basic cleaning products so that you don’t waste your time running around to find things. So pick a storage bin right now and toss a few things into it – a multipurpose microfiber cloth that can be used both for cleaning and polishing (for better absorption of dust), dishwashing bar/gel/detergent, cleaning spray, trash bin, scrubber (for bad stains), dishwashing sponge, a broom/vacuum cleaner, a basket to store anything that doesn’t belong in the kitchen and heavy duty gloves.
1. Soak The Dirty Dishes
Fill the kitchen sink with warm water and add some dishwashing detergent to it. Now scrape away the food sticking to the utensils into the trash bin and leave them in this soapy water to get soaked. Fill the large utensils and pans with hot, soapy water and leave them to soak on the countertop.
2. Pick Up The Trash
While the dishes get soaked, you can take a tour of the kitchen and start gathering everything that should end up in the trash. Be it the rotten food, empty food wrappers, vegetable and fruit waste or eggshells, throw it all in the trash bin and set it aside to be dumped later.
3. Gather The Food Items And Miscellaneous Stuff
Put away that jar of condiments back into the kitchen cupboard, the clean dishes to the dishrack and those kitchen appliances back into the drawer after wiping them with a damp cloth. Any food container lying on the countertop should be put back into the cupboard/fridge. If there is any leftover food that can be eaten or reused later, store it in an airtight container and put it away into the fridge.
Also, if there are any items lying in your kitchen that don’t belong there, put them away into the basket and keep it aside. Once you’re done with cleaning the kitchen, you can return these items to where they belong.
4. Clean The Flat Surfaces
Once the countertop has been freed of unnecessary stuff, you can spray it with the cleaner and wipe it clean with the microfiber cleaning cloth. Do the same for kitchen table and use more of cleaner to remove the bad stains. Heading from top to bottom, wipe the stains off everything including the kitchen cupboards and walls.
5. Load The Dishwasher Or Hand Wash the Dishes
Now is the time to do what we all hate – washing the dishes. If you have a dishwasher available at home, load it with the dishes that were left to be soaked. While you run the dishwasher for the dishes to be cleaned, use the downtime to hand wash the large utensils and pans. Make sure that you use scrubber to get rid of those bad stains. Place the clean dishes on the drying rack and drain the dirty water down the sink. Make sure that you clean the kitchen sink with a sponge or a microfiber cloth once you’re done with the dishes.
6. Clean The Kitchen Floor
If there’s any area of the kitchen that gets dirty quicker than you can imagine, it’s the kitchen floor. Be it the liquid spills and stains, dust or debris, kitchen floor bears the most amount of mess during the day and needs to be cleaned as often as possible. You can use a mop or a vacuum cleaner or a broom to clean the kitchen floor until it looks clean and shiny.
7. Clean The Dirty Kitchen Towels and Sponges
Once you’re done cleaning the dishes, floor and flat surfaces, pick those dirty kitchen rugs and towels and toss them into the washing machine to clean.
8. Finish Up
Don’t just sit back and relax once you’re done cleaning the mess around the kitchen. Make sure that you put the misplaced items collected in the basked back to their rightful places. Also, the garbage discarded into the trash should be taken out and dumped properly. No matter how tired you are, don’t forget to follow this step if you want your kitchen to look as good as possible.
Cleaning the Kitchen isn’t as simple as cleaning the other corners of the house. Speaking for myself, it overwhelms me to even think about decluttering or cleaning the kitchen. But it is something that we all see as necessary for the importance that a kitchen holds in our house.
What all challenges do you face while cleaning the kitchen and how do you overcome them? What other kitchen cleaning hacks do you implement at home? You can drop a comment below or write me at hello@theaestheticabode.com. I love hearing from you all.