Category Archives: Cleaning

How to Clean Kitchen Cabinets: The Ultimate Guide

January 18, 2023Cleaning

Beautiful kitchen with traditional style kitchen cabinets

Clean kitchen cabinets are always a glamorous central feature in the kitchen, and when they get dirty, people notice. The majority of fingerprint marks, foodstuffs and watermarks are common causes. And harder spots to clean may also build over time. Luckily, this simple guide to cleaning kitchen cabinetry will assist in dealing with any type of stains and other surfaces.

You probably scrub your kitchen countertops daily, if not hourly. Your cabinets will probably never receive this attention—but they should. They collect food residue and dander that’s stuck on cabinet surfaces. In addition to the germs that get collected in the kitchen, it can also be dangerous in the long run. Salmonella is easily found on drawer handles. Grime and old food particles also exist where food is stored. So, cleaning out your fridge regularly is also a good idea.

That being said, let’s go through some tips on how to clean kitchen cabinets. If done the right way you’ll avoid discoloration or damaging your cabinets.

Eliminate Grease, Grime and Food Splatters from Your Kitchen Cabinets

There are three major areas to clean in the kitchen – your sink, stove and countertops. This is where all the small droplets of cooking oil splotches and steam tend to settle. They are held up and absorb particles that result in a dull or dirty surface. Fortunately, cleaning kitchen cabinets is not difficult and does not require toxic or dangerous chemicals.

What Cleaner is Safe For Wood Cabinets?

There are many cleaners out there, and many of them are bad for every kitchen cabinet. Cabinet cleaning needs to be done with a solution that is mild and doesn’t damage any finishes on your cabinets. These include painted wood, high gloss finishes and any laminate, among many others.

Make a mixture of white vinegar and water or dish soap and water. These mild cleaning solutions will help you deep clean wood cabinets daily without damaging the finish.

Mix 50/50 solution with white vinegar & hot water or dish soap and water. For the really tough stuff, use 1 part baking soda for every 2 parts water. Put the mixture into spray bottles. Spray the mist lightly on cabinets and let it sit for 1-2 minutes, then wash the surfaces with a soft towel.

If you have cabinets that are extra sensitive to moisture, spray your cleaning solution on the cloth instead of the cabinets directly to avoid any possible damage.

IMPORTANT: Too much moisture could damage your cabinets and could void your manufactures warranty. When cleaning wood cabinets, be especially careful of this. To read more on this skip down to the “don’t soak your cabinets” section.

How Often Should I Clean My Kitchen Cabinets?

Cupboards and the exterior should be cleaned each week. But each month, cabinets need a thorough cleaning. It sounds overwhelming but taking it one cabinet at a time should be easier.

Using the time of your dishwasher, you could use the opportunity to wash out the area where those dishes normally sit. Make a note to clean your plates and glasses while cleaning your kitchen cabinets.

Prepare Your Cleaning Solution

Almost all cabinets, such as wood, laminate, plastic, and painted cabinets, can have their surfaces cleaned using hot water or white vinegar mixed with hot water. It’s a simple and mild solution that helps remove food residues and grime from your cupboards.

Grease-cutting dish soap is a gentle cleaner, useful as an abrasive degreaser, removing even the hard build-up on the exterior. The cleaning solution may also be used to clean cabinets, but the best way of checking cleaners is in a hidden place to ensure the cleaning will not affect the finish of your cabinet. Make a quick reading of the instructions before use, and test at a hidden location.

Remove Thick Grease Buildup

Sometimes grease buildup on kitchen cabinets can be so thin it’s difficult to see. Use the soap solution and instructions mentioned before. You might need to repeat this several times, depending on how thick the grease layer is.

If the grease and grime you are trying to get rid of is thick, you may scrub it lightly with a mixture of baking soda and water, mixing them with one part baking soda and two parts warm water. Use a spray bottle to lightly mist the cleaning solution onto the kitchen cabinets and let the baking soda work its magic. Let it sit for one to two minutes, and then wipe the surface with a clean cloth.

Again, if you have cabinets that are extra sensitive to moisture, dampen your cloth instead of spraying directly onto the cabinets to avoid any possible damage. – Refer to the “don’t soak your cabinets” section below.

Clean Glass or Mirror Surfaces

Clean the glass or mirror surfaces of your kitchen cabinets by spraying a commercial glass cleaner solvent onto a clean, soft cloth or microfiber cloth before rubbing it onto glass or mirrors.

Never spray glass directly to remove dirt and build-up on the glass. You could get some on your painted cabinets, and the paint could get discoloured, or the surface could get damaged. After the glass cleaning solvent has loosened all the dirt up, wipe cabinets dry with a paper towel or a dry microfiber cloth.

Empty Each Cabinet

Starting with the top cabinet, going down, emptying the contents and removing any damaged shelves if needed. Emptying your kitchen cabinets will help with cleaning the inside of your cabinets more effectively. It’ll make it easy to clean things like large amounts of crumbs and see any damage that needs fixing.

Wipe Handles, Knobs and Pulls

When using metal hardware on wood cabinets, wash the surfaces of the wood and gently scrub the hardware with warm water in a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water. Take out cabinet hardware, if necessary, before cleaning to avoid getting the wood cabinets to bulge due to the wood soaking up too much moisture, and the finishes from bubbling or discoloration.

Work From the Top Down

Start with the top cabinets, then gradually descend from the inside out. Start with the interiors, the back wall, then the sides, then the shelves and drawers. Don’t forget your cabinet’s edges and corners. Spray cleaning solution on an old toothbrush and gently scrub if necessary.

Rinse With a Damp Cloth

Rinse your damp cloth in clean water, wring it out until it’s damp again and wipe your kitchen cabinets down thoroughly, wiping off all the soap residue. This step is critical to prevent any wood kitchen cabinets from soaking up too much moisture or any finishes from starting to bubble or get discoloured. In short, wiping the cabinet surface will prevent water from damaging any surfaces.

Wipe Off the Cleaner with a Final Rinse

Wipe the cleaner off your kitchen cabinets with a clean, soft cloth dampened with warm water, then wipe them dry afterwards. Water left on kitchen cabinets too long or left dripping may cause discoloration and damage, especially if your cabinets are wooden. Wood kitchen cabinets tend to soak in moisture and bulge. This is something you want to avoid at all costs, so make sure to wipe them with a dry cloth or paper towel.

Don’t Soak Your Cabinets

Too much moisture could corrode the cabinet paint off the cabinet surfaces or cause bulging of the wood or bubbling of the paint. When cleaning wood cabinets, be especially careful of this.

Clean every cabinet from top to bottom, and do not skip any trims that collect dirt and grime. Get into tough-to-reach places using a soft-bristled brush or an old soft toothbrush. You could add more cleaning solution on a washcloth if necessary but never let it drip or leave it to dry. Make sure to squeeze out excess water into the sink when needed.

Make sure not to leave any moisture sitting for too long. If you have 5-piece doors or melamine cabinets, then be extra careful as these are extra sensitive to moisture. That’s because the moisture can easily get behind the panel, running the risk of the cabinet doors swelling from the moisture.

Do Tackle Tight Spots with an Old, Soft Toothbrush

Occasionally cabinetry has ornamental or deep grooves, which are difficult to get to with a clean cloth. Use a toothbrush to scrub those difficult-to-get-to surfaces gently. Keep an eye on the corners of drawer knobs and handles. Depending on the style, they may also have some nooks and crannies that are hard to get to with a rag.

DON’T Let Water Enter the Hinges

Don’t let water or other moisture get into the hinges of your kitchen cabinets. The last thing you want is rusty hardware in your kitchen. To clean the hinges, simply use a dry clean microfiber cloth to clean out dirt or debris. If you find areas with some residue, spray some cleaning solution on your cloth and wipe it off lightly, then wipe it dry using the dry microfiber cloth.

Check for Damages

After you’re done with cabinet cleaning, whether you used the vinegar mixture, the soap cleaning solution or baking soda for those really greasy cabinets, checking for damages at the end is still a strong recommendation. Check for damages in your entire kitchen, from the cabinet door to the inside of the kitchen cabinet to the countertop. Also, check for damages in your sink and your appliances.

Fill Your Cabinets Back Up

Before refilling shelves and drawers, inspect the cookware, dishes, food packages, etc., to ensure those items aren’t dusty or dirty. Even if everything looks pristine, giving the contents a swipe with a clean cloth will make it worthy of returning to your sparkling clean cabinets.

Now it’s time to fill them up with everything organized and in its place.

Final Thoughts

Kitchen cabinets get dirty quite fast. You spill and spatter everything from cake batter to olive oil to the grease from cooking. Your 8-year-old help you make a fruit smoothie and turns on the blender before you are able to put the lid on it, sending the smashed strawberries and banana flying across the room.

Following this guide will help you avoid the buildup of dirt, grease and grime in the kitchen, and with this guide, cleaning your kitchen should be a cinch.

Basic Safety in the Kitchen and Ways to Avoid Injury

January 18, 2023Cleaning, Health Zone

A child playing with a power bar, which is the opposite of Safety in the Kitchen

Safety in the kitchen is super important for avoiding all sorts of injuries and hazards. We hear ‘safety first’ so often, yet we tend to forget.

The kitchen is a space full of inventiveness and creation, but just like everything else, there are hazards – way more than any other space in the home.

The list of dangers in the kitchen is huge. And to avoid possible injury there are some precautions you can take, some of which include creating a set of rules and sticking to them.

So, in this article, we’ll go through some basic best practices that promote safety in the kitchen along with some ways to avoid those possible injuries. With that in mind, let’s dive straight into the first and most important step – rules!

Start With a Set of Kitchen Safety Rules

Food is arguably the best way to bring people together! And putting a meal together is a daily thing for many. However, some overlook the risks in the kitchen.

Following best practices for kitchen safety is essential and the best way to do that is to create a set of rules. Many have an unspoken and unlisted set of rules for the kitchen but forget them when something goes wrong. So, it’s best to have them written down, and keep going back to them for reference.

We made it easy for you and have provided a short list of kitchen safety rules you can either copy or use as a reference to write down your own.

1. Clean as You Go

Cleaning as you go is a good habit to develop and stick to. It provides you with a clean working space as you go through each step, and it won’t leave you with a giant mess to clean up at the end.

So, wipe down your cutting boards, put scraps in the compost bin and stack your dirty dishes beside the sink.

Clean the workspace after each step. A clear workspace is a safe one.

2. No Running in the Kitchen

This one is self-explanatory, and more for the kids.

You can trip when running or slip and burn yourself on a hot pan with hot oil splattering all over the place – including you – as you try to catch yourself from falling.

There are too many possible injury scenarios to list for this one, so make this one a priority.

3. Have Oven Mitts or a Dry Cloth Handy

When grabbing something off the stove or out of the oven, it’s good to have oven mitts or a dry cloth handy so you don’t burn yourself.

Burns and cuts are the most common injuries in the kitchen, so you’ll read more about them later.

4. Keep Your Face and Body Clear from a Hot Oven

The oven can let out a burst of steam when opening the door. Since heat rises, this can be especially painful when you put your face right above the oven door as you open it.

Open the oven door and wait 2-3 seconds for the burst of heat to rise and escape, then look into the oven.

5. Tilt the Lid Away from Your Body

Just like when opening a hot oven, your hot pots and pans should be treated the same as the oven when using a lid. However, in this situation, you don’t only have hot steam coming up, but also condensation dripping.

Lift the lid off a boiling pot tilting away from your body and make sure your face is not directly above the hot pot or pan. This way you control which side lifts first, controlling which side the steam comes out of and which side the condensation drips down.

Lifting the lid by tilting away from yourself will ensure the condensation drips down away from you avoiding a liquid burn.

6. Turn the Pan Handles Away from You

Panhandles can get in the way when working near the stove. One accidental bump against the handle can send a hot pan flying, including any hot liquids (like oil).

Prevent dangerous spills by turning panhandles away from you.

7. Don’t Touch Your Face After Washing Your Hands

Avoid touching your face after washing your hands. Pro chefs use their shoulders when they want to itch their face. If you end up itching your face with your hands, make sure to wash your hands again before getting back to work on your recipe.

Good hygiene is key in the kitchen, we’ll get into that a little more later.

8. Tie Back Long Hair

Nobody likes hair in their food. If you have long hair, tie it back to lower the chance of it landing in your food and to ensure your view isn’t blocked.

9. Keep your nails clipped and clean

Keeping your nails short and clean is one of the top hygiene priorities next to washing your hands. That’s because the area under the fingernails is like a nesting site for bacteria.

While each hand is home to hundreds of thousands of bacteria, the fingertips harbour that much per fingernail.

So, keep your nails short and wash your hands often so that you don’t have all those germs transferring into your food.

10. Unplug Small Appliances Right Away

Unplug small appliances like blenders and toasters right after you’re done using them. This can protect their life span because the more items you have plugged in around the house, the more susceptible they are to damage through an unexpected power surge.

While the risk of an electrical fire from small appliances is small when they’re in good working condition, the only way to ensure that risk is eliminated is to keep them unplugged while not in use.

11. Don’t Leave the Stove Unattended

Leaving the stove or unattended while it’s on is one of the biggest causes of house fires. That’s because this is also one of the most common mistakes that people make. They rush because they’re late for work and forget to pay attention to the stove or lie on the sofa and take a catnap.

Often people think they can turn their backs for just a second, but that’s just enough to start a house fire. Never leave food unattended when baking or cooking.

Last but not least is to keep your stove free from any flammable items.

Hygiene in the Kitchen

Now that we’ve covered a few rules that we think are good to include in your set of kitchen safety rules, let’s get into some hygiene.

As we mentioned before, washing your hands often and keeping your fingernails short and clean is paramount to hygiene in the kitchen. You would think that it’s obvious and common sense, but many people forget this part.

Don’t just wash your hands before handling food, but also wash them when going from handling veggies to handling raw meat to avoid cross-contamination.

The chart below shows an easy-to-follow process for washing your hands.

Which Clothes are Safe to Wear in the Kitchen?

Many people don’t really ask themselves what to wear when working in the kitchen. Most only start wondering about the answer after something bad has happened or when they see it in a guide like this. So, let’s get into it.

Ensure you wear an apron to keep your clothes clean. If you don’t have an apron, an old shirt will be fine, as long as it’s not too big or too loose.

Loose clothing can be quite dangerous. For example, baggy sleeves can get caught in mixer beaters and other equipment, or worse, catch fire!

You can check out what Amazon has for aprons if you have neither an apron nor an old shirt.

Wearing a hairnet is also a good idea to prevent hair from falling into your meal.

And lastly, wear shoes in the kitchen. We can’t express enough how important this step is! For comfort and ergonomic safety, shoes that have good shock absorption will help greatly with being in the kitchen for hours at a time.

Shoes will also help greatly with the handling of knives! Have you ever dropped a knife and just barely missed your foot? Wear enclosed shoes just in case you don’t miss your foot the next time you drop your knife.

Speaking of knives, let’s get into some basic guidelines for knives.

Keep Your Knives Sharp

If you prep meals in the kitchen daily, you’ll want to keep your knives sharp by sharpening often. Once a week should be just fine.

Failing to sharpen your blade can lead to chips in the sharp end, which then you’re left with either disposing of the knife, or gradually sharpening it out over the course of multiple sharpening sessions. However, the downside of sharpening out chips in the blade is that you’ll have less of the blade left.

The upside is that this is convenient to consider resetting the angle of your blade since you’re doing the heavy work anyways. Here’s a great article about knife edges by kitchenknifeguru.com, even showing knife edges under a microscope!

Keeping your knives sharp is also important because – believe it or not – a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one! Here’s why…

A dull knife forces you to use more pressure, making it easier to slip and cut something other than your food…like your fingers.

Cutting Food Safely

So now that your knives are sharp, let’s talk about some safe techniques for using your knives when you’re actually cutting your food.

Whenever you’re handling your knives your number one focus should be to prevent injury to yourself and everyone around you!

So, always slice away from your hands and mind your fingertips! In case you do slip or miss, you don’t want your hand to catch the sharp knife.

Next, an easy way to mince safely is to keep the tip of the knife on the cutting board. And when chopping, curl your fingers under and hold the food with your fingertips, guiding your blade with your knuckles.

NOTE: Pay extra attention to steak knives, they’re extremely sharp and meant for cutting meat!

And we know it’s tempting, but resist licking off any spreads or cream cheese off the knife. Cutting your tongue is no fun.

Lastly, ensure your chopping board is secure and that you choose the right knife for the task at hand. Securing the chopping board is as simple as dampening a cloth and placing it underneath.

Now that you’ve cut up your food, let’s get into some cooking safety guidelines to follow.

Cooking Safety

Cooking safely is mostly about paying attention to what’s happening around you and thinking a little bit ahead.

We already mentioned a few examples earlier like turning away panhandles from your body, opening the lid by tilting it away from yourself and waiting for the burst of heat to escape the oven when opening it.

Now we’ll go into just a few more kitchen safety tips when cooking:

When boiling water or sauce, stir away from your body to avoid any splashing onto yourself to prevent liquid burns – which hurt more than dry burns.

That’s because steam has the capacity to carry 4000 times the heat that dry air can. Also, dry burns stop burning you the moment contact separation happens, but hot liquid keeps burning you until the liquid cools down enough or you wipe it off.

That being said, be even more careful when handling hot liquids or steam.

The above reminds us about this next one: to clean up spills immediately! Depending on the spill, it could create unnecessary smoke, or you could slip and fall.

You don’t want to start cooking just so you can eat hospital food instead of the meal that you intended to make.

Now, when cooking, have 2 cutting boards that you use, not just one. Using one cutting board for your veggies, and the other for fish, poultry and meat will prevent cross-contamination.

Next, we want to walk you through some electrical safety rules which you might not have thought of.

Electrical Safety

Electricity is not that hot a topic in the kitchen since the kitchen is all about food and the fancy tools and gadgets you get to handle, nevertheless, electrical safety has the same priority as any other safety topic.

Let’s dive in:

Never stick a fork or knife into a toaster to get food while it’s plugged in! You can get electrocuted. Unplug the toaster, wait a few minutes for it to cool down, then flip it upside down to get your food out.
Put grease fires out using baking soda or salt. Don’t use water, flour or sugar, unless you want fireworks inside your house. If the fire is too big for some baking soda or salt, use a fire extinguisher!
Don’t use extension cords in the kitchen. It’s way too easy to spill and make electrical shock accidents happen.
Keep wet hands and liquids away from all outlets! Again, this could lead to an electrical shock!

Lastly, we want to walk you through some fire safety and help you be ready if you ever encounter one.

Fire Safety

When it comes to fire safety, the highest priority is to have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

Why not only a smoke alarm? If you have a gas furnace, hot water tank or a gas stove, you’re going to need it. That’s because carbon monoxide has no smell and is known as “the silent killer,” and it’s as dangerous as it sounds!

Now, the next thing you’re going to want to make sure you have is a working fire extinguisher!

Grease and electric fires are some of the most dangerous, and they’re not that easy to put out since both need extra caution.

Yes, you can put out small grease fires with baking soda or salt, but if that fire gets even a little too big for some baking soda to handle, you’re going to need that fire extinguisher along with a phone to call 911!

When you get ahold of the fire department stay on the phone until they arrive.

Final Thoughts

We’ve gone through quite an extensive guide in this article, and yet we’ve only scratched the surface.

Yes, there’s a lot, but kitchen safety doesn’t have to be very complicated. All you really need is to pay attention to what’s happening around you, think ahead a little bit and use common sense.

Also, reading manuals might not be a fun way to spend part of your afternoon, but it can save you from sparking up your microwave, melting a dish or even causing a fire.