Kitchen Hygiene Hacks You Wish You'd Learned Years Ago
The kitchen is by far the most dirt-prone room in the house. Food has a habit of splattering everywhere while you’re cooking - and it is sometimes difficult to clean up. You often feel like you’re fighting a losing battle. And that doesn’t even include what happens when kids enter the picture. When you have extra mouths to feed, keeping the kitchen neat and tidy (and pest-free) is a massive challenge.
Most of us have long histories of messy cooking. During our student days, all of us wrecked the kitchens in our halls, leaving them in a terrible state after each meal. And even if we received household help from cleaners, it still wasn’t enough to keep all those dirty pots and pans under control.
Now we live in our own houses, the situation is even worse. It’s just us versus the mess - and that often means that we’re fighting a losing battle.
Fortunately, you’re not the first person to experience this. It’s a scenario that has played out across the country millions of times before. And that means that people have developed all kinds of hacks to make dealing with it more manageable. Here’s what they’re doing.
Keep Things Minimal
Many of us like the idea of having full-size kitchens, decked out with every possible appliance and set of equipment you can imagine. Unfortunately, not all of us have large rooms. And that’s a problem. Often, you don’t have any space for chopping because all your countertops are covered in pieces of equipment.
Keeping things minimal should be the aim of the game. If you only use a piece of equipment once per year (or never at all), get rid of it. Also, try to combine appliances. Don’t buy a food processor and a blender: get something that performs both functions.
Clean While You Wait
Food left around in the kitchen is the leading reason people call pest control. Crumbs provide easy calories to vermin, encouraging them to come into your house and make it their home too.
Cleaning while you wait for things to cook is one of the best ways to keep your kitchen neat and tidy. If you know you don’t have to do anything for 25 minutes while your meal roasts, use it as an opportunity to stack the dishwasher or wipe the surfaces. That way, you don’t have to worry about it once you finish cooking.
Allow The Sink To Drain Immediately
Sinks are gross. But things get extra disgusting when you leave murky standing water in them. It’s the last thing you want when it comes to clearing up. You have to put your hand in the sink, fiddle around for the plughole, and navigate bits of rotting food. Gross!
Once you finish with the sink, wipe it down and throw any food captures on the plug grille in the trash. Don’t just leave it.
Clean Up Spills Immediately
Finally, clean up any spills immediately. Don’t leave it until later when they become more stuck on your surfaces.
