Monday
These posts may contain affiliate links
These posts may contain affiliate links
We start Monday off with the heart of the house.
The kitchen is the most used room of any home and is always in need of cleaning or organizing. We're going to make a daily, weekly, and monthly plan to keep this area organized because the cleaner & more organized your home is, the more relaxed and happy you will be coming home to it. This should only take you an hour tops. We're not doing a deep clean, just a weekly maintenance with a single deeper item thrown in.
Grab your supplies so you're not doing the classic mid-clean scavenger hunt. I prefer to keep all of the cleaning supplies together in a bucket under my sink. The links below are items I specifically use. If you purchase through the links, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you :
A few microfiber cloths or a roll of paper towels - pick one color for one job so you don't get them mixed up. White for cleaning jobs that may use bleach. Blue for windows, etc
A trash bag
Broom/vacuum and mop - I prefer this vacuum because it picks up more efficiently than a broom & it's cordless so I don't have to change outlets as I move through the house.
Put on music, an audio book, or a podcast. This is not a spiritual journey, it's an hour of chores. Find something to distract you while you pretend to clean up a crime scene
Walk the entire kitchen and pick up anything that doesn't belong — mail, kids' toys, that Amazon package you opened three days ago and abandoned on the counter. Put dishes in the sink or dishwasher. The goal here isn't cleaning yet, it's just giving yourself a blank canvas so you're not cleaning around clutter.
Empty every trash can and recycling bin in the kitchen. Wipe down the inside/outside of the can if it's gross (it's probably a little gross). Take it all out to the outside trash now — don't leave a full bag sitting by the door for "later." Later never comes and you'll be looking at it as you walk past it for days.
Load the dishwasher and run it, or wash whatever's in the sink by hand. If you have a backlog, this is the step that eats the most time, which is exactly why it's early in the process — everything after this depends on a clear sink and counters.
Spray your all-purpose cleaner and wipe every counter, including under any small appliances (coffee maker, toaster, etc. — actually move them, don't just wipe around them). Hit the backsplash too if it's got splatter, which it does. If there's something stuck on, get a cloth wet with HOT water & set it on it while you move to the stovetop
This is the spot people skip, and it shows. Remove grates/burner covers if your stove has them and wipe underneath. A little baked-on grease turns into a lot of baked-on grease if you ignore it weekly. Dawn detergent & a scrub brush work well & quickly on here. A hard plastic scraper for anything caked on & the same hot cloth trick you're using on the counters works as well.
Scrub the sink basin, hit the faucet with a cloth (fingerprints and water spots live here), and toss anything nasty out of the drain catcher. A clean sink instantly makes the whole kitchen feel cleaner — it's disproportionately powerful for the effort involved.
***head back to the sports that are soaking loose & finish them up now****
Wipe down the fridge doors, microwave (inside door and handle, at minimum), dishwasher front, and oven door. You're not deep cleaning anything here, just removing fingerprints, drips, and whatever your kids/partner/past self left behind.
Not a full clean-out — just pull anything obviously expired or turned into a science experiment. Wipe up any visible spills on shelves. This alone prevents 90% of "why does the fridge smell" situations.
Sweep the whole floor, then mop or spot-mop the areas that actually need it (in front of the sink, stove, and trash can — these three spots do 90% of the work in accumulating grime).
Put dish towels in the laundry and swap in a clean one. Straighten anything that lives on the counter. Take one last look and admire the fact that your kitchen currently looks like a kitchen from a home listing photo. It will not look like this in three days. Enjoy it now.
Every week, pick one of the below items and do it after your kitchen clean.. These are the "I'll do it eventually" jobs that actually matter for hygiene and appliance lifespan, so don't let "eventually" turn into "never." Each one of these will take around half an hour. If the job is too big to do it fully in half an hour, stop at 30 minutes. You can finish it next week. By the time the month is over, you will have deep cleaned everything and your cleaning jobs will be taking much less time.
Clean the oven. NEVER run the self-clean cycle. They get so hot, the computer boards burn out & then you get to buy a new oven. use an oven cleaner, or the baking-soda-paste method — do it. Burnt-on food isn't just gross, it's smoking up your kitchen every time you roast something.
Clean out the fridge, fully. Pull everything out, check dates, wipe down every shelf and drawer with soap and water, and toss the science experiments you were avoiding during the weekly clean. This is also your chance to actually see what you own instead of buying a fourth jar of mustard.
Descale the coffee maker/kettle/espresso machine/ice maker. Run a vinegar-water solution through it or follow the cleaning instructions you have shoved in a drawer. Mineral buildup affects the taste, and the lifespan of the machine, and most people never do this until the machine is growing mold or refusing to make/brew whatever it is that it's supposed to make/brew.
Clean the microwave interior properly. Heat a bowl of water with lemon or vinegar for a 3-5 minutes to loosen splatter, then wipe the whole interior down — including the vents and the underside of the turntable. You can start the microwave right before wiping down the counters & it'll be ready for you when you get to the point where you usually just wipe down the front.
Wipe down cabinet fronts and handles. Grease and grime build up on cabinet doors near the stove especially, and handles are a genuine germ hotspot since everyone touches them with food-prep hands. A degreaser or diluted dish soap with a good scrub brush works fine here. Hit the vent hood over the stove at the same time. Once scrubbed, go over with a clean cloth to dry
Mop the floors. Running a vacuum over the floors picks up more than a broom and is faster. Hit all the corners & baseboards, then do a full mop. If you have laminate, make sure you aren't getting too much water down so that the floor doesn't warp.
That's it. Just about 90 minutes once a week, and you've got a kitchen that's clean enough to live in without needing to become a person who "loves cleaning." You don't have to love it. You just have to do it.