My Favorite Kitchen Cleaning and Keeping Tools

So, let’s just start by saying I am not a house keeping expert! But I do have a lot of experience, and I am always learning new things! I wanted to share my favorite kitchen cleaning and keeping tools with you, from me, a lady who has been married and keeping house for almost 16 years!

House Keeping and Cleaning Favorites Series

I plan on doing several more posts, sharing my favorite cleaning tools and tricks for different areas of the home! This first post will be focused on my favorite kitchen cleaning and keeping tools.

Keeping up with the Main Things

I think most would agree with me that a clean kitchen is the most important, next to the bathrooms. Here are a few main things I like to do in the kitchen to stay on top of it, then we’ll talk about the things that you do less often.

**And let’s keep it real, so you know that I am a regular person, my house is not perfectly clean or anywhere near. I just do my best, love on my family and don’t worry about it too much!

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My Favorite Kitchen Cleaning and Keeping Tools

Load the dishwasher through the day, don’t let it pile up –

Run the dishwasher every night before you go to bed. I like the setting on mine that lets you set it on a 4 hour delay, so it runs while you’re sleeping. These are the dishwasher tablets that I like. They don’t have any fragrance which is a must for me.

Scrub the sink everyday –

I use a stiff bristled brush and either Bon Ami or Soft Scrub and give my stainless steel sink a little elbow grease everyday at the end of the day. You can also use some baking soda for that scrubbing effect!

Sweep and mop –

Sweeping or vacuuming the kitchen floor is actually a great job for a child, my almost 7 year old is responsible for doing that in the mornings. But, keeping up with the floor, especially in the kitchen, helps the space feel so much cleaner. And I just recently replaced my steam mop, which I did like. But it was time to replace it and I wanted to go with a good, old fashioned wring mop. I love it!! I never have been good about mopping often enough, but I will enjoy it more now! My daughter even though it was fun and mopped a couple days ago! This wring mop is affordable and you can throw the mop head into the washing machine! LOVE that feature. (Don’t forget a bucket!) I just add a squirt of Seventh Generation dish soap to the water.

Cut that greasy, dusty grime! –

Secret weapon!

One thing about the kitchen is, it will collect the grossest dust. Look on the top of your fridge, hood vent, etc. If you try to just wipe it off, it balls up and doesn’t want to budge… It’s so gross! I have a secret weapon! The Magic Eraser sponge. (You can get these off brand too, they work good!) This is the best thing I have found for that nasty grease-dust, and also for refrigerator shelves, the front of appliances, smudges, counter grime, you name it! The name Magic Eraser is very fitting.

Okay, Now for the Extra Things

Here are a few things that need to be done less often.

Clean the refrigerator –

Now, I will admit I am not good at this one. Every single time I do it, I say that I will clean it every week before I grocery shop, but then I put it off. But don’t be like me! Clean those shelves off, wipe out the door, tidy things up and discard any old food weekly! Then you won’t ever be left with a mess! ( Listen to your own advise Hope, listen…)

Magic Eraser sponges are awesome for this job, all the streaks, smudges and gross little bits of who knows what come off easily.

Also, I do like to have mats like these laid down on the shelves. They are easier to pull out and wash than the whole shelf. You can also buy cheap place mats at the dollar store to line the shelves.

Clean your dishwasher and it’s filter –

This might be something that’s easy to overlook, but it needs to done regularly. Wipe out any food bits daily, clean out the filter weekly, and monthly, wash the whole thing with a cycle. This is a great article all about the proper way to clean a dishwasher. They can really get gross if you don’t.

Deep clean grout, backsplash, and along the tops of cabinets –

This all depends on the setup of your kitchen! I have grout along the counter that I clean with baking soda paste and a toothbrush. It comes out so nice and white! We also have cabinets that don’t reach all the way to the ceiling, so I need to run a dust rag along the edge (if I’m feeling like being an extra good housekeeper) every so often. The tops of cabinets, that a whole ball of wax. Can we pretend it doesn’t exist because we can’t see it?! Back to the grout and crevices topic, I keep seeing this type of spin tool all over social media! I’m wanting to try it, have you ever had one?

Most Important Tip

Enjoy your kitchen! If you can’t enjoy it because it doesn’t feel clean and tidy, spend some time whipping it into shape! Tomorrow you will be SO happy! But it doesn’t have to be perfect to enjoy it. The cabinets might be that older orange-y oak that I hear is out of style like mine. Or you might hate your flooring or counters. Whatever it may be, let’s just agree as fellow home dwellers, to stop thinking about what our kitchens don’t have and comparing them to these sparkling, gorgeous kitchens we are seeing all over Instagram and YouTube. Most people are regular like me, and have a regular kitchen. Here it is! —>

Just a regular kitchen! For a regular gal. We have put some nice black hardware on the cabinets and a new faucet since this picture.

Maybe one day we will design our dream kitchen… and maybe we won’t!

Love how you can cook yummy food in there, make yummy smelling things and make sweet family memories. Sit and have a cup of tea in your kitchen and practice feeling grateful for it, if that’s something you struggle with.

Extra Clean Kitchen Tips

Here’s a couple bonus tips that I have figured out to be very helpful.

Freeze food trash –

Since we live in the boonies and have wild critters around, we can’t put our trash outside. We also don’t have a garage. So the trash stays in the house until I take it to the dump. Thankfully we only make about one black bag a week, and we have a utility closet where it can stay. BUT, I have quickly learned that if I freeze any and all food scraps that could start rotting or smelling, we have zero trash odor and no worry about flies. Even if you put your trash outside, freezing the food scraps and packaging helps so much. I have a container in the freezer with a reused plastic grocery bag to collect scraps. Then when it’s full, I tie it up and move it to our deep freezer. The day I take the trash, I collect them and put them in the big black bag. Super easy!

Keep trash under the sink or in a cabinet, especially if you have pets –

We have never had to worry about our dog getting into the trash, because we always keep it under the kitchen sink, behind the cabinet door. I use a standard kitchen trash can like this, with a white bag. It doesn’t need to be cute, because nobody has to look at it! Coming home to the pet raiding the trash is one of the worst things ever.

Use a blue light bug catcher in your kitchen –

Secret weapon!

Okay, last tip for now! I will never be without this little wonder ever again! During the warm months for sure. If you have ever struggled with flies or fruit flies taking over your kitchen because you dared to have one banana on your counter for a couple days (how dare you), you NEED THIS!

Thank you for stopping by today and checking out my favorite kitchen cleaning and keeping tools! I hope you got something useful out of it and I look forward to hearing from you in the comments below!