How to Keep Your Kitchen Clean with Little Effort

by Carolyn Andrews 02/23/2020

Photo by Mabel Amber via Pixabay

You can walk into some folk’s homes and feel the chaos, while in other homes, all you see is clean. There must be a secret to keeping a house picked up without the aid of a housekeeper, right? Right! People whose homes always appear tidy have habits that keep them that way. Here are some of those habits that you can adopt in the kitchen to keep it clean.

Clean While Cooking

Instead of leaving pots or chopping boards to soak, wipe them with a soapy sponge and give them a quick rinse or pop them in the dishwasher. Pans left to soak after a meal become onerous and tempt you to leave them until morning. Cleaning them right away means the food particles wash off more quickly too.

Find a Great Broom or Dust Mop

If you hate the tool, you’ll hate using it. Instead, try out a couple brooms or even microfiber dust mops to see which one you like best. Run it over the kitchen floor at the end of the day, and you’ll wake up to a clean kitchen.

Tuck Away Small Appliances

Toasters, mixers, the slow cooker or Insta-pot all clutter up room on your kitchen counter and gather dust and food debris. Keep them out of sight on a pantry shelf and just pull them out when in use. They stay cleaner and ready to use, and your countertop sparkles.

Hide the Mess

Open shelving adds a beautiful dimension to a kitchen, but when the shelved items don’t naturally stack, they look messy. Hide things away in deep drawers or cupboards that don’t match or rest awkwardly. Use your shelves to display pieces you love, or that stack artfully.

Do These Daily

Wipe the refrigerator doors daily to keep fingerprints at bay, and while you’re at it, take a moment to get the shelves too. Then, ditto with the microwave. Keeping fingerprints and food spills wiped up every day helps avoid the significant cleaning days so many people dread.

Stop the Spills

Well, you can’t always stop spills, but you can stop most spatters. Keep a cover handy for the microwave so that those little “pops” don’t become big messes. If little ones consistently spill milk from a gallon jug, pour some into a smaller container for them to use.

Keeping your home picked up when you have it on the market is essential for a lower-stress selling experience. If you need other ideas about preparing your home for sale, ask your professional real estate agent.

About the Author
Author

Carolyn Andrews

Carolyn Andrews has over 30 years licensed Brokerage experience in both California and Colorado. Born in England, Carolyn moved to California in 1980, then relocated to Denver, Colorado in 1991. Carolyn has also received recognition for Top Sales at RE/MAX Alliance Aurora in 2007-2008 and is a member of the RE/MAX Hall of Fame & Chairman’s Club, as well as a recipient of the ReMax Lifetime Achievement Award. Carolyn has sold over 2000 homes personally in her career. Carolyn has been actively involved in many aspects of the Real Estate business including investment property, luxury homes, mountain resort property, skiin/ski out, REO/default management, loss mitigation, valuations, and disposition. She has been a speaker and panelist at several conferences and has been consulted on many occasions by various organizations in the REO/financial industries for her expertise and served on many boards. She has attended numerous ongoing classes to stay abreast of changes in the ever-evolving Real Estate industry. She is the prior State Director for Colorado for VAREP(Veterans Association of Real Estate Professionals). She is a member of 3 boards of Realtors including Metro Denver, Colorado Springs and Summit County mountain areas. She heads up The Andrews Group and is or has been an active member of NAR, CAR,REOMAC, CIPS, CRS, AREAA, NAPW, NAHREP, and is an original member of the ELITEReal Estate network. She was ranked #1 for most homes sold in Denver 2007 by Denver Board of Realtors, #2 for 2008, and #2 for 2009, #5 in 2010 and #4 in 2011 and has been consistently in the top 10 ever since. Carolyn Andrews has been a top rated Endorsed Local Provider for the Dave Ramsey Organization and also a Top Producing agent for 2018 for the Homelight Company.