Your house’s kitchen is one of the places that you need to keep clean at all times. It’s where you prepare and handle food to feed yourself and your family, and we all know how important it is to make sure that the food doesn’t get contaminated with bacteria or anything harmful. As such, making sure that it’s clean and organized is of the utmost importance.
Here are some ways you can keep your kitchen as clean as possible:
Organize your shelves, drawers, and cabinets
Sometimes, we like to shove things into our kitchen shelves, drawers, and cupboards without another thought. After all, as long as it’s not full to bursting, nobody’s going to see it. But keeping your kitchen organized can be a lot more useful than you thought.
For one thing, you’ll know where everything is, making it quicker to look for that one piece of equipment you’re missing, saving you time and effort from diving into those cluttered drawers to look for it. For another, it’s safer when everything’s piled together neatly instead of haphazardly. There’s no danger of things spilling out or hitting you on the head when you open your overhead cupboards and it’s much safer for everyone involved. Not to mention that it just looks better and much more pleasing to the eye this way.
To start, you can group everything into types (utensils in this drawer, pots, and pans in this cupboard, etc.) and remember where you put them. Arrange them as neatly as possible for easy access. It helps to have trays or racks where you can sort them into their own neat compartments.
Don’t let your sink pile up
It’s tempting to just dump your dirty dishes into the sink and let them stay there for the night, or at least until you run out of clean dishes to use and have to force yourself to wash them. We know, it’s a pain. But it’s necessary. You don’t want your sink to pile up full of dirty dishes. Not only is it unsightly, but it’s just creating more work for you later on. Plus, all that gunk and food waste is just getting grosser by the minute. Keep your sink and your countertop clean by washing all those dirty dishes before they pile up. If you have a dishwasher, even better!
Dispose of garbage properly
Dispose of all the trash in your garbage can as soon as you notice that it’s full, or even as soon as you smell something foul around it. Just as you shouldn’t let the dishes pile up, you shouldn’t let your trash sit there either, maybe even more so than your dishes. Rotting food and other trash can attract insects, mice, and other pests, and potential carriers of disease. If you can, it might be best to take out the trash after every day. Be sure to clean the actual trash g=can or garbage pail every once in a while too.
Keep pests out of the kitchen
The last thing you want to see inside your kitchen, or inside your home, are pests like flies, cockroaches, and mice. You don’t want them getting to your food or touching all your kitchen stuff and potentially contaminating them with bacteria and diseases. Pest control is essential for your kitchen and your home in general.
Set up bug and rodent repellents around your house and especially in your kitchen. Always have bug spray on hand and make sure to clean your entire kitchen semi-regularly. If push comes to shove, don’t hesitate to call the pest exterminators if you have a persistent problem.
Avoid cross-contamination
When you’re chopping up raw meat on a cutting board, the bacteria from it can transfer to other food items that you cut on the same cutting board, such as fruit or vegetables. As much as possible, use a separate cutting board for different kinds of food. So you have all sorts of meat, from pork to seafood, on one, and vegetables on another to avoid cross-contamination. Make sure to clean the knife as well if you’re using the same one to chop both things. It might be a hassle to clean later, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Wipe down all surfaces
You can’t forget your countertops and other flat surfaces. If you ever spill something on it or get some dirt on it, wipe it up right away so it doesn’t stain or attract pests. This should also include your stove. Yes, we know it’s annoying getting in between all those grooves but you can accidentally get a lot of sauces and other greasy food parts on your stove so it’s better to get it all cleaned up before they get all hard and sticky.
Clean your fridge
Many people neglect their fridge but you do need to clean it on a regular basis, especially if you store a lot of food on it. Get rid of any rotten or expired food that can leave a stench and clear out any extra space. Be especially careful with meat as rotting meat can not only smell awful but potentially infect the inside of your fridge and attract pests. Using baking soda can help to get to keep your fridge smelling fresh and clean. If something spilled inside it, make sure to wipe it up and disinfect your fridge.
Cleanliness is close to godliness, as the saying goes. This is especially true for the kitchen where cleanliness is paramount to the health and safety of your family. Don’t put off cleaning your kitchen till the last minute. Take steps to actively keep it nice and clean to save yourself the trouble.
