It’s that time of year again … time for spring cleaning! If this doesn’t really excite you, you’re not alone! In fact, a recent survey found that while two-thirds of people participate in spring cleaning, 54% also don’t feel motivated about it and aren’t really sure where to start.
We get it! And, we’re also here to help. Since your kitchen is one of the most-used rooms in the home, we’ve gathered some awesome kitchen cleaning hacks to help you save time, money, and the environment. So, grab your cleaning supplies and let’s get started!
Our Favorite Kitchen Cleaning Hacks
Your kitchen is a potential breeding ground for germs and a hotspot for grease and grime. No matter how hard you try to keep your kitchen clean, getting the sparkle you really want can seem impossible — until you know the best-kept kitchen cleaning secrets.
The best thing is THAT all of these cleaning hacks don’t require harsh chemicals or a ton of elbow grease!
1. Renew Those Nasty Pans
If you’re like most people, your frying pans have seen better days. While you might be inclined to throw them away and start over, you really don’t need to! To get your pans looking like new again, follow these steps:
- Pour a thin layer of water in the pan and add a few splashes of white vinegar
- Put the pan on the stove, turn it up to medium-high heat, and bring it to a boil
- Take the pan off the stove and slowly add a handful of baking soda
- Dump out the solution and scrub the pan
Any built-up grime, burned food, or stains should come right off. If you run into stubborn stains, scrub them with a paste made of baking soda and water.
2. Give Your Cutting Boards a Refresh
If you have a cutting board or a butcher block, it’s easy to clean with salt and lemon! Just sprinkle some coarse salt on the board and use half a lemon to scour it, squeezing lightly so some lemon juice comes out.
When you’re done, let the mixture sit for five minutes, then scrape it off and give it a final rinse with a clean wet sponge.
3. Polish Your Kitchen Sink
Is your “stainless steel” sink stained? It happens! There are actually four different methods that you can use to give your sink the clean sparkle it once had.
The first, and easiest, is a Magic Eraser sponge. If you don’t have one handy, you can make a baking soda paste with water or a bit of white vinegar. You can also (carefully!) mix peroxide and Dawn dish soap or white vinegar and dish soap.
Whichever combination you choose, simply wipe it onto the surface of the sink with a wet sponge, wipe it down, and rinse.
4. Freshen Up Grimy Grout
No matter how much you clean your floors, if the grout is grimy, they won’t look good. The good news is that you don’t have to spend hours on your hands and knees scrubbing!
Follow these steps:
- Sprinkle a layer of baking soda over the grout lines
- Fill a spray bottle with either vinegar or bleach and spray it over the baking soda
- Let it fizz for a few minutes — this is what lifts the dirt
- Scrub the dirt away
- Rinse with a clean sponge
Just make sure you don’t wait to look to scrub and rinse, otherwise, the dirt will settle back into the grout.
5. Clean That Space Between Your Countertops
You know that tiny crack between your countertop and your stove? The one where bits of food and other grime seem to constantly get stuck? It’s easy to clean this by simply wrapping a thin microfiber towel around a butter knife!
Use the knife to push the towel back and forth along the crack, scrubbing the dirt away from this hard-to-reach crevice. If it’s super dirty, you can always spray a bit of cleaning solution before you get started.
6. Give Your Faucet a Super-Shine
Not only can your kitchen faucet lose its gleam, but it can also get downright dirty! To easily clean it fill a Ziploc baggie with a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. Make sure there’s enough in the bag to cover the entire faucet head.
Place the bag over the faucet and hold it in place with a rubber band. Leave it for about an hour before you remove it. Then, use a sponge to wipe off the rest of the solution.
I there are stubborn rust stains that haven’t come off, scrub them with an old toothbrush.
Once your faucet is clean and shining, you might want to add a fun LED faucet light to spice things up!
7. Polish Those Stove Burners
Your stove burners can get completely charred with spilled food until they’re so gross you barely want to touch them. Luckily, there’s an easy, no-scrub method to make them sparkle, which makes this one of our favorite stove cleaning hacks.
Start by filling a Ziploc bag ¼ full with ammonia. You don’t want to use too much, as it’s actually the fumes that do the work, not the ammonia itself.
Put the burner in the bag and let it sit overnight. The next day, take it out and wipe it down with a wet towel or a sponge. All of the grime should come right off!
8. Get Rid of Refrigerator Smells
It’s a good idea to take everything out of the refrigerator, wipe it down, and only put back the things that aren’t expired and that you’ll actually use.
If you’ve noticed that your fridge isn’t as fresh as it could be, you’ll need to take some extra steps. This is because, in almost all cases, the smell isn’t coming from your leftovers, it’s coming from the fridge itself.
To combat this, you can place a small bowl with lemon and cloves on one of your refrigerator shelves. Or, soak a cotton ball in vanilla extract and put that on a shelf.
Don’t want any kind of smell in there? Place some activated carbon in there!
9. Make Your Glass Cooktop Sparkle
Your stove’s glass cooktop is another surface that can look dirty no matter how much you clean it. To bring back that sparkle, all you need is Dawn dish soap, baking soda, and peroxide.
Start by sprinkling ribbons of dish soap over your stovetop. Then sprinkle it with baking soda and add some peroxide. Use a scrub brush to mix everything together and loosen up the grime. Let it sit for three to five minutes.
Wipe it off with a wet sponge and you’ll be amazed by how great it looks! Avoid streak marks by drying it off with a clean microfiber towel.
10. Wipe Down Those Greasy Cabinets
Your cabinets are like a magnet for grease and getting the buildup off can be a challenge. You can easily clean them by dipping a clean, dry cloth in undiluted white vinegar. Wipe down your greasy cabinets, then rinse them off with a clean cloth and dry with paper towels.
If the cabinets are really dirty, add a drop of dish soap into the vinegar solution.
11. Make Your Microwave Look Like New
Did you know you can clean your microwave with lemons? It’s true! This is one of our favorite kitchen cleaning tips.
Just put 4 cups of hot water in a microwave-safe glass bowl and add some lemon chunks. Turn the microwave on until the water starts to boil. Keep the door closed so the steam can fill the inside of your microwave.
This will dissolve the grease and grime, making it super-easy to wipe it all off with a clean cloth. Even better, when you’re done, the microwave will smell great!
12. Re-Organize Your Kitchen Storage
If your cupboards are a mess, everyday cooking becomes a hassle. Take this time to take everything out of your cabinets and drawers and purge anything you don’t need. Then, take any things that you rarely use and put them in the back of the cupboards or up high.
This will give you plenty of room to keep the kitchen gadgets you use all the time in the places where they’re easiest to access.
13. Clean Your Keurig
Your Keurig coffee maker makes daily life so much easier, but you might not realize that it won’t run right if you don’t occasionally clean it. You can clean it with distilled vinegar, or purchase a cleaning pod, which will make the entire process much easier!
Step Up Your Kitchen Game!
After you follow all of these awesome kitchen cleaning hacks, you’ll love spending time in your kitchen.
Why not pick up some cool kitchen items to make cooking even more fun? We have all the things you need, so spend a few minutes browsing through our inventory!
