Easily keep a Kitchen clean

Life these days can be hectic, and keeping up with your everyday cleaning can seem tiresome and can quickly become overlooked. So if you are not lucky enough to have a domestic worker keeping house for you, cleaning can be a nagging chore.

I am always looking for ways to speed up the aftermath of my cooking experiments, so I have been working on my clean up routine for quite a while.

My favourite tip:

When you are in the kitchen making a meal, clean as you go – return spices to their places, put all dishes in the sink, and wipe down the counter tops. You can even sweep and mop your kitchen in the time it takes when your pasta is boiling.

But if you are a messy cook who can only handle the cooking part, and not focus on the cleaning part, here is my top four tips to keep your kitchen clean in 10 minutes:

Tip one – set a timer so you keep on schedule, it’s easy to get distracted

Tip two – plan what should be done, I am a cleaner who easily gets sucked into cleaning more (its hard to stop cleaning once I have started – strange)

So in your daily after meal prep cleanup, know exactly what should be done

Tip three – hot soapy water is king, fill up the sink when you start cooking so that as you use dishes and utensils you pop them in the sink and soak them making them easier to clean.

Tip four – Keep cleaning supplies on hand or within reach so you can keep quickly get to the task instead of searching at the back of the cabinet for cleaning supplies or not having the mop on hand and skipping that step.

So now you have the prep for everyday cleaning set up, here is how to get started:

– clear the general trash accumulated from cooking like plastic wrap, food containers, cuttings from veggies etc and dump them in the bin (ps is your bin full? Make a family member take it out)

– Replace all unused items (spices, dishes) or remove all items that do not belong in the kitchen

– Sweep the kitchen quick, before dishwashing possibly wets the floor

– Wash the dishes, or load the dishwasher to get those soaked dishes clean quick

– Wipe down the counter tops and stove, also do a spot check for any drips down the side of the prep areas cabinets

– Dry and pack away your dishes (if hand washed) get the family involved to speed things up

– Quickly mop the kitchen floor, I find a mop with a spray attached to it is most efficient for a quick daily clean

– relax with a nice glass of wine or some internet surfing and learn blackjack rules so you can play and win.

Once you get into the routine above or tweak it to fit into your life better, you will have a fresh and clean kitchen on a daily basis. Of course you can skip a step or two (mop every day ha-ha). But naturally you are going to have to do the deep cleanse once a week (twice a month for the max).