10 Tips To Make Cleaning Your Kitchen Easier

Cleaning the kitchen is something that I do almost every day of the week. On most days I’ll spend about 30 minutes cleaning things up, including doing the dishes. With that said, once or twice a week my kitchen gets a good overall cleaning.

Here are 10 Tips To Make Cleaning Your Kitchen Easier

1. Cleaning and Deodorizing the Garbage Disposal: You should never let food particles sit in your garbage disposal, always turn it on and use it after putting food down into the unit. Letting food sit there, will cause odors and germs. Once to twice a week slice up a piece of citrus fruit (oranges and limes work best), turn on the water, grind them up in the disposal and let the water run through. This will clean and deodorize the garbage disposal in one simple step.

2. Cutting Boards: I primarily use tempered glass cutting boards in my home. They’re super easy to take care of and you can clean them in the dishwasher or by hand. I do have one cutting board that isn’t dishwasher safe, so I clean it by hand in hot, soapy water with a little bit of antibacterial liquid dish soap. If you’re boards have any funky odors on them you can use a half of a lemon dipped into salt to remove the stink! Simply rub the cut lemon with salt over the top of the board a few times and then squeeze the fresh lemon juice onto the board. Let it sit for a few minutes and then wipe it clean or rinse it under tap water and towel dry.

3. Cleaning Bakeware: I always follow manufacturer’s cleaning instructions, that you can find printed on the label of the bakware that you purchase. However, if that information is missing, you should never use abrasive cleaners. For stubborn baked on grime, you can soak your bakeware in hot soapy water or try some warm water with 2 tablespoons of baking soda in it. I like to let mine sit and soak for approximately 20 minutes and then I use a soft sponge to finish cleaning them up. You should never allow metal bakeware to air dry as that can cause pitting and rusting. Always towel dry with a soft absorbent cloth.

4. Glass Carafes, Decanters and Coffee Pots: One of the best ways to keep these items clean is to use warm soapy water and a soft sponge. For stubborn stains and food debris, try cleaning them with one of those fizzing denture cleanser tablets. Just put water in your pot, drop in the denture cleaning tablet and let it sit for 15-20 minutes and then rinse clean.

5. China and Porcelain Dishes: The best way to clean these items is by hand, they should never be put into your automatic dishwasher. I like to hand wash mine in warm soapy water. To prevent chipping and breakage, I line my sink with a rubber sink mat or an old plastic/rubber placemat. You don’t want them clanking around in the bottom of your sink.

6. Cleaning Metal Freezer Racks: Remove the metal racks from your freezer after defrosting it. Clean them in warm soapy water and rinse. Towel dry them. Take an old plastic tablecloth or a plastic drop cloth and lay it outside in a clean area. Take your metal freezer racks outside and place them on top of your plastic cloth. Next, take a can of nonstick baking spray and lightly mist your racks. Let them air dry for 5 minutes. Place them back into your freezer. This will help to prevent food packages and other gunk from sticking on your metal racks in the future.

7. Cleaning the inside of your Refrigerator: One of the best ways to do this is to remove all food, beverage and condiment items and place them on your counter-top. Remove any removable shelving and drawers. Wash the shelving and drawers in hot soapy water, rinse and towel dry. Fill up a clean bucket with some warm water and a 1/4 cup of baking soda. Take a clean sponge and wipe out the inside of your refrigerator before placing the shelves and drawers back inside it.

8. Ceramic Tiles: I have a ceramic tile back splash behind my sink and behind my stove top, so its constantly getting splashed with grease and food debris. My favorite way to blast away the grease and grime is to use my handheld steam cleaner. Within a few seconds, my ceramic tile is sparkling clean.

9. Microwave Oven: Fill a microwave safe glass container with 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. The steam will help loosen stuck on food products and splatters for easy cleaning. Use a clean microfiber cleaning cloth to wipe out the oven. I like to towel dry the inside, but you can certainly air dry if you let the door open for 10-15 minutes. Don’t shut the door until it’s dry!

10. Coffeemakers: Since we are a household that drinks coffee every day, our coffee maker constantly needs a good cleaning. After every use, you should be cleaning out the coffee pot and filter basket. You can do this by rinsing it out with hot soapy water. Just make sure you rinse it out completely. For stubborn stains, try sprinkling some baking soda onto a damp sponge and scrubbing the spot.

Well, there you have it! Ten of my favorite kitchen cleaning tips that I use all of the time to keep my kitchen sparkling clean and germ-free!

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BONUS Tips: Previously here on the blog I shared my tips on the BEST Way to Clean a Glass Top Stove and how to clean the range hood and filter. You can find BOTH of these previous posts by clicking on the links. Trust me, my tips are EASY and they save you a lot of time!!!