Kitchens are one room in the house that takes near constant cleaning to keep in any presentable shape (at least if you ever use your kitchen much). Most kitchen items are fairly straightforward to clean, even if they are a little tedious at times. However, there is a surprising number of things in the kitchen that are difficult to clean or that you simply forget to (or aren’t aware you even need to) clean until they are some degree of scary dirty. Never fear! There are plenty of simple solutions to your difficult kitchen cleaning problems, and we’ve gathered more than a dozen here for you.
Greasy Dust
Wipe the oven hood and other places that are prone to get that greasy dust on them with mineral oil when you clean them. It will easily remove all that sticky, gunky grease-dust from your surfaces or appliances. Then, wipe again with a cloth to leave a light coating of mineral oil that will help combat future greasy dust. To get the full low-down on this technique,
Then, wipe again with a cloth to leave a light coating of mineral oil that will help combat future greasy dust. To get the full low-down on this technique, click here.
Window Tracks
Window tracks are the bane of any clean kitchen. They are easy to overlook and how exactly do you get them really clean? Well, the process is a little involved.
You’ll need vinegar, baking soda, dish soap, and some towels, but you can get even the dirtiest tracks clean with this method. Here is the tutorial so you can see exactly how it is done.
Fruit Life
An important part of keeping your kitchen clean is knowing how long that fruit you have in your fridge or on your counter will keep.
This handy chart gives you the approximate time popular fruits stay good after they are ripe, even once they are cut in half. Adhere to this chart, and you won’t have to worry about spoiled fruit in your kitchen.
Window Blinds
Kitchen blinds can be tricky to clean, especially when you just have to clean up all the dust cleaning the blinds created. To get the job done quickly and easily, wrap a pair of tongs in microfiber cloths and run those along with the blinds.
The microfiber will pick up most of the dust, and the tongs will let you easily get between the blinds and do both sides at once.
Wood Cabinets
Cabinets are a pain to clean and keep looking good, but wood cabinets may be the worst of the bunch. In addition to just getting them clean, to have the wood look really good, it needs to be polished too. Murphy’s cleaner not only is great at cleaning wood it leaves a nice finish that keeps your wood looking good after.
Murphy’s cleaner not only is great at cleaning wood it leaves a nice finish that keeps your wood looking good after. Here is a comparison between four wood cleaners, and you can see why Murphy’s is the clear winner.
Wooden Cutting Boards
You don’t want to clean your wooden cutting boards with soap and water, and they definitely can’t go in the dishwasher, so how do you get them nice and clean? Although for everyday cleaning, just rinsing the board under warm water will do (never let it soak! That will hurt the wood), you need more deep cleaning methods as well. Kosher salt and lemon work wonder to get those boards spotless. Here’s how you use them.
Fridge Storage
Part of smart cleaning is taking steps not to need to clean as often, or as much). To help keep things in the fridge as fresh as possible for as long as possible (and thus reduce messy clean-up in your fridge or questionable mystery food hanging out in the back), here’s a breakdown of what types of things should go where.
Burnt Pans
If the bottom of your pans look like you rescued them from a forest fire, you may think there’s just nothing you can do about it.
After all, that blackness now seems part of the pot’s chemical makeup. You can clean your old copper pots easily with vinegar and salt, however, some Bar Keepers Friend and a little elbow grease can have those pots looking shiny again. Find out exactly how to get the results shown in the picture right here.
Refrigerator Coils
One thing you may have never considered cleaning is your refrigerator coils. Fridge coils accumulate dust and grim over time, and since they are hidden, they tend to get overlooked. Not only do they probably desperately need cleaning, but dirty refrigerator coils raise your electric bill. They are surprisingly easy to clean. All you need is a vacuum cleaner with an attachment. Check it out.
Faucet
Faucets all get calcium build up over time, particularly if you have hard water. To combat this, and make your faucet look and perform much better, put some descaler in a plastic bag and tie the bag around your faucet head. This tutorial will walk you through how to get the best results, including giving you advice on using a Magic Eraser to finish off the process.
Oven Liner
To keep from having to clean up messy ovens, you can use an oven liner to catch spills. You can also line the bottom rack of your oven with foil or a cookie sheet to serve the same purpose.
Don’t put either on the bottom of your oven though because they could damage your oven by causing it to heat unevenly.
Stainless Steel
You don’t need expensive stainless steel polish to get those stainless steel appliances shined up. Pledge actually works wonders. First, you will want to clean the stainless steel to make sure all the grime, grease, and dust are removed. Then, a good wipe down with Pledge will shine those stainless steel items. Check out these directions to see exactly how you do it.
Garbage Disposal
If you find your garbage disposal is often smelling stinky, you may not be cleaning it right (or often enough). You need to not just scrub the outside, but you should get under the splash guard too and scrub there as well. A toothbrush is the easiest tool to use to get those tricky garbage disposals clean. Check out this tutorial for the right way to clean that disposal.
Coffee Makers
It’s extremely important to descale your coffee makers regularly, whether you have a normal coffee maker or a Keurig. There are several different ways to go about this process depending on the type of coffee maker you have, but all are relatively simple.
This article will explain exactly how to clean your coffee maker no matter what type you have and offer helpful tips to get them extra clean.
Vent Hood
While you should clean your stove vent filter before it looks like the picture above, how many of us actually remember to do that?
The good news is even if yours does look this alarming, you don’t need to toss it and buy a new one. Just soak it in Borax and hot water and it will end up good as new. Here’s how.
Cleaning Granite Countertops
Some countertops are easier to clean than others. For those of you with granite countertops, you might be hard-pressed to find a great cleaner that specifically works on granite. In particular, any citrus-based cleaner or vinegar is a huge no for granite as they can increase the wear and tear and decrease the life of your countertops. This homemade granite countertop cleaning recipe is easy to make and is specifically designed to clean without doing any harm to the surface.
Shiny Sinks
Kitchen sinks can be washed out with soap and water fairly easily, but getting them to shine like new is sometimes a difficult process. You might be surprised, but simple flour actually works wonders for your sink shining purposes. This tutorial will give you the full low-down and tell you exactly how to use flour to shine those kitchen sinks right up!
Don’t keep these tips all to yourself. Share this page with everyone who has a kitchen to help them out too!
