Like bathrooms, kitchens require a disproportionate amount of time to keep clean. They require regular maintenance, as they are always getting dirty.
But, there’s more to kitchen cleaning than just the various surfaces. Here are a few of our cleaning tips for maintaining not only your kitchen, but the various appliances in it:
Careful cleaning of pots and pans
One of the frequent mistakes people make when cleaning their pots and pans is the “let them soak” method.
While it’s easy and tempting to take a passive route and simultaneously procrastinate the cleaning process by leaving your pots and pans to soak with water and dish soap, it will ultimately cost you.
Every time you let cookware sit with water and soap for extended periods of time, you’re slowly wearing away the nonstick coating.
While this might not be a big deal for cheap kitchenware, it is for higher end pans. Any good kitchen set will have a nonstick coating on it, and frankly there are a lot of pot/pan sets that will last for years if you take care of them.
You can preserve the nonstick surface for a surprisingly long time. You might not notice a difference for over a decade if you take good care of your frying pans.
Don’t let them soak. It eats away at the coating and you’ll ultimately end up having to replace your equipment much, much sooner.
As a habit, clean your pots and pans right away after you cook. This way the pan is still hot, and the food and grease hasn’t had time to harder. It will be much easier if you take care of this right away. Use warm water and dish soap, and lightly brush or scrub. This will give much more longevity to your cooking equipment, and ultimately save you time.
Cleaning out fridge
The best time to clean out your fridge is right before grocery shopping. When the fridge is looking a little spare and low on food, you’ll have much less to move out of the way to clean.
This one is relatively simple. First, remove all the items from the refrigerator in one go. Put it on your countertop so you can clean inside without any obstacles
Then, just get a rag and some baking soda and white wine vinegar. Scrub as much as you want, unlike the other surfaces in your kitchen, there’s almost no risk of doing any damage to the interior of your fridge.
Go through a second time with a water soaked cloth to clean out the vinegar, and then a third time to dry with another rag.
Move all your food back inside and boom! Clean and fresh smelling fridge.
Cleaning around stove
Cleaning around your stove is one of the most labor intensive parts of maintaining a fresh kitchen.
Grease builds up here, especially if you aren’t cleaning in weekly. Extra baking soda can be added to your soap to help you slice through that grease with great alacrity.
You’ll have to get into the habit of removing the burners from your stove so you can clean under them. You’ll probably need steel wool to really wear down on the black, burnt buildup here. This can be very time consuming, so it’s better to build it into your cleaning routine.
Countertops
Be very careful with your oven cleaner. As a general rule, never use it for anything outside of the oven, no matter how tempting it can be.
Many oven cleaners will stain or leave unpleasant markings on granite and other stone countertops. Stick with safe cleaners like soap to handle these surfaces without damaging them.

