11 Time-Saving Tricks For Cleaning Up Your Kitchen

Unsplash

In a perfect world, there would be self-cleaning kitchens for all. But we haven’t gotten that far yet so, for now, we’ll just have to be resourceful.

You don’t have to go out and buy an entire collection of cleaning products every time you want to spruce up your culinary space, and you don’t always have to make the deep cleaning a crazy, time-consuming production. Here are 11 time-saving and convenient tricks for cleaning your kitchen.

1. Clean your coffee maker with lemon and salt.

When you’ve used your coffee pot for months without giving it a solid scrub, you can use natural things you have lying around your kitchen to help. Cut up some lemon wedges and squeeze the juice into the pot. Then add a few tablespoons of salt, about two cups of ice (or however much that’ll fit) and a cup of water. Swirl the solution around a bunch of times and then pour it out. You can let it sit for longer if there are some tough coffee stains that won’t come out.

2. Tackle oil stains with more oil

For any oily gunk that you have crusted on various appliances, an easy and fast way to get rid of this is to use… more oil. Dab a dish towel in some oil and rub the stain. It should come up way easier.

3. Make a quick oven cleaner.

For a homemade oven cleaner solution, mix approximately four tablespoons of baking soda, a little dish soap, about three tablespoons of lemon juice and five tablespoons or so of vinegar. Combine these ingredients into a paste and slather your oven with it. You can use a sponge to rub it in there. Let it sit for as long as you want, and then wipe it away.

4. Store a bunch of garbage bags in the bottom of your garbage can.

Unsplash

This one’s simple. You should keep a few garbage bags at the bottom of the garbage can so when you’re done with a full bag, you don’t have to go out of the way looking for a new one. There’s always that one person in your house or apartment who forgets that there’s no bag inside the trash can and chucks some garbage in there (that you are then left to clean). So just avoid this predicament by having extra bags ready at all times.

5. Use DIY cleaning wipes.

Cleaning wipes can be expensive, so if you can make your own, you’ll be in good shape. You’ll save some money and the time that it would take to go to the store. Here’s a recipe that calls for paper towels, vinegar, water, rubbing alcohol and dish soap.

6. Clean your sponges in the microwave.

Your sponges develop all sorts of gross bacteria when they’re just sitting around with food and dirty water on them. Instead of buying a new sponge every time yours gets dirty, you can stick it in the microwave for a few minutes to kill harmful germs.

7. Unclog your drains with baking soda and vinegar.

When your sink is clogged and it’s causing some cleanliness problems in the kitchen, here’s a home remedy for unclogging so you don’t have to wait for the plumber. Pour some boiling hot water down there first, then about a half cup of baking soda and finally a mixture of one cup vinegar and one cup hot water on top of the baking soda. Let this sit for about 10 minutes and then flush out the drain.

8. Clean grill grates with an onion.

Unsplash

Cut an onion in half and rub it all over a hot grill to help clean off any charred bits that are left over. It’s weird, but it works.

9. Use rice to clean inside tricky bottles.

When you have irregular shaped bottles that you can’t seem to reach with the sponge, you can make life easier for yourself by filling the bottle with a little water, a little bit of rice and a tiny bit of dish soap. The rice will help scrub those far corners that your hand can’t reach.

10. Get rid of fridge odors with ground coffee.

For those odors that won’t quit — even after you’ve scrubbed and thrown away any potential culprits — you can put things like baking soda, coffee grounds or activated charcoal on a plate and stick them in the fridge to absorb stubborn, stinky smells. This will help speed up the process of airing out the fridge.

11. Refresh your garbage disposal with lemon.

For those kitchens that are fancy enough to have a garbage disposal, you’ll want to freshen it up down there every once in a while. Place a couple of pieces of lemon peel in the drain before you turn on the disposal for a natural freshener. You don’t have to get any more elaborate than that.