In many a home, it may be argued that the kitchen is the hotspot of activity. It is where the day is started with the first cup of coffee, and where the last meal is prepped and cooked on the stove to be enjoyed and devoured.
It’s the starting point for culinary masterpieces to be concocted, and often hosts all the necessary tools we need in order to do so.
It is also likely home to multiple tools and utensils gathered over years of buying into television shopping networks that offering the newest, most revolutionary pots and pans that promise to make cleaning up easy as one, two, three!, or the sharpest, and shiniest knives that dice, chop, and mince, all in one go. We know, we’ve fallen for those too.
With all the paraphernalia often gracing all our counters, making it cluttered and disorganized, keeping our kitchen clean may seem daunting at first, but we’re here to offer some simple solutions to help make it a breeze.
The top priority for every kitchen should be to keep all surfaces clean. Doing so deters small outdoor bugs, insects, flies, and even rodents, from making their way in to your house and having a go at unseen bits of food that may have inadvertently made its way under your toaster.
Apart from the dirt and microbes these critters may introduce from the outside, they may also leave behind their dropping that may make their way into our food and make us sick.
In short, we recommend doing a deep clean of your entire kitchen, especially if you’ve encountered a pest issue even once.
One way to go about it would be:
- Remove all objects atop your counters and place them on a separate table. Scrub and clean all the counters with a damp microfiber cloth using a solution of water and detergent in order to remove all traces of dirt, oil, and decaying food crusts that may have lodged in between your marble cracks or between tiles.
- Have a dry microfiber cloth ready in hand in order to dry the counters immediately.
- Thoroughly clean all appliances that may have food stuck in, like on grills in a toaster, or a pressure cooker, etc.
- Evaluate which appliances you use for every meal, and relegate the ones you don’t into the cupboard. Doing so lessens the likelihood of having food particles sticking to it, thus lessening the frequency of you needing to clean it. For example, if your coffee maker is primarily used only in the morning, it would be best to keep it inside the cupboard or under the sink. Same goes for your toaster or juicer.
For those using bigger and heavier machine like automatic espresso makers, we’d recommend covering them with a light dust cover if they don't fit into cupboards. This way, you’ll only need to throw the dust covers in the laundry, and also prevents dust from getting into crevices, as well as stops flies from laying eggs in the water receptacle.
Light machines, like an electric kettle or an air fryer for example, should also be placed out of sight to prevent food particles from getting on its body and in to our food.
Ideally, wiping down all kitchen counters is something you do every day, and keeping as little objects on top, admittedly, make doing so all the more efficient.
Additional Tips:
- Keep five mid-sized wastebins in your kitchen, one holding food waste behind a closed cabinet, usually under the sink. The cabinet serves as an automatic barrier from food smell that would attract pests. Segregating your waste: recyclable glass bottles, cardboard, plastic food wrappers, plastic containers, and compostable food waste, at the very beginning helps you save time from segregating after.
- Keep a compost bin. Welcome to 2020. Check out @wormbin, a local company that aims to help households reduce their carbon footprint at the home level. This reduces the waste that gets thrown in our dumpsites, and is prime fertilizer for our gardens. Win-win!
We love hearing from you! For any additional tips or tricks that you think our readers would benefit from, feel free to drop a comment below!