A well maintained kitchen is aesthetically pleasing and helpful to your overall wellbeing. Even if your least favorite chore is to handle dirty dishes and appliances, you can’t afford to overlook the importance of kitchen cleaning. So, screw your “LAD”, get set and GO!!
Know Your Ingredients first:
Before getting your hand wet on DIY cleaning recipes, it is extremely crucial that you understand what these ingredients actually do. A few seconds on this:
Baking soda: Cleans surfaces, softens water, deodorizes and scours.
White vinegar: Removes stains, odors, wax buildup and mildew. It also cuts grease. Adding acid in vinegar, you can kill 99% of bacteria, 82% of mold and 80% of germs at once.
Hydrogen peroxide: Considered as a safer option for disinfecting, compared to chlorine bleach.
Liquid castile soaps: Helps in cleaning deeply.
Countertops Cleaning:
Things you will need: Vinegar, castile soap, lemon juice, spray bottle
Methods:
Keep water and vinegar in a spray bottle (1:1 ratio) and shake it. Then spray the solution on your countertops. In case you don’t like the smell, you can add a few drops of lemon juice or liquid castile soap.
If you have a concrete or granite countertop, there’s a bit different process. All you need to do is sprinkle baking soda on the surfaces and scrub. You can add a few drops of essential oil for a better smell. Another good option for dealing with your stone countertops is mixing 5 parts water and 1 part liquid castile soap and applying it on the surfaces.
Warning!
- Never use vinegar on granite or stone countertops. It can scratch the stone surface. Also, don’t use undiluted vinegar on grout.
- Make sure the essential oils that you use is pure and of the best quality.
Cleaning Stainless Steel
If you have stainless steel appliances, probably you already know that it barely lives up to its name – it is hardly stainless! Things get even worse when you try to clean them with some improper cleaning solutions. So, here is a piece of advice to clean stainless appliances without using harmful chemicals.
Methods:
To clean streaky stains like fingerprints, put a few drops of olive oil on a clean, dry cloth and wipe. This type of oil is also effective on sink stains.
If there are water spots on your stainless steel cutlery and utensils, dip a cloth in vinegar and rub on the surfaces.
For removing stains from your steel cookware, you can use club soda.
Warning!
- Don’t use abrasives or steel wool on your stainless steel utensils.
Self-made Disinfectant and Sanitizer
Method:
Hydrogen peroxide and vinegar can make a great sanitizer and disinfectant. Just put undiluted vinegar in one spray bottle and 3% hydrogen peroxide in another spray bottle (don’t mix them together). Then disinfect kitchen surfaces with alternating sprays of each. Doing this, you can get rid of different hazardous bacteria, such as Salmonella and E. coli.
Alternative method:
Mix 2 cups water, 30 drops of lavender essential oil and a few drops of liquid castile soaps. This disinfector can come really effective on surfaces like counters, sinks, faucets, walls and cutting boards.
Preparing Garbage Disposal:
Ingredients you will need: baking soda, vinegar, apple cider vinegar, lemon or orange peel
Method:
Mix vinegar and water, pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze. Once frozen, let some of the cubes get chopped by your disposal. Additionally, you can also grind up orange or lemon peel.
To clean your drain, put 1 cup baking soda down the disposal and add apple cider vinegar. Wait for about 15 minutes and then rinse with hot water. As simple as it sounds!
Making mopping Cleaner:
Ingredients you will need: 2 table spoon washing soda, water
Method:
Combine hot water and washing soda in a bucket and mop. Later, you can again mop the surface with straight water.
Preparing dishwasher Cleaner
Ingredients you will need: 1 cup baking soda, ½ cup vinegar
Method:
Put 1/2 cup of vinegar in a dishwasher safe cup (which is on the top rack) and run it. Then sprinkle 1 cup baking soda in the bottom and apply a hot rinse cycle. For an antibacterial boost, you can add some lemon juice to the vinegar as well.
Microwave cleaning:
Ingredients you will need: ½ cup vinegar, ½ cup water,1 cup baking soda, castile soap
Method 1:
Mix ½ cup water and ½ cup vinegar in a big coffee mug. Then keep it inside your microwave for about 5 minutes. Take out the cup using a hot pad holder and carefully wipe the inner surface with a rag.
Methods 2:
Sprinkle 1 cup of baking soda over the bottom of your microwave and spray with water to make a paste. If you want to remove the dirt on the sides of the oven, prepare a water and baking soda paste and apply on the surface. Let the mixture set overnight and wipe it up.
After getting done with the worst of the mess, you can pour little castile soap on a clean cloth and wash the remaining residue from the oven.
Floor Cleaner:
Ingredients you will need: white vinegar,liquid castile soap,
For Vinyl or linoleum floor: Add 1 cup of white vinegar in 1 gallon water and rinse with clean water.
For wood and tile: Add a few drops of liquid castile soap and warm water in a spray bottle. Then spray the solution on a cotton rag before mopping the floor.
Coffee Pot Cleaner:
Ingredients you will need: vinegar, water
Method: Combine 1 part of vinegar with 2 parts water and run through your coffee pot. You will get your clean coffee pot back! The same vinegar water solution can be used in microwave cleaning afterward.
Refrigerator cleaning
Refrigerator is one of the most ignored areas that doesn’t get a nice clean quite often. So, a little love on this useful device won’t hurt.
Ingredients you will need: white vinegar, essential oil, hot water
Method:
First off, turn off your fridge so that you can save certain amount of energy while cleaning. Then remove all of your foods and pieces of interior that you can take out easily. You can scrub these pieces separately to the sink with a natural soap.
Now, mix 1 cup white vinegar, 10 drops of essential oil and 2 cups of water in a sprayer or bucket. Apply the mixture and scrub the inside surface with a dry cloth. After getting done with this, you can restore the food items in their respective places and turn the fridge on.
If you have been using other natural recipes to clean your kitchen, don’t hesitate to share with us. Leave a comment below!
