In almost every home the kitchen probably hosts the most activity. It’s the place where family and friends meet for coffee and you start your day with breakfast.
It’s where you unpack your groceries, spend hours preparing all your meals each week, and generally just spend a lot of your time when at home.
With all this going on in a small space, you will want to do your best to keep your kitchen clean and your food and family safe from germs and bacteria.
This involves some extra work on the part of cleaning as the kitchen invariably requires a bit more attention than other parts of your home.
Here are some suggestions to help you with that chore.
Tips To Keep Your Kitchen Clean And Fresh
1. Always Wash Hands
It may seem like a no-brainer but keeping your hand’s clean while in the kitchen will do a great deal in helping you to maintain proper hygiene all over this space.
Illnesses often spread from one person to another, and as much as 25% of them are the result of food-borne diseases coming from unwashed hands. Keeping a bottle of hand sanitizer or sanitized wipes will go a long way to keep your kitchen safe.
2. Sanitize On A Regular Basis
Sponges and dishcloths do a great deal of work in the kitchen. They are used to wipe up spills, dry countertops, dishes, and hands. However, they are not magic tools. They require sanitizing periodically in order to keep them doing the job you give them.
You can soak sponges and dishcloths in a solution of 1 teaspoon of chlorine bleach to one quart of warm water once every few days. Also, don’t forget to retire sponges and dishcloths regularly.
3. Clean Surfaces
Countertops host a lot of activity during the day ranging from food crumbs, spills, craft projects, grocery bags and anything else you can imagine… and as a result, they get pretty dirty.
Even if you regularly wipe them off, you really should give your countertops special treatment once a week with a solution of water and chlorine bleach or detergent. Leave the solution in place for ten minutes and wipe clean with disposable paper towels.
4. Kill Cutting Board Bacteria
Stats claim that your ordinary kitchen cutting board has about 200% more fecal bacteria on it than your toilet seat. When you consider what all gets cut up on your cutting board from raw meat to fruits, vegetables, pieces of bread and everything in-between, it’s not hard to imagine microscopic bacteria living in the tiny cut marks that form in the cutting board surface. Sanitize it at least once a week with the same solution mentioned above for cleaning countertops.
5. Give Your Refrigerator A Cleaning
If you don’t keep this giant cool box clean it will become a breeding ground for a lot of nasty bacteria. To help prevent this from happening, be sure to wipe spills clean as soon as they happen and others when you discover them.
You can give the inside of your fridge some TLC by squirting dishwashing liquid on areas that require cleaning and wiping away with a damp cloth.
Every week a solution of 2 tablespoons of baking soda in one quart of warm water will make a great cleaning tool to give the entire fridge a once over. Also, empty the fridge periodically to get rid of foods and items that are no longer edible but are hiding near the back to stay cool.
6. Use A Dehumidifier
Moisture in the form of humidity can cause more problems in your home than you may be aware of. The kitchen is one such location where humidity can cause some serious damage.
In addition to having proper venting over the stove to remove excess steam from cooking, it is a good idea to open a window to assist. In apartments with no window in the kitchen or homes with poor ventilation, this can become a real problem.
A portable dehumidifier that can be wheeled into the kitchen when needed is a useful tool. Too much moisture in your kitchen can lead to condensation problems and the development of mold, mildew, and corrosion.
Follow These Steps To Help Keep Your Kitchen Clean And Fresh
As long as you follow these six suggestions, you will reduce the amount of work you will have in trying to stay on top of kitchen cleaning chores.
Remember, cleaning your kitchen is not just to make it look nice and inviting. You are also cleaning it to make it a safe and hygienic place for you, your family and friends to spend time in your home.
