One of the unexpected results of the pandemic was a dramatic rise in the number of people who regularly prepare meals at home instead of eating out. Even now that life is getting back to normal, over 70% of Americans say they still plan to continue cooking and baking meals for their family. Despite its many benefits, the only downside to this is the difficulty of keeping the kitchen immaculately clean as much as you want.
Having a tidy kitchen also makes meal prep more efficient by ensuring you can quickly find everything you need. Plus there’s also the issue of finding enough cabinet space to accommodate dishes, small kitchen appliances, and pantry stuff to free the dining table or countertop from clutter. So, we asked our best Milwaukee house cleaners for expert tips on this topic. In this guide, we’ll cover everything from kitchen cleaning, decluttering, and maximizing the use of your cabinets.
Steps to Decluttering and Cleaning Kitchen Cabinets
Follow these kitchen cleaning tips that focuses on organizing and getting the most out of your cabinets.
1. Take Out Everything.
Cleaning can be a challenge when there’s a lot of unnecessary stuff in the background. Start off by emptying the contents of your pantry and cupboards. Remove everything from your kitchen cabinets and decide what’s worth keeping and what you should part with. As a general rule, any dishes, utensils, or small appliances you haven’t used in over a year should be considered for donation. Similarly, if you have a lot of duplicate items, donating the extras or storing them in a bin elsewhere in your home – can free up a lot of cabinet space. Set a large box for items you’ll want to keep, discard, or donate. As you sort everything, check the expiry dates on your pantry items and cleaning products. Throw away anything that’s gone bad.
While your kitchen cabinets are empty, take the opportunity to clean them thoroughly. Using your vacuum’s upholstery attachment, remove crumbs and dust from the shelves. Then, moisten a cleaning rag with a 50/50 solution of water and white vinegar and wipe everything down. Leave the cabinet doors open for an hour or so to allow the insides to air-dry.
2. Organize Items by Type
Group appliances, dishes, utensils, and pantry items by type. Then, establish different cabinet zones for each type of item, with the goal of keeping items near the area where you’re most likely to use them. (For example, keep cleaning supplies in the cabinet below the kitchen sink, plates and bowls near the dishwasher, and cookware and pantry items close to the stove.) Put seldom-used items towards the top and back of each cabinet, so you can keep things you use frequently within easy reach.
Unless you have a very large kitchen, you’ll probably have to make a few exceptions to this rule, but it’s a useful guideline to begin planning your cabinet layout. Some of the major kitchen zones to consider include:
- Where you prepare and cook food.
- Where you wash the dishes.
- Where you prefer to keep your essential cleaning supplies.
- Where you bake.
- Your beverage area (i.e., where you prepare coffee, tea, and other beverages).
You should also consider the weight of items when deciding where you’ll put them. Don’t store heavy appliances, dishes, or pots and pans on the upper levels of cabinets, where they could potentially fall and injure someone. Store them on the lowest shelves of your cabinets, so you can reach down and pick them up. Another good question to ask is whether you really need to store something in the kitchen or not. If you have seasonal dishes that you only use once a year, for instance, storing them in a cabinet in the dining room might make more sense. The same goes for cookbooks that you don’t reference very often.
3. Use Clear Plastic Jars
Between stacks of cans, pasta containers, bags of flour, and baking supplies, it’s easy for pantry areas to become crowded and unorganized. Prevent this from happening by grouping shelf-stable food then place each type in a separate clear plastic jars or containers. This way, when you need a particular item, you can just remove the bin that contains it and locate it – without disturbing everything else in your pantry.
4. Install Shelf Liners
Before you start putting items back on the shelf, you can take the optional step of protecting your shelves with removable liners. Not only do shelf liners make kitchen cleaning of cabinets easier (because you can just remove the liners and wash them, rather than standing on a chair to wipe down each shelf), but they can also protect your shelves from scuffs and scratches. You may wonder how to install shelf liners , but it is very easy. Simply press the liners down into place on each shelf, then begin putting items back on the shelves in accordance with your planned layout.
5. Involve Family and Other Members of Your Household
Kitchen cleaning can be a bummer if you’re the only one doing it and making an effort to maintain it. For your cabinets to stay organized long term, you’ll need to make sure everyone in your household understands where items should go. Once you’ve put everything away, take a moment to show your family your new layout. Or you can create a diagram of the layout and hang it on the fridge for easy reference.
Keep Kitchen Cleaning Simple with the Best Maid Services in Milwaukee
Housekeeping is a lot easier when you can just focus on a few specific tasks, like cleaning up after meals and washing the dishes, rather than trying to manage your entire home. If you’re looking for ways to simplify your life and make more time for the things you enjoy, our standard cleaning services from our Milwaukee local house cleaners who are highly skilled, bonded, and insured. Kitchen cleaning doesn’t have to be a nightmare with the best. Book a cleaning service today!