How To Deep Clean Your Kitchen
Our kitchens work hard! And hard work can be dirty. Deep cleaning my kitchen is Zone 5 of my Deep Clean schedule. (You can find more about that HERE.)
Daily I wipe off my countertops and wipe any spills or splashes that I notice, but a deep clean is always necessary when the time comes.
Here are the steps I take and the tips I use for cleaning my kitchen.
Inside of the cabinets: Every 6 months I take everything out of the cabinets and wipe out the inside. This makes sure that no dust builds up. (And it also is a great opportunity to touch each item and be sure I still need it to take up room in my kitchen.) I organize the inside of my cabinets by zones. (You can check that out HERE.) I want to use something that cleans well, but is also safe to be used around food items. For this space I use a bowl (or sink) of hot water with a few drops of Dr. Bronners Sal Suds. If you can’t find this you can also use another dish soap. For drawers that might have crumbs, utilize your vacuum with a small attachment before wiping them out. (This keeps you from just moving the crumbs and dust around.)
Cabinet doors: For the outside of the cabinets I dust them off with a dry microfiber cloth first and then use this same mixture of Dr. Bronners and hot water (you can also add a few drops of a citrus essential oil) and wipe the outside of the cabinets with this.
Furniture: I wipe down all furniture in the kitchen as well.
Blinds and Windows: I dust and then wipe all blinds and windows.
Backsplash: I clean the backsplash with warm soapy water. Pay special attention to the area near your stove top and sink.
Oven: Thankfully my oven has a self clean option. This takes a few hours and gets extremely hot. Once it unlocks and has cools I will wipe it out with damp paper towels. If yours does not have this option, search online for the best way to clean your particular model.
Refrigerator and Freezer: I clean my refrigerator on a weekly basis. However, if you have’t in a while, take everything out and check dates. Use warm soap water to wipe down all shelves before putting things back in. For the freezer I use a large cooler to put my freezer items in while I’m cleaning it out. This is a great opportunity to check dates on your items and make a list of what you have so you can use up what you have first before purchasing again.
Stove: Take the grates off your stove top. I can put mine in the top of my dishwasher and run a pots and pans cycle to get it clean. Do not neglect the vent above your stove. Take the filter off and run it in the dishwasher with your stove grates. You will need hot soapy water to wipe off the grease that builds up around this vent.
Microwave: Take everything out and wash your glass plate with hot soapy water. Use that same water solution to wipe out the inside of your microwave.
Baseboards: For the baseboards around my kitchen and under my cabinets I use a stronger solution. One teaspoon of Powdered Tide with a gallon of very hot water. I use gloves for this. Dust the baseboards first and then wipe them down with this solution. This will cut the grease in your kitchen and give you clean baseboards!
Dishwasher: For my dishwasher I pour a cup of vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher while it is empty and run it on the hottest setting. This loosens anything that has built up. I then wipe around the seals and clean my filter (check your manual on how to do this.) I then sprinkle a cup of baking soda on the bottom of the dishwasher and run it on a quick cycle. Check it to see if anything needs to be wiped out, but these 2 cycles should leave you with a sparking dishwasher!
The kitchen takes about an hour (or longer) to deep clean. You can cut this up over a few days or tackle it all at once.
The week before I deep clean I do the inside of the cabinets (step 1.) I take everything out and minimize and organize. You can find my blog post about kitchen zones HERE. I find that doing this first is best for me. When I am finished with deep cleaning I am left with a sparkling clean and organized kitchen.