The Heart Of The Home
It's the heart of the home—but when the kitchen is a mess, it can really make our time in there rather unpleasant. Here are some simple, yet highly effective, tips and tricks to make keeping your kitchen clean just a little easier.
Clean As You Go
While many of us tend to make cooking and cleaning in the kitchen two completely separate tasks, combining them—at least a little—can make a huge difference. Cooking up a whole meal without any regards for the clean up can often leave us with a full belly and a full sink, countertop, and stove. However, throwing the vegetable peels in the compost right away, rinsing off a few plates while the water is boiling, and putting various ingredients back in the cupboard and fridge as you use them can make your post-meal cleanup much less intimidating.
Clean Up After Dinner...Immediately
Sitting there with full bellies after a meal, the last thing anyone wants to do is clear the table. But we highly recommend you do it right away. Because as unappealing as it is at that moment, it's almost always more unpleasant later on, after a couple hours chilling on the couch.
Dirty Utensils Stay Off The Counter
Depending on the meal, the cooking process can often involve one or two (or more) dirty utensils. Now, going back to our previous tip, if said utensil isn't going to be used again, just quickly rinse it off and drop it in the drying rack. However, if you will need it again, don't just put it on the counter. Lay it on a dish towel, a paper towel, a small plate—anything to keep you from having to wipe down the counter more than you need to (or possibly even stain it).
Kitchen Counter Isn't Storage
The kitchen is the heart of the home and as such, the kitchen counter can often become the heart of the home's clutter. Papers, mail, house keys, charging cables, unopened Amazon packages....these things all have a place and that place is probably not the kitchen counter. It's easier to put all this stuff away every night rather then after it builds up over days and days.
Clean These Right Away
Cheese graters, vegetable peelers, chef's knives, and strainers are some of the hardest and most annoying kitchen items to clean—when you don't do it right away. However, give them a rinse and a clean immediately after using them, and the task is so much easier.
Under The Sink
For some of us, opening the cabinet under our sink is like a horror movie. The unorganized mess of sponges and rubber gloves and scrubbers and spray bottles and who knows what else is a lesson in anxiety each and every time. Take a little time to clean and organize the space once, and you will be so much happier going forward.
The Dishwasher Doesn't Have To Be Full To Run It
We're not saying run it with three plates, four glasses, and a few utensils, but waiting until you've Tetris'd the thing full to the brim doesn't often make sense either—for a couple reasons.
The Dishwasher Doesn't Have To Be Full To Run It
Waiting until the dishwasher is perfectly full might mean you're leaving dirty dishes in there for a while, and we all know how unpleasant that smell can get. Also, filling it too much can lead to some of the dishes not getting clean and having to run them through again or do them by hand afterwards.
Jota Buyinch Photo, Shutterstock
Empty The Dishwasher Right Away
No, you don't have to wait by the dishwasher, ready to pounce the moment that "clean" light comes on (in fact, all that will get you is a face full of steam and hot, hot, hot plates). We find that the ideal dishwasher routine is often to run it overnight and empty it in the morning. That way it's empty and ready for dirty dishes the rest of the day.
And let's face it: There are few things worse than going to put dirty plates in the dishwasher and opening it up only to see that it's filled with clean dishes.
An Empty Sink
Just like an empty dishwasher can add calm and ease to your day, so too can an empty sink. Sure, it's easy to leave a few plates in there that we'll get to later. However, the speed at which those "few plates" can grow to a full sink is like cheetah fast. Like a "zero inbox" with our email, a "zero sink" isn't always doable, but it's something to strive for as much as possible.
A Clean Sink
You may have heard that sinks can actually be dirtier than toilets when it comes to the amount of bacteria found in and on them. Do you need more reasons than that to clean and disinfect your sink regularly?
A Clean Oven
No, ovens aren't as dirty as toilets, but when they get grimy, they really aren't fun to clean. So, make oven cleaning a semi-regular task and never let it get that bad. Most ovens have a "self clean" function. Use it.
Nightly Sweep
Just like your countertops, kitchen floors can get dirty fast, and a nightly sweep, Swiffer, or vacuum can keep the dirt, dust, and crumbs from building up. Doing a little every night or two can save you from having to do a lot later.
What Stays On The Counter
Not every appliance you own needs to be on the counter at all times. Think about what you use and how often you use it and make decisions about what really needs to be there. The more cluttered the countertop is with appliances, the easier it becomes to clutter it with other things, like dirty dishes.
Clean Out The Fridge
Everyone does it sometimes, but we're saying most of us should be doing it more often. Leftovers that have gone bad, rotting fruits and veggies, old jars of salsa, sour cream, and tomato sauce with mold growing in them... we've had them all in our fridge at one time or another. Doing a more regular fridge check will mean less of that gross stuff and more room for the food you want to eat.
Never Go To Bed Angry...At Your Kitchen
We don't know about you, but it's almost impossible for us to get a good night's sleep if our kitchen is a mess. Turning the lights off on a messy kitchen and knowing what we are going to be waking up to just doesn't lead to calm, happy thoughts once under the covers. So, make sure the kitchen is ready for the morning before you go to bed.
Basically, if you're doing everything we talked about (run the dishwasher, sweep, empty the sink...) it should be easy-peasy by bed time.
