How to Keep Your Kitchen Spotless

The kitchen is considered the heart of the home and is often the most used room in the house. But like your well-loved childhood stuffed animal, this means it’s often the one that gets dirty the most. Sometimes it feels like the moment the kitchen finally gets cleaned, it’s a mess again. It’s time to implement some new practices on how to keep your kitchen spotless. We’ve compiled some of our best tips on how to keep your kitchen looking and feeling squeaky clean.

Organize the Clutter

One of the biggest eyesores in any room — but especially the kitchen — is clutter. It’s easy for a kitchen to get chaotic with stuff all over the counters, disorganized drawers, and under-the-sink space that looks like a monster’s lair. It’s time to find a way once and for all to organize the clutter to keep your kitchen looking spotless and to ensure that cooking and cleaning is made easier.

Start organizing by finding the perfect containers for all your kitchen needs. We love traditional mason jars for storing basics like sugar and flour inside your pantry. Use a chic set of seagrass baskets to store small appliances, snacks, and cooking utensils to keep everything well organized. Get kitchen drawer organizers so your drawer space gets efficiently used. By developing a system to keep your kitchen clutter stored, you will minimize the time spent cleaning up later.

Counter space is prime real estate, but most people make the mistake of keeping all their appliances on the counter. If there is something you use less than twice a week, perhaps it doesn’t deserve counter space. Appliances like blenders, toasters, juicers, food processors and mixers will accumulate grease and dust on the counter if not cleaned or used often. Solve this by giving them designated cabinet or closet space or by keeping them conveniently stored in canvas storage bins.

Close Up Shop Every Night

A great way to keep your kitchen spotless is to make it a nightly habit to clean up before bed — and then to keep out until the next day. Whether you clean up, take turns with your significant other, or add tasks to the kids’ chore list, cleaning up the basics every evening make your mornings less stressful. At a minimum, it is best to make sure the sink is clean and empty. Next, run a sponge or dishtowel over surfaces and wipe down the stovetop. Run the dishwasher and set out a clean set of dish towels or monogrammed hand towels for the next day. You will feel satisfied in the morning starting your day with a kitchen ready for use.

The Deep Clean

Like all parts of the house, the kitchen needs a deep clean every so often. A deep clean is a cleanup that happens beyond the basics of daily cooking. Since the kitchen is such a well-used space, it is obvious that dust, grease, food droppings, and crumbs are bound to accumulate over time. No need for fancy cleaning supplies, though. You can use white vinegar to rub down surfaces and plain ol’ baking soda to scrub the inside of sinks (But don’t mix the two unless you want to relive your middle school volcano science experiment!). Some places we don’t get to clean daily but build on grime are the inside of the refrigerator, the bottom of the stove range, the grout between tiles, and inside kitchen drawers. Get into the habit of deep cleaning your kitchen once a month.

Clean As You Cook

This is a professional chef hack that you can take into the comforts of your kitchen. Save time and space by cleaning as you cook. Rather than leaving a trail of dirty bowls, pots, pans, cutting boards, and food scraps, be sure to take the extra few seconds as you go along to rinse utensils, place dishes in the sink, and throw things away. Another idea is to place a small mat like a bathroom rug under your food prep area to catch any fallen crumbs or food scraps. Rather than grabbing the vacuum, simply bring the mat outside and shake for a quick clean.

Compost

Smelly trash can make even the cleanest of kitchens unappealing. Instead of tossing food scraps into the trash, start an at-home compost. Not only is this better for the environment, but you will produce a fraction of the trash and prevent smelly kitchen or trash cans. As you are prepping food, designate a “compost bowl” and discard food scraps in the bowl as you prep. Simply bring the compost out every night as a part of your nightly clean up and stick the bowl in the dishwasher. You’ll have a happier earth and no more smelly trash!