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If you eat, you need to clean your kitchen every day. True story.

You may have caught on that I’m blogging the basics right now. Last week I explained How To Clean A Bathroom. Earlier this week I explained the Super Tidy. Right now I am going to blow your mind with teaching you about cleaning your kitchen.

 {And because you might be curious, you can see My Kitchen Tour HERE. I should probably update the tour, since this one is almost 3 years old, but I’ll wait until I change my curtains. That is on my to do list this year. I’m going to use fabric that is more blowy and soft. You can still get a pretty good idea of what my kitchen looks like from the old tour.}

Maybe I exaggerated a bit (or a lot) that this would blow your mind, but I’m not really sure how to make a “How To Clean A Kitchen” thing exciting. It is important, though, but you probably already know that, which is why you’ve decided to read this. Dirty kitchens lead to bugs and/or sickness and they just aren’t sanitary. Cooking in dirty kitchens is gross. Let’s not be gross, okay?! Maybe I should re-title this post “How Not To Be Gross”. That title is pretty exciting. Let’s use this momentum and start learning How To Clean Our Kitchens How To Not Be Gross!

Yes, yes, that title fits.

It might surprise you to know that writing about cleaning kitchens is so fun, I’ve done it before …. And writing this post has alerted me to so many more posts about cleaning the kitchen I now plan to write. Can’t you tell that writing about cleaning kitchens is so.much.fun.? These posts are good, if I do say so myself, so give them a look.

How To Maintain & Condition Butcher Block Counters (in 5 minutes or less) –

How I Clean My Kitchen Sink {A Video!}

How I Clean My Stainless Steel Appliances

A Washcloth A Day Keeps Bacteria Away

Daily Kitchen Cleaning – The Routine

The secret to avoiding a gross kitchen is to keep up with it while you go. This routine is not hard. In fact, doing it this way is actually the easiest way to do it. The thing is, this way requires will power and NOT procrastinating. Saving the dishes for later doesn’t make for less dirty dishes. Skip the drama and just clean while you go.

• Find time during your morning routine to empty the dishwasher. If that is too difficult, find time right before you go to bed to empty the dishwasher. However you make it work for you, start your day with an empty dishwasher.
• Fill the dishwasher throughout the day as each meal is cleaned up. While you prep each meal, including dinner, put the mixing bowls, knives, etc. right into the dishwasher as you go. The only thing that makes it into the sink are things you need to hand wash and things that are dirtied WHILE the dishwasher is running. 
• Clean the kitchen as a family at the end of dinner. Someone clears the table, someone wipes the table and counters, someone does the dishes by hand, someone dries the dishes, someone sweeps, someone takes out the garbage, and someone fills the soap in the dishwasher and starts it. Give the sink a nice wipe down when you finish the dishes and you’re good to go! Use Shaklee’s *Dish Soap and **Dishwasher Detergent, because it is safe, natural, and works better than anything I’ve tried.
• When you need to or have time, this is an optional daily task: Spot Clean/Mop the floor. This is not the normal full mopping with our steam mop. For spot mopping, I use our Rubbermaid Reveal. I fill the solution container with ***Basic H: All-Purpose Dilution.
• Every evening ends with the dishwasher running and the kitchen clean! If you’re trying to get healthier, having the kitchen clean makes it feel “closed” for the evening, which really helps you avoid the late night snacking. And seriously, enjoy your couple time after the kids are in bed so much more when you don’t have to worry about cleaning the kitchen or secretly hoping the other person will go clean it.

Clean Out The Fridge When You Make Your Grocery List –

This tip will help you avoid being Gross AND save you money. When you are creating your menu, open up your fridge and take out anything gross and make a plan with your menu to use up leftover foods. Take the two minutes RIGHT THEN to give the inside of your fridge a little wipe. Don’t make it a huge deal. Just wipe it down! It is so much easier to do this before you go grocery shopping and you’re already looking in the fridge while making your menu. If you do this, you will NEVER have a gross fridge again. Well, there will be that time when your container of milk will explode and the raw fish you’re defrosting will leak all over everything. There’s no avoiding that.

Also, please remember to wipe the bottom of your pickle jar. The bottom of pickle jars are the worst. Gross.

Weekly Kitchen Cleaning

If you use the Mary ORGANIZES Home Management Planner, Cleaning the Kitchen is a task listed for every Monday. This is not meant to be a super detailed cleaning. It should take you about 20-30 minutes, or less if it never got too dirty. Work fast and hard, and do this –

1. Wipe down your stove top. Use ****Scour Off.
2. Clean your microwave. Fill a microwavable glass measuring cup with 3 cups of water and a huge squirt of lemon juice concentrate. “Cook” the water for about 5 minutes, which should be long enough to boil the water and release a ton of steam. Move on to clean other things while this is happening.
3. Clean front of fridge, oven, dishwasher, and microwave. Use Basic H: Window Dilution to spray and wipe down. You do not need to additionally wet your cloth. {Take the link above for specific directions on cleaning stainless steel.}
4. Clean counter tops and spot clean cabinet/drawer fronts and walls. Use Basic H: All-Purpose Dilution to spray and then wipe. The spray is enough water, you do not need to wet your cleaning cloth.
5. Clean Your Kitchen Sink. Use Scour Off. {Take link above for specific directions and watch the video of me cleaning my sink.}
6. Open the microwave, remove water container carefully, and then wipe down the interior. It should be very easy to wipe off the worst messes, since the steam worked it’s magic.
7. Poor the hot lemon water down your kitchen sink, on the disposal side. This just makes it smell nice, that’s all. Why waste the heavenly scented lemon water?
8. Disinfect the garbage can. Spray the outside of the garbage can with *****Basic G: Spray Dilution and wipe.
9. Sweep.
10. Mop. —- I confess. Sometimes I save this for the day I clean my floors (Thursdays), or not. Sometimes it needs to be done Mondays and Thursdays because we have four kids who like to be independent in the kitchen and spill pour their own food and drinks. I kind of play this mopping chore fast and loose, because I will not lie: this is my least favorite chore. I’d rather clean a toilet. I can’t even explain why! I almost never mop the same time I clean the rest of my kitchen because normally I beg my husband to do it and he usually does it after dinner or when the kids are in bed. He is very nice to me. If you hate mopping, it still needs to get done. I’m truly sorry about that. I suggest bartering. I purchased a steam mop, because it cleans powerfully without chemicals. So far I’ve had a number of mops that are good, but I’ve never had one that has made me love mopping.

Deep Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

Instead of just doing a regular Spring Cleaning, I suggest a cleaning rotation year round as well. {I guide you through this in my Home Management Planner HERE.} Use Spring Cleaning for a head start to your annual maintenance, and then just to regular maintenance throughout the year.  When you deep clean your kitchen, you can Download a Checklist PDF HERE —

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I am paid when you purchase these cleaners from my Shaklee shop at any of the links below. Hopefully that fact just makes you more excited to buy them. 😉

*Dish Wash: Liquid dish soap for hand washing dishes. This lasts a very long time because it only takes a teeny-tiny squirt to clean a lot of dishes. It also doesn’t dry out skin, which is just as important as how it cleans to me. I don’t like wearing gloves to do dishes. {Click to buy Dish Wash HERE.}

**Dishwasher Detergent: This is a powder detergent that is very powerful and cost effective. Two little scoops is all it takes. Sometimes less for a lighter load of dishes. It is safe and natural, so I let my little kids scoop it out for me, which they think is very fun. Easily entertained? Definitely. Though I discourage anyone from eating it, I don’t have to worry about toddlers or future pets hurting themselves.  {Click to buy Dish Detergent HERE.}

***Basic H: The most all-purpose cleaner and the one I couldn’t live without. Used in different dilutions, it can do a million things, including cleaning windows, counters, floors, and even greasy spots. In un-diluted form it also takes off sticker stuff residue and cleans stains. {Click to buy Basic H HERE.}

****Scour Off: A fresh and fruity smelling abrasive paste that is good for difficult to clean places. It takes off all the aluminum stains in my white porcelain kitchen sink. This stuff is amazing. {Click to buy Scour Off HERE.}

*****Basic G: I use Basic G for all my bathroom cleaning and sanitizing needs. It is more effective and safer than bleach, and it doesn’t harm colors. As it kills germs and bacteria that cause smells, it acts as a deodorizer. Score! {Click to buy Basic G HERE.}

******Buy the entire cleaning kit HERE. When you order the cleaning kit, membership is free. Shaklee membership is just a savings benefit. There are no monthly minimums or strings attached. You get to be a member free for the rest of your life! The benefit of becoming a member is lots of savings for you and special member-only events! (The benefit to me is that when you become a member from one of my links, you stay MY member, and whenever you order now or in ten years, you get your discount and I get paid. Thank you!)

And now I am curious – how often do you clean your kitchen or run your dishwasher?

From my home to yours,
Mary