Kitchen Cleaning Tips and Tricks

• Get rid of clutter. Keep your counters clear, your sink empty and clean, and your stove sparkling. When you cook it will be much easier to clean up afterwards.
• Sweep cobwebs off your walls with a telescoping duster, and wipe them down with a sudsy washcloth once a week to eliminate grease build up and kitchen odors.
• Wash your wooden cabinets down with Murphy's Oil soap once a week.
• Mr Clean Magic Erasers will get your grungy white appliances and painted wooden trim clean again.
• Use a little baking soda on your countertops. Moisten, sprinkle on the baking soda and wait 20 minutes. Scrub in with a circular motion, then rinse thoroughly.
• Sweep and damp mop your kitchen floor every night before you go to bed.
• Ants do not like Orange Clean. Use it on floors and counters.
• Spray your doorsills and windowsills with ant killer, OUTSIDE of your home.
• Ants don't like cucumber peels. Put a few in drawers where they are found.
• Mix borax and sugar 50/50 and sweep into corners and cracks. Ants carry it home and it kills the nest.
• Roaches like water. If other methods fail, turn off the water supply to your dishwasher and wash dishes by hand, and pour a little vinegar down your drains just before you go to bed.
• Keep a drawer filled with cloth towels and use them instead of paper towels for kitchen cleanup. You can use dishtowels, linen towels, old facecloths, even cut up bath towels. Just toss them in with your regular laundry when dirty.
• No need to buy expensive scrubbies if you can knit or crochet your own dishcloths from inexpensive cotton yarn. They are much easier on your dishes and last far longer than the sponge scrubbies.
• Really sticky saucepans and skillets? Sprinkle with baking soda, add a few cups of water, and bring to a boil. That stuck on goo will come right off.
• 40% of the gas used by your gas stove is used by the pilot lights. Turn them off. Do NOT blow them out - the gas will keep escaping. You must tighten the set screw that controls the gas flow to the pilot light, and turn the flow of gas OFF.
• Keep your refrigerator free of dust - check the bottom plate in the front and the grill over the motor behind the unit. A free flow of air helps your motor work more efficiently.
• Cut liquid hand soaps by 25-50%, and it will be fine for quick hand washings and children's grubby fingers.
• Put a wet towel in your dirty microwave. Set the timer for two minutes. Wait five minutes, then just wipe the inside of your microwave down. All the baked on food will be softened by the steam and come right off.
• Pour boiling water down your drains every week or so to keep them clear and running smoothly.
• Refill foam soap dispensers with 1/3 regular liquid hand soap and 2/3 water.
• Cut your dish soap 50/50 with water and it will last longer.
• One of the best cleaning solutions for the kitchen is "BizGreen". Combine Biz Liquid with Simple Green liquid, 50/50. Fill up a spray bottle 1/3 of the way with BizGreen and the rest water. Use to clean counters, woodwork, and appliances.
• Save the waxed paper from cereal boxes and use it for messy jobs. Peel your carrots and potatoes on top, set it under a jar or canister when refilling, lay it down when cleaning out the disposal, etc.
• Turn off the DRY setting on your dishwasher. Your dishes will dry all on their own and you'll save energy.
• Buy bleach tablets at Lowes or Home Depot. Each tablet makes a gallon of bleach - at 1/10th the cost of liquid bleach. Save your old bleach containers, and just add a tablet and water.