By preparing quick breakfasts, everyday lunches, weekend dinners, and varying cuisines for family/friends get-togethers, your kitchen becomes the hub of dirt and mess after cooking. With food crumbs, spills, and splatters all over, that your kitchen’s countertop accumulates, it becomes difficult and tiring to clean up. And if at all you have put off this task for some time, cleaning your kitchen becomes a time-consuming chore. Piled up dishes, stained countertops, unorganized cabinets, dirty sink and floors, all these increases your work by a ton. 

A little weekly cleanup and daily upkeep make kitchen cleaning less daunting. Basically, the trick is to stick to a regimen. You can create a kitchen cleaning checklist that fits according to your schedule and requirements. Also, depending on the extent of your kitchen usage, you can set the cleanup chores and the frequency of doing it.

So, if you need a little aid in preparing, here’s a kitchen-cleaning guide that will surely help you through the mess.

1. Wipe Out the Mess Immediately

Nothing is more satisfying than a squeaky-clean and organized kitchen! Well, maintaining such a kitchen is quite an overwhelming task, but not impossible. Abiding by the concept of cleaning the mess and dirt immediately after preparing the food is a fundamental approach to having an ultimate clean and hygienic kitchen.

Whether there is any spill or splatter, just make sure you wipe it off before you leave the kitchen. Since the kitchen has so many appliances and tools like hand blenders, mixer grinders, chimneys along with utensils, cleaning them all at once is an exhausting job. So, washing/wiping soon after using it not only reduces your workload but also helps you to maintain the hygiene factor better, especially during this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Keep Dirty Pots and Pans Off the Counter Top

Cooking food requires pots and pans of all sizes but leaving them dirty on the countertop is just like creating an unnecessary mess. Be it used soup-stirring spoons, serving forks, or dishes, try not to leave these dirty vessels and cutleries on the kitchen counter space. You can put these dirty pots and pans either in the dishwasher or in the sink and grab a paper towel to wipe off all food stains. Doing this every time you cook will surely leave your counter space spick and span. Also, it will ease out your chores, as you don’t need to scrub and wash the tough food stains the next day.

So, keeping the dirty pots and pans off the countertop will surely avoid a lot of extra effort that you might have to put in before cooking your next meal. Well, you can also use a spoon rest or just a plate to keep curry or sauce stains off the counter surface.

3. Nightly Cleanup

Have you ever checked out your kitchen after you’re done making dinner? We’re sure most of you must have noticed lots of tissues, piles of dishes, spoons, food leftovers, and so on. And often you tend to leave it like that, thinking of cleaning it the next morning. But it doesn’t happen as you plan, and this creates a habitable environment for bacteria and germs leaving your kitchen all unhygienic.

So, why not scrub and wipe it every night before you hit your bed. Before the clutter multiplies, make sure you sweep the kitchen clean. Needless to say, the easiest way to do this nightly cleanup is to wash your dishes while food is still being cooked and wipe out all dirt after dinner is served. Also, don’t forget to put back the vessels/cutleries and jars in their respective places before you ‘shut down the kitchen’.   

4. Weekly Organization of Cabinets and Refrigerator

Even though daily cleaning keeps your kitchen stuff in place, yet setting some time aside every week takes your cleaning a bit deeper. Mopping the kitchen floor, wiping exteriors of appliances, replacing the wash towels, scrubbing the sink, organizing the cabinets, rearranging stuff inside the refrigerator, and so on, the chores are endless. Since you can’t do these chores daily, doing it once a week will surely keep your kitchen clean.

Whether it’s the refrigerator or cabinets, things inside need to be arranged so there’s no difficulty finding the things you need while cooking. So, organizing once a week helps. When it comes to the appliances like a chimney, stand mixer, coffee maker, or microwave, you must wipe them clean at least once a week to keep dust and stains off them. Most kitchen appliances are stainless steel; take for instance the Acekool stand mixer, all you need is a soft wet cloth to wipe off the dust from it if it has been lying on the corner of the counter unused. Wash only when you use it again.

Also, weekly cleaning of the kitchen keeps unwanted insects and germs away. So, a weekly deep clean of your kitchen is a great way to maintain hygiene and cleanliness all around.

5. Strive for a Clean and Disinfected Kitchen Sink

Piled up pots and pans in the sink is one of the most disappointing sights in a kitchen. Of course, nobody likes to wash dishes immediately after eating and this often leads to piling of one vessel after another. Hence, it’s better to get into the habit of maintaining a clean sink. You can always ask your family members to lend a helping hand.

Besides, just cleaning the sink isn’t enough, disinfecting it is equally essential to keep the hygiene in check. We’re sure you all know that kitchen sinks are the hub of growing germs and bacteria. Skipping the process of disinfecting might make you and your family prone to different kinds of diseases. So, you can always scrub the sink and use a disinfectant liquid for a thorough cleansing. As you make sink cleaning a part of your daily chore, maintaining cleanliness in the kitchen will no longer appear an overwhelming task.

Apart from this kitchen-cleaning guide, you must also keep in mind to do a few more things such as dumping the trash, organizing the sink cabinet, labeling ingredients, and many more.

We hope these tips will surely help you to maintain a pristine and spotless kitchen every day.