While you should clean your apartment kitchen every day, occasionally you will need to exceed daily expectations to make it shine. Peep these helpful tips to deep-clean your kitchen apartment. Whether you are hosting guests, or sick of looking at a mess, this will give you the cleanest kitchen possible.
Collect What You Need
Before you deep clean your kitchen, you will need to collect all of the supplies and have them within an arm’s reach. Go through your apartment and bring a dust mop, stepladder, rags, a small bucket, small box, sponges, vacuum, cleaning solutions for glass and surfaces, dish soap, oven cleaner, and a wet mop to the kitchen. It will take about an hour and a half to clean your kitchen; be sure you budget this time into your day.
Begin With Junk Removal
Begin by placing items and clutter throughout your kitchen in the small box. This is not an actual clean; this is merely moving junk out of the way so you can clean, worry about organizing this box later. Skip cleaning the floors for non, they will get cleaned later.
Work Top to Bottom: Walls First
Now is where the cleaning starts; use the dust-mop and begin with the ceiling. Make sure to work to the corners of the walls were spider webs and dust accumulate. Air vents and fans are easily missed places that will stick out like a sore thumb when the rest of the room is clean. When the ceiling and commonly missed spots are clean, spot clean the walls as needed and remember to clean doorknobs and light switches, too.
Art, Photos, Decorations
All art, decorations, and photos in your kitchen should get dusted as well. Be mindful when cleaning art and photographs; never spray cleaning solution directly on the glass or frame as it can slip through the cracks and destroy your art or photo. A safer clean is to spray the solution into a folded cloth and then proceed to clean your photograph or art.
Window Coverings Get Cleaned Too
If you have windows in your kitchen, you most likely have drapes or curtains. Take off your window coverings and add them in with your laundry. You will be shocked at how dirty they get. With the window coverings off, take the time to clean the window and windowsill. Your windows may not be dirty, but your windowsill probably has dirt, pebbles, and dead bugs.
Refrigerator and Stove, Oven, or Range
Most ovens have an “oven cleaner” button or setting. Use this function so you can clean the fridge while the oven cleans itself. Your oven cleaner might smell raunchy; open the windows and turn on your kitchen fan to ease the smell of the oven cleaner. Start cleaning your fridge from the back moving forward. Take out all of the shelves and drawers in your fridge, place them in the sink or on the counter, and use your vacuum or dust mop to clean out the interior. With the shelves and drawers out, use this as an opportunity to wash them down before wiping out the inside of your fridge. Should you smell unpleasant aromas, place an open box of baking soda inside of your fridge to help with the bad odors. After finishing your fridge, the oven should be done and ready for you to wipe it out. Follow the oven cleaner’s instructions to make sure you cleanse the inside of your oven properly.
Clean the Stovetop and High Touch Areas
Take off any knobs, burners, and spill catchers from your stove and wipe it all down. Do not slack getting all of the crumbs stuck in the hard-to-reach places. If you have an electric stove, the top is probably glass; the best option to clean your stovetop is to clean the glass.
Move to the Smaller Appliances
Now you can move to the smaller appliances, such as the microwave, toaster, and blender. Give all the appliances a good wipe down and empty the crumbs from the toaster. If your microwave has pieces of food stuck on the inside that routine scrubbing cannot clean, boil a cup of water in the microwave to remove stains quickly. Bring a cup of lemon juice to a boil in your microwave to eliminate any odors.
Even the Dishwasher has to get Washed
With an empty dishwasher, run it on the most intense setting. Add vinegar and baking soda for added cleaning power. Most commonly forgotten is the food trap; be sure to clean the food trap on the bottom of the dishwasher as well.
Purge and Rearrange Drawers and Cabinets
Unkept drawers and cabinets are possibly the most irritating part of any dirty kitchen. Nothing is worse than opening your cupboard and having all the Tupperware spill out on you. Take everything out of your draws and cupboards and wipe them down. Anything that does not belong in your cupboard can be thrown in the small box mentioned earlier for junk and clutter. Anything that is not wanted or needed should be donated or thrown away. Before cramming everything back into your cabinets or drawers, now would be the perfect time to use drawer or cupboard organizers to arrange everything better than it was.
Finally, the Floors
Like any other floor, vacuum or sweep the large dirt and debris out of your way before you mop. If the mop did not clean well enough, the best way to get the cleanest possible floor is to get on your hands and knees and scrub with a rag or sponge. If you are breaking your back to clean the floor, you might as well clean the baseboards while you are already on your hands and knees.
