Cleaning Kitchen Cabinets: Easy Cleaning Tips
Your kitchen cabinets, in particular the doors, require regular cleaning. You probably spend a lot of your kitchen cleaning time focusing on the big three—sink, worktops, and flooring—but your cabinets also need regular care. Food splatters, steam, and tiny droplets of cooking grease tend to accumulate in this area and then attract and hold dust, resulting in unsightly dingy, dull, or streaky surfaces.
Fortunately, cleaning kitchen cabinets isn’t difficult or hazardous, and it doesn’t necessitate the use of smelly or potentially harmful chemicals. With a few ordinary home supplies and some elbow effort, your cabinets will brighten right up whether they’re painted or constructed wood. Just be cautious not to scratch their finish with an excessive amount of care. Here’s how to perform the task correctly.
Gentle cleaning solution.
Instead, remove the abrasive cleaners and scrub brushes from your sink; vigorous scrubbing might harm the finish or paint of your kitchen cabinets. Prepare your own mild cleaner by combining one part mild dishwashing soap with two parts hot water, or distilled white vinegar to hot water. (The heated water helps melt away grime and grease so you’ll be able to wipe it away easier.) You’re ready to go after you’ve mixed up your cleaning solution in a bottle.
Soaking your cabinets is a bad idea.
Spray the cleaning solution onto a microfiber cloth or soft rag, wet it but not drenched, and then wipe each cabinet door from top to bottom. Too much moisture may harm your cabinets’ paint or finish. Wipe each cabinet door from top to bottom paying extra attention to any trim or molding where dust and debris accumulate. Don’t forget to clean the handles and knobs, as well as the insides of cabinet doors. Spray more cleaning solution on your cloth if necessary, but never let it get too wet. If required, squeeze out the excess with a towel.
Use an old toothbrush.
Cabinets with intricate trim or deep grooves that a rag cannot reach are not uncommon. Fill an old toothbrush with cleaning fluid and use it to clean the difficult-to-reach areas. Don’t forget about the areas surrounding the cabinet handles and knobs, as well as the cabinet doors’ edges, which are difficult to reach with a rag.
No water in the hinges.
Although your cleaning solution is safe for finished or painted wood, as well as laminate, it isn’t intended to be used on your cabinets’ hinges. You don’t want to spend your time cleaning kitchen cabinets and have the hardware rust. Instead, use a dry microfiber cloth to clean the metal. If there’s a particularly filthy or dirty region, spray only a drop or two of cleaning solution on your cloth, then scrub the soiled area and wipe the metal dry.
Dry the cabinets after.
After cleaning, allowing cabinets to air dry may harm or bubble the finish or paint. Instead, use a soft cloth to dry all wet surfaces and promote a gleam.
Think of the glass.
If your cabinets have glass insets, use a clean cloth dampened with vinegar or a professional glass cleaner to wipe the glass completely on both sides. It’s usually quite simple to remove dried food splatters, grease, and other kitchen grime from transparent glass, but you may need to go over it twice in order to fully remove it. When cleaning windows, avoid using abrasive materials and allow them to dry fully after washing.
