One of the toughest areas to clean in the house is the kitchen, simply because it can get real messy real fast, even if you’re careful with how you use it. There’s also the fact that it’s also one of the most important areas to keep clean, as neglecting it could result in food-borne diseases that you absolutely don’t want going anywhere near your family.
To help you have an easier time cleaning your kitchen like a pro and protect your family’s health, here are some convenient life hack tips that does just that.
Use Microfiber cloths or towels instead of regular fabric cloths
When it comes to helping you mop up messes, spills and stains on your kitchen surfaces, nothing can be more effective and efficient than a microfiber towel. A microfiber towel is not only more absorbent than regular towels, it can easily pick up bacteria and viruses surfaces with just a couple of passes—no detergent required!
This is thanks to the millions of tiny, microscopic fibers that dot its entire surface, with each one small enough to “hook” onto miniscule objects and keep hold of them. Because it’s important to keep your kitchen free of any harmful germs and microbes, having a microfiber towel handy at all times is essential. Toss away your filthy rags and wipes and get microfiber towels instead!
Use baking soda as an all-purpose kitchen cleaner
Do you desperately need to clean something in your kitchen, but you’ve run out of detergent or cleaning solution, and you can’t pop out to buy a fresh supply? Then don’t despair, because if you have an ample amount of baking soda in your kitchen, then you can clean anything. Baking soda, as many innovating homeowners and housewives have found out, can actually be used as a cleaning solution, able to cut through dirt, grime, and even grease without much hassle. Pots, pans, sinks, drains, stoves, even silverware—if it needs cleaning, baking soda can handle it.
But how do you use baking soda to clean? Simple enough: just sprinkle baking soda evenly on the surface that you want to clean, add a bit of water to make it have the consistency of thick paste, and then scrub away using either a scouring pad or a toothbrush. If you need to amplify its scouring power for a tougher job, such as cutting through years-old grease buildup on your kitchen cabinet doors, then add a bit of hydrogen peroxide to your mixture.
Boil a cup of water and lemon to deodorize and de-grease your microwave oven
One of the most well-used appliances in our kitchen that rarely gets the attention it deserves is the humble but convenient microwave oven. Even if you think that all it does is reheat microwaveable food, it can still get as greasy or as dirty as other types of ovens and stoves, thus having the need to clean it regularly and thoroughly. Otherwise, you may find your reheated food smelling or tasting off.
To help you clean your microwave oven a lot more easily as well as remove the odor build-up inside it, place a cup full of water with some lemon slices inside. Let it boil for a minute or two, allowing the steam sit inside for a while before carefully taking the cup out. You’ll find that the built-up grease in your microwave’s inner walls will be a lot easier to remove with a damp microfiber cloth. It’ll also smell a whole lot nicer too!
Blend water and soap in your blender for faster clean-up
Another particularly difficult kitchen appliance to clean is the blender. This is due to the fact that small bits of fruit, vegetable, or spices can get stuck in its moving parts, and stay there even after repeated and thorough rinsing. To ensure that they’re all dislodged and washed away, pour some water and dish soap into your blender and pulse blend it a couple of times. The blending action combined with the soapy water will ensure that anything stuck on or underneath the blades are removed. This is also a great way to quickly clean the blender if you need it to process different ingredients in quick succession. Just remember to rinse it out thoroughly!
Use Cream of Tartar and White Vinegar to clean and polish stainless steel
While it’s true that you can easily degrease most of your common kitchen appliances and surfaces with baking soda, nothing works better in making stainless steel shine like a mixture of cream of tartar and white vinegar. Simply mix 1 cup of distilled white vinegar with 1/4 cup cream of tartar in a glass or plastic container, and then use that mixture to scrub away at stainless steel surfaces. Not only will it cut through grease and stains easily, it’ll also give them a nice, lustrous shine.
Clean dirty, greasy pans with dryer sheets
Cooking up a storm in the kitchen will always be a fun and rewarding experience, especially when you’re cooking for your family and loved ones. However, things usually end up with a lot of filthy and grease-caked pans, which can be a hassle to clean up, especially if you’ve left them on the sink or stove overnight.
Cut down on the elbow grease you’ll need to clean them by using dryer sheets to melt the grease away. Simply place a folded-up dryer sheet right on the floor of the pan itself, then pour warm or hot water into the pan, up until it’s mostly full. As it soaks in the hot water, the dryer sheet will begin to release grease-removing bubbles, softening the caked-on grit and allowing you to easily scrub it away without any effort.
Use aluminum foil to scrub your glass bakeware
Glass or crystal bakeware can be tough to clean properly, as they’re prone to being scratched if you scrub too hard or use a scouring pad that’s too abrasive. To remedy this, use aluminum foil that’s been dabbed with a bit of dishwashing liquid instead. Aluminum foil’s inherent smoothness will prevent it from giving your precious glassware any scratches, while still providing an abrasive surface to scrape away grease and grime.
Conclusion
Cleaning your kitchen doesn’t have to be all that difficult, nor that painstaking. By taking the above-listed life hacks in mind, getting your kitchen spic-and-span will be a cinch, requiring not only less effort on your part but also inexpensive cleaning equipment or implements.
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