Keeping Your Kitchen Clean?

[mudbug]

This seems most appropriate for the "Equipment Forum" since cleaning applies to all the equipment in our kitchens...

Assuming you do try to keep the kitchen clean (I know it seems futile sometimes)... LOL!

How do you go about cleaning your home kitchen? Do you clean as you go? What order do you clean things in? What are your favorite cleaning solutions, tips, techniques, products, sponges, towels, storage solutions, etc? How often do you try? Do you save for compost? What about left overs in the fridge? [/i]

[ShawtyCat]

My mother drilled this into my head at an early age. Plus it comes in handy with the kids. My little girl left a dish on the table a few times and my baby boy grabbed it and threw it on the floor. I broke. Lots of dish shards. Now she has to put her dirty dishes in the sink always. Just like my mom taught me. Saves clean up time.

As for the professional kitchen cleaning is a must unless you love showing up in court to pay those hefty fines.

[katbalou]

i have 2 kids i use as slave labor. just kidding. actually my husband usually follows behind me. he says that all those years having dishwashers doing the work spoiled me!
i'm actually replacing my kitchen counter top as it is too unsanitary, it is 4" grouted tile and never seems clean. it drives me nuts! and you can't roll anything out on it either.
my sponges get thrown in the dishwasher every few days and i have enough kitchen towels for 3 houses. i'm constantly throwing them in the washing machine.
i do compost veggies and fruits, but i'm losing my garden this year to an inground pool, so it will be a while until i need the compost again as i have to figure out where the gardens new location. not that i'm complaining about the trade off.

[Suzanne]

Must admit: (at home) I no longer wipe up my stove after I cook something that boils over; I leave it for the cleaning person who comes each week. However, I wipe down my counters constantly, ride my hubby for not putting his dishes in the sink at least (unless he's REALLY busy with work, in which case I do it for him), and otherwise always clean up after myself when I cook or make the salad. Since we eat a LOT of salad, I wish we could compost, but the neighbors who maintain the roof garden of our apartment building have never asked for it, so ....

Leftovers -- everything goes into a plastic container of an appropriate size (not too big; less extra air to help foods spoil) into the fridge. And I mean EVERYTHING -- I often save the fat and bones we cut out of cooked chops before we take a bite. If I don't re-use the stuff within a couple of days, the container is labeled and frozen.

Cleaning solutions: you mean, chemicals?!?! I admit to having and occasionally using Lysol cleaners on my kitchen counters, but more often I just wet a (used) paper towel to wipe off whatever is there.

[Svadhisthana]

I chose "other-please explain". I clean each time I cook-counters surfaces, dishes and what-not. I also like to keep a small rubbermaid tub filled with soapy water next to the sink so I can clean certain dishes as I go(knives, measuring spoons, cups, wisks) and leave the disposal at my disposal Weekly(sometimes more often) I'll do more major cleaning of floors, counters, cabinets, the ceiling fan, fridge, etc. I have kids so sweeping is a three times a day event as is wiping down the table and kitchen chairs. My husband and I have been talking about getting a maid lately-maybe once a week. Seems like a good idea to me.



Speaking of cleaning solutions- I have recently been using more baking soda, Borax, vinegar, salt and lemon juice. They work so well, most of them are safer around wee ones and they are much less expen$ive than your run of the mill cleaning supplies from the buy and bag.

[marmalady]

I have a small galley type kitchen, so cleaning up is almost imperative, especially if I'm doing a marathon cooking session. I can't stand to start another project unless I've cleaned up from the last one! But I do have a few exceptions!

I have a cleaning crew who come in once a week, and do the stove from top to bottom, so i don't mess with the stove unless I've made a real mess!

And we're all guilty in my house of leaving the dinner dishes til the next morning, mainly because of our crazy evening schedule.

here's a related question - How often do you clean your Fridge?!!! isn't it like an archeological expedition when you do?!

[kokopuffs]

May I suggest purchasing a 5 pound box of baking soda for use as a mild abrasive for cleaning counter tops. Just pout some onto the surface and moisten just enough to make into a paste. Rub with a sponge - just like your mothers instructed you!

You might consider baking soda as a first line gentle cleaner. It works great for removing the scum, the dirty, gummy substance that accumulates on top of cabinets - you know, the surfaces near the ceiling where niknaks can be displayed.

[ShawtyCat]

I just use soap and water. Then a sealer every 6 months. Granite is very poreous (sp?) Hmmm, maybe I should park my dictionary next to the cookbooks by the bed.

As for my fridge. HA! I think King Tut's cousin is in there somewhere. I try to do it twice a year. Yeah I know I have to do it sooner but Ive been pregnant most of 99 to 2000 and 2001-June 2002. New baby. Clean fridge. No contest. Baby wins. When they are older Ill clean it more often.

What do you use to clean your fridge? I use a bleach and water solution to wipe it down and sanitize it.

[Svadhisthana]

I try to clean the fridge every week-the day before I buy groceries so that I have a nice clean fridge to put groceries into and I know what to put on my shopping list for the comming week. It's not as gross to dispose of leftovers that haven't turned strange colors and morphed into different food groups. Baking soda works for this too. Here is a link to more environmentally friendly cleaning solutions and this is a useful site as well.
Another favorite of mine is The Queen of Clean.

[chiffonade]

I clean up after myself during the cooking process. Those bad dishwashing liquid commercials - or that horrible Brawny paper towel commercial - depict a sheer waste of time and the poorest of planning. No wonder there are some people who don't like to cook because of "the mess."

After assembling something to put either on top of the stove for a long-cook, or in the oven, I head for the sink. By the time the dish is finished cooking/baking, the kitchen is clean and I can really enjoy what I've prepared. If I'm cooking something that needs my constant attention like something sauteed or stir fried, I do my best to clean up prior to starting that cooking process. I simply can't enjoy eating something when I know I have 2 hours' cleaning ahead of me after I finish it.

Even in a professional kitchen, it's terribly inconsiderate to the dishwasher to dump a whole bunch of once-used utensils in the sink. It's the sign of a huge ego and it doesn't take a second to rinse something off after you've stirred a pot with it.

What makes my choice "other" is that, every few weeks I do a deep clean. It takes a while and basically puts things back in order after a well-intentioned teenager may have put something back in the wrong place.

[Peachcreek]

We do the dishes and clean up the kitchen after dinner every night. We recycle our paper, metal, plastics and glass. I don't like using paper towels, I'd rather use a sponge or dishtowel to clean the stove and counters. I also detest aerosol cleaners, especially oven cleaner which I won't allow in the house. I don't like the idea of breathing that stuff when I use it.
Our fridge which is out in our pantry is another story. Out of sight, out of mind.....

[Isa]

I could say I clean my kitchen as I go, keeping things in order at all time. At the end of the day, I clean the counter, wash the floor, change the dish towels and put the sponge and the chiffon in a bleach solution. If I said all that I'd be lying.

It's really harder to do thing as I go now but I do try to keep things as clean as possible. If I can not finish cleaning the kitchen in one day it's the first thing I'll do the next morning, condition permitted of course.

[Pete]

Alright, I had to choose other since there was no catagory for leaving it until you have run out of everything, and it is piled so high that you can't see the back door. Strange, I demand a spotless kitchen at work, but at home my wife and I are terrible at cleaning up. We just let it pile up until we have to clean and do dishes (nothing left to eat on) or until one of us just freaks about it and goes on a cleaning rampage. Yes, I know, SAD!!!!

[Mezzaluna]

Like Shawtycat, I also have a granite counter which I wipe constantly and seal a couple of times a year on average. I don't clean the cooktop completely every time (and the oven... well, it's a bear so I do it only when I HAVE to!). I let my cleaning crew do that too, unless it really needs it. I wish I could pay them to clean the oven, but they won't. The cooktop is Viking, and it comes apart so I can wash it in the sink. I use sponges and put them in the dishwasher, too, or slosh them with a bleach solution. I use paper towels for big food spills, but dish towels for drying clean hands and utensils.

In my bad old bachelorette days living in apartments, I'd leave dishes in the sink for days at a time; not a good habit, but there's my little secret out! I guess now I have a great kitchen and I want it to look good.

[Matthew357]

I subscribe to the clean when the dishes get to the lip of the sink method. Everything else I clean when I use it.

At work, I clean whenever I get the time.

Matt