The Ultimate Guide to Cleaning and Organising Your Kitchen

The Ultimate Guide to Cleaning and Organising Your Kitchen

Spring has always been a time for new beginnings, leaving the dark days of winter behind as we look forward to the summer months. Spring is also a great time for cleaning and organising your home and although many people dread tackling the kitchen, with careful planning and a little bit of elbow grease you’ll have it looking spick and span in no time.

Kitchen specialist Mayfair Worktops has put together the ultimate guide to cleaning and organising your kitchen this spring.

Get Your Supplies Together

It’s important to have your cleaning supplies ready before deep cleaning your kitchen, as it’s hard to get back into the zone if you have to go out and buy more supplies. Some of the supplies you will need are:

• A good multi-surface cleaner or soapy water
• Dish cloths and sponges
• A broom and mop
• Floor cleaner
• A small bucket with a handle
• Oven cleaner
• Step ladder
• Vacuum cleaner
• Bin bags

Now that you have your supplies together you will need to do a quick pre-clean to create space to work in. Wash up and put away any dirty dishes, clear the worktops and remove any clutter that does not belong in the kitchen.

Let’s start!

Organising and Cleaning the Pantry

Empty all of the food, condiments and spices out of the pantry and lay them on your worktop. Check each label and throw away anything that is out of date, stale or empty; it’s also a good idea to keep a list of the things you throw out so you can replenish them if need be.

For cooking staples such as flour, pasta and rice it is recommended that once opened that you put them into well-labelled airtight containers to keep them fresh and ready to use when needed.

Wipe down all shelves, sides and doors with soapy water or kitchen cleaner; once dry you can start to refill the pantry. Start by arranging like items together i.e. all condiments or spices in the same area so they are easier to find and always put the oldest items at the front if you have multiples of the same product.

For all other storage cupboards and drawers follow the same steps as above, making sure to throw out any expired or inedible tins and jars as you go along. At the same time it’s a good idea to determine whether you can rearrange any of your cupboards to make your kitchen more efficient.

Organising the Fridge/Freezer

Put your fridge/freezer into defrost mode or turn it off at the plug, remove all of the produce and place them in a cool spot for organising. Check all of the labels and throw out any expired food.

Remove any shelves and drawers and clean them really well with hot soapy water or kitchen cleaner. Wipe down the inside of the fridge/freezer making sure to get into all the hard to reach areas. For stubborn ice build-up use plastic utensils to chip away at the ice until it’s been removed.

Once clean, replace all of the shelves and drawers and place your food back in an organised fashion making sure that produce such as vegetables and condiments and stored together.
Clean and/or polish the exterior of the fridge/freezer with some multi-purpose cleaner.

Cleaning the Oven

Before using an oven cleaner make sure that the kitchen is well ventilated and follow all of the safety precautions on the manufacturer’s label.

Remove all of the shelves from the oven, these can be washed separately. Use a spoon or blunt blade to remove excess food residue and apply oven cleaner to the interior as per the labels instructions.

Leave the solution to work for at least 30 minutes (longer the better) and use a medium bristled brush to scrub the interior. Wipe off excess cleaner with a washable cloth and some soapy water, rinsing your cloth regularly to avoid spreading dirt around.

Replace the clean shelves and clean the exterior and hob with soapy water or multi-surface cleaner.

Clean Other Appliances
Clean all other appliances one by one until they are done. Some appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines come with self-cleaning modes which is ideal for cleaning the inside, but you will still have to clean the exterior with soapy water or multi-surface cleaners.

The final phase, worktops and floor

The majority of the kitchen should be nice and clean now, so it’s onto the final phase. Remove any remaining clutter from the worktops to get them as clear as possible and clean with multi-surface cleaner; for shiny surfaces such as granite or quartz, glass cleaner can bring back a shine to the surface. For wooden cabinets and doors, use furniture polish to brighten them up too.

If you have an acrylic splashback on your oven, this will make the area around it easier to clean, you can simply spray your antibacterial kitchen spray of choice on it and wipe it clean in no time.

For the floor, start by sweeping any dust and debris into a dustpan and discard. Spot clean any sticky or stained areas first then mop the whole floor with a heavy duty floor cleaner.

It may seem like a daunting task to clean and organise your kitchen, but breaking it down into sections really helps to keep you on track, and your kitchen looking great this spring by organising your kitchen properly.

Guest Article and a PR collaboration.