Cleaning the kitchen can be a tough job, but not if you know some effective tricks! Either it’s a burnt pot or messy microwave, you’ll need much less time to clean up with those hacks. Read on to find out!
If you drink coffee or tea very often, you know how annoying it is to have a stained mug. No matter how hard you scrub the surface, they just don’t come off. Next time, try using baking soda. Simply sprinkle some soda into the mug and add a bit of water to make a paste. Scrub the mug with the paste, and it will work its magic.
If you wonder what’s the most efficient way to clean the oven, it would be letting the cleaning solution sit overnight. Remove those racks, mix half a cup of baking soda with 3 tbsps of water to form a paste and coat it inside the oven. Close it and go to bed. The next morning, just wipe down your oven, and you’ll be amazed by how easily things come off.
Believe it or not, you can clean toasters within 10 minutes using the right hack. First, make sure you unplug the appliance, and then remove the crumb tray at the bottom. Clean the tray with warm water and soap, and put it back after making it thoroughly dry. It’s a lot quicker than turning the toaster upside-down.
Blenders can be hard to clean but not if you do it right after every use. Fill the half of the dirty blender with warm water, add some dish soap, and blend it for a minute or two. It will be completely clean after rinsing with water.
Sometimes, the sink drain smells very bad, so here is a DIY tip for drain cleaner. First, mix a bit of dish soap with boil water and pour it down the drain. The solution will dislodge grease and make things easier. Then, pour a cup of baking soda down the drain and add a cup of distilled white vinegar or lemon. Wait for 5 minutes, pour more boiling water down, and you’ll get a fresh sink.
Kitchen trash bags turn smelly very quickly because they accumulate raw, spoiled, and cooked food that’ll stink within hours. You can place a few drops of essential oil onto a cotton ball and drop it into the trash to freshen it up. If it still smells bad, you should clean the can itself with such a cotton ball before putting any bag in.
If you find various lids are cluttering your kitchen, you need to organize them. You can either stack those lids in a dish drying rack so that the ridges will stack lids vertically, which allows you to see all of them and easily reach one. Or you can seal all the lids inside a container. If you hang your pots, you can also install hooks to hang the lids. Be creative!
Since wooden chopping boards can’t be soaked or put in the dishwasher, they can be difficult to clean. However, you can easily clean them with lemon and salt. The high acidity in lemons will disinfect it without damaging the board, and the salt will scrub in the nooks and crannies. Just cut a lemon in half and squeeze one half onto the board, then sprinkle the salt all over and use the other half to wipe it. Remove the residue with damp paper towels and voila!
You can get rid of the weird odor in your microwave and loosen the gunk at the same time within a few minutes. All you need is a bowl of some water and lemon. Cut the lemon in half and put the juice and the lemon into the water. Next, microwave the liquid for 3 minutes and let it sit for 5 minutes. The steam will dislodge gunk and stains so you can wipe them off easily, and it smells great too!
You may toss eggshells or leftover stems into a bowl when there’s no trash can nearby as you prepare foods. However, it will add another dirty bowl for you to wash afterwards. You can simply put a plastic bag or wrap to cover the bowl and throw the plastic when you’re done.
It’s hard to clean irregularly-shaped bottles like travel mugs and vases. However, if you put some rice in your cleaning solution and shake it, the rice will do the scrubbing job for you. Remember, you don’t need to use a lot of rice, a little goes a long way.
You can clean cast iron pans with soap but it won’t remove what’s between the crevices of the cast iron. What’s worse, the taste will linger on the pan for a long time. To prevent this from happening, you can pour 1 cup of sea salt into a warm pan, and use a damp, folded towel to rub it into the crevices. Then, rinse the pan with warm water and let it dry.
Water droplets can get more visible on a stainless steel sink over time. To return its shine, you only need some flour. Clean the sink, sprinkle some baking soda, and wipe it with a damp sponge to remove debris without scratching the surface. After washing and drying the sink completely, sprinkle 1/4 cup of flour and let it sit for a few minutes. Then, buff it with a clean, soft rag, and you will be amazed by the result.
To prevent your kitchen tools from clattering, you can simply divide your drawers into sections. Get some organizers and put them into your drawers. Or you can make some with open plastic containers. Believe it or not, everything will seem more organized when you separate them.
Without proper cleaning, your coffee maker will develop mold and bacteria and make you sick. You can disinfect the entire machine by pouring 3 cups of white vinegar and 6 cups of water into the reservoir. If it’s a small machine, make it 1/3 of the said amount. Then, run the coffee maker and turn it off for 15 minutes when a cycle finishes. Run 2 more cycles of plain water, and you’ll get a clean, disinfected coffee maker.
The simplest way to organize your pantry is to group smaller containers into larger ones. Try getting baskets or tubs with labels and storing all pantry foods there. Thus, when you get into your pantry, you’ll know which place you should look for.
Cleaning supply bottles can clutter the cabinet under the sink very quickly, but it will change the situation if you hang a tension rod there. Hang bottles on the rod will save a lot of space, and make everything look more organized. Many people use the cabinet under their sink for cleaning supplies.
When you accidentally burnt your dinner, the food will stick to the bottle of the pans and pots. If you don’t want to soak it, you can remove the clinging residue by reheating it. When the metal becomes warm, pour some vinegar (baking soda for stainless steel) and let it sit for a while. Then, you can scrub things off with a brush or spatula.
Baking can be a messy process with flour, salt, and sugar all over the counter. You can stir your baking mixture over a chopping board for easier cleanup. Or, you can cover the counter with plastic wrap, and toss it when you’re done.
To clean greasy pans, you can simply place a slice of bread on it instead of soaking it overnight. The bread will absorb the grease quicker than sponges. Although it’s a bit wasteful, it will save you a lot of time than using dish soap.
