Keeping a kitchen clean is an important daily task. After all, the kitchen is where you prepare and cook your food. That’s why it’s common sense to keep it clean and tidy. A dirty kitchen results in the spread of nasty bacteria like e.coli and salmonella. Bacteria that you do not want on your food.
To help prevent your kitchen from further contamination, we’ve compiled a list of things and parts of the kitchen that you should take a look at when you clean the kitchen
Reusable grocery bags
While we praise you for using eco-friendly reusable grocery bags, we would also like to point out that you need to clean these more often than not.
Tossing these in your washing machine every now and then will prevent further bacteria build-up. You see, after a couple of uses, the grocery bag, being made out of cloth, absorbs water from thawed frozen food products, and food packagings.
Some people let the bags hang under the sun to dry it out but it would be much better if you actually washed then dried them. This way, they won’t smell bad. It’ll also discourage you from ever using it again.
Cabinets and pantry
Most often, our overhead pantry houses different kinds of cockroaches and critters that you wouldn’t like to be near your food. This happens alarmingly often because our sight is constricted, and we open the pantry every now and then.
You should try and take out all the items in your pantry and search through the corners to see if there are any spider webs as well as cockroach eggs around.
This isn’t only limited in the pantry. It also applies to cabinets. So to make sure that they are always clean and pest free, try to give your cabinet and pantry corners a rub down once or twice a month.
Constant cleaning will deter any critters from housing on your pantry and cabinets ever again.
Can openers
A kitchen tool that’s often overlooked when it comes to cleaning are can openers. For a very versatile and useful tool, a can opener is really, really hard to clean. Those small cogs and blades make cleaning a nightmare.
Well, it’s time you face your fears because according to a study by the NSF international, can openers have been known to house E. coli, salmonella, mold, and yeast – all of which are super dangerous to your health.
You can breeze through cleaning a can opener using an unused toothbrush. The bristles allow for a deep and thorough clean. It would also help if you soak it in hot water before you start brushing. This breaks down all the accumulated gunk and mold.
Sure, it may take a little bit of extra time to clean compared to other kitchen utensils, but considering your loved ones it should be a well and worth it endeavor.
If possible, also soak them in hot water after you use them.
Dishwasher
When was the last time you thoroughly cleaned your dishwasher? This is a question that often stuns the majority of housewives. We honestly don’t blame them, why would you clean something whose purpose is to clean?
Well for starters, dishwashers clean a lot and some dishes will inevitably have leftovers stuck in them. Eventually, these leftovers will find itself in crevices and places where they shouldn’t be. Regardless, you wouldn’t want them to prolong in your dishwasher.
Related: 10 Dishwasher Hacks That’ll Make Your Life Easier
In some cases, you will actually taste these leftovers on your newly-dishwashed dishes. Eww.
You do not have to clean them that often, just having a general idea that you should is good enough. You can simplify the cleaning process by using lemon and a little bit of baking soda.
Using baking soda also leaves your dishwasher shiny and looking brand new.
Kitchen gaskets
Another part of the kitchen that you should pay attention to is the different kinds of rubber in your appliances and utensils.
Start by looking through your blender gasket. This is the rubber ring located at the bottom of your blender.
Now, find your way through your spice rack. There, you will most likely find rubbers seals located on every container’s cover.
You should also take a look at your refrigerator gaskets. These are the rubber parts located at the back of the refrigerator door.
Now that you have a general idea of what we are talking about. These rubber gaskets are things you should consider when you clean the kitchen. They are very integral in keeping things sealed and airtight. Failing to maintain these rubbers will result in food going bad faster.
Maintaining these kinds of gaskets is fairly simple. Just give them a decent rub down every now and again when you clean the kitchen.
If they’re beyond cleaning, better change them.
You can buy new ones here:
Refrigerator coil
One thing that you definitely have not cleaned in a while is your refrigerator coil. Refrigerator coils often hoard a lot of dust. Dust build-up results in your refrigerator not performing at its best. This makes it harder for it to cool and maintain its temperature.
Refrigerator coils that have not been maintained properly can result in a more expensive electric bill as well.
Dedicating time for it every half a year will improve the performance of your refrigerator considerably.
Knife Block
The knife block is one of those things that can go for years without ever being cleaned. Its thin slits make it difficult for us to really clean it thoroughly.
Having to clean your knife only to put it in a place where the blade is exposed to mold and unimaginable bacteria can be very disheartening.
If you have a knife block, consider cleaning it once in a while. If not, you can switch to using a magnetic knife strip instead.
Which parts of your kitchen have you forgotten to clean? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you.
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