3 Easy Steps To Clean Your Cooking Space – How the Kitchen Gets its Sparkle Back

Last Updated on May 16, 2022

All that sunlight streaming through the kitchen windows in spring can be a gentle reminder that it’s time to get rid of the grime built up over the year. We’ve tackled kitchen refreshes before here at Just Cook, but let’s walk through how to get your kitchen’s sparkle back this spring.

Start with Cabinets

Inside and out! We’ve all seen the horror of long-neglected tops of cabinets. These depositories for the alchemical creation of cooking grease and dust get ignored for a reason—they’re gross. But your future self will thank you if you buckle down and get up there with a vinegar solution and an old dough scraper to scrape up the crud. Wipe it down and then get to the insides (which shouldn’t be as grimy).

In the pantry, take out all the food and sort it. Are there dry goods you can donate? Snacks you can consolidate? Condiment bottles you can wipe down? Old food you can just…throw away? Do those things, then wipe down the shelves and return the pantry items to their spot.

Consider a similar treatment with the drawers. Go through the food storage drawer and recycle any vessels without lids, any old water bottles that may or may not leak, and consolidate and wipe down your spices, small appliances, and the drawers themselves.

Finally, if your kitchen trash and recycling are stored in a drawer, give the inside of that drawer the same kind of love you gave the cabinets. Vile, but necessary. You’ll be glad you did it.

Move on to Large Appliances

After the cabinet tops, the oven might be the most neglected appliance in the house—what lurks behind the oven door is only the business of household members who open the oven door. But it can get pretty gnarly in there, so set aside some time to get the job done, whether that’s with a mixture of baking soda, vinegar, and elbow grease or a pumice stone.

Of course, you’re giving the refrigerator regular love and wipe-downs, but a spring cleaning means unplugging it and taking everything out. Compost any old food, consolidate, and wipe down condiments. Take out the shelves and drawers and wash them in hot soapy water. Then spray the fridge’s inside with an all-purpose cleaner, and wipe down the exterior. When it’s nice and clean, reorganize the food as you put it away.

Counters and Corners

It’s never the wrong time to declutter your counters, but this time around, be ruthless! Take everything off the countertops to clean deep into the corners. Only put the items back that belong there. Put the clutter away or toss it. Make sure you’re hitting the corners and under the cabinet bottoms for the floors. Shake out your rugs and mop the floors.

Finally—give the windows a glow-up. Use lightly soapy water to wash them, give them a rinse, then spray with a vinegar solution, and dry them with a microfiber cloth so they don’t streak.

Then sit back and watch the light flow into your now sparkling clean kitchen. You did it!

Next, get ready to make dinner and mess the whole room up again.