47 Kitchen Cleaning Tips That Will Change Your Life

Spray or pour white vinegar over the crust once your stove has cooled down. (Do not mess with a warm stovetop, it could hurt you and will definitely create more crust!) Next, coat the vinegary areas with baking soda. Submerge your towel in hot water and wring it so the entire thing is damp, and cover the vinegar and baking soda for 10-15 minutes. Once you remove the towel, scrub the stovetop with a textured cloth (microfiber works best!), using the clumps of baking soda to your advantage on any particularly thick crust. Dispose the clumps and spray some more vinegar as needed to pick up remaining crust and eliminate streaks.

“You really want to clean it to prevent a stinky mess or slimy build-up. Like anything in your home, the cleaner it is, the more likely it will last you for a long time,” says Natalie Rizzo, MS, RD. But, how do you clean it exactly? Here’s a step-by-step guide to cleaning your garbage disposal, however works best for you.

While this bacteria may not be enough to initially make you sick, it’s still worth cleaning out your knife block once a month to stop any growth. First, turn your block upside down and shake out any debris or crumbs. Then, fill your sink with warm water and dish soap (or, for more sanitizing power, use a partial bleach solution of 1 tablespoon bleach to 1 gallon water.) To protect your knife block from cracking over time, you can rub it with a wood-safe mineral oil.

Sure, scrubbing off any crusted-on sauce may leave you thinking that a bowl is now clean as can be—but according to Stop Foodborne Illness, a public health organization, unless you've effectively sanitized a dish by soaking it in cleaning solution or sufficiently hot water, it's not clean.

Your regular cleaning routine in your kitchen likely overlooks some of the dirtiest spots. Here, the sneaky nooks and crannies you’re not cleaning and how to make sure you get them spick and span swiftly.

How frequently you should buff up your microwave depends on how frequently you use it. As a general rule of thumb, you should wipe it down anytime you spill something on the inside. In those cases, the sooner, the better, she adds. Beyond that, if you’re a daily user, you should aim for once-a-week cleanings; if you’re a more sporadic microwaver, once a month is acceptable.

Whether your water bottle is stainless steel, plastic, or made from another hard material, it’s important to sanitize it at the end of each day. “Since it’s a moist environment, it's possible for bacteria to set up shop and thrive, potentially leading to symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea,” says Robert Glatter, MD, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northwell Health and attending emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital.

Save your back and your Brillo pads by using an onion—yes, an ordinary onion–to clean that nasty grill. Simply scrub a halved onion faced downwards on a heated grate to remove built up grime and grit. It's best to get the grill super hot first to burn off any remaining food. Next, rub it hard with an onion stuck on the end of a long grilling fork. For extra gunk-fighting power, spray the grates with lemon juice or our old friend white vinegar first. The extra acidity helps with the cleaning process.

I won’t sit here and tell you that a kitchen deep clean is a small feat to tackle— It’s not. It requires a good chunk of dedicated time; you’ll probably want to clear a Saturday or Sunday morning for the event.The stovetop, oven and refrigerator are the biggest appliances to start cleaning. However, there are a few other places in the kitchen that oftentimes are left behind, i.e. the walls—especially the wall or backsplash behind your stove, the cabinets, underneath the hood above the range, and the floors inside your pantry.

Garbage receptacles all over your home can easily start to smell unpleasant, even after you take out the trash and replace the bags. Fortunately, stopping that lingering smell and keeping it from ever returning is simple. You probably already have the necessary materials.

There are several incredibly easy ways to get your slow cooker clean, most of which involve the cooker cleaning itself – i.e., little to no work on your part.

Wooden cutting boards are the most classic and widely-used type of board because they’re both practical and aesthetically pleasing. A quality wood cutting board can be an essential, beautiful centerpiece in your kitchen, but there’s a caveat: because it’s made of wood, the process for cleaning it is different than how you care for most cooking gadgets—and not always intuitive.

The trick to mastering cleaning as you go is discipline. This may be hard for some to conquer at the beginning, but I swear it gets easier as you practice and soon, cleaning behind yourself as a part of the process will simply be apart of your muscle memory. You will be doing it without much thought, and that is the goal.

Rather than blissfully ignoring the fact that your favorite weekend breakfast appliance is likely home to more germs than a water fountain in an elementary school cafeteria, these are the easiest ways to clean your dang iron once and for all.

The Instant Pot is a real MVP when it comes to shaving time off of prepping your favorite hearty and flavorful dishes. However, after a few uses, the lid and silicone sealing ring tend to harbor odors from dinners past that dishwashing liquid just can’t cut. Gross, right? Even if it seems like you’ve washed these parts within an inch of their lives, don’t lose hope just yet. You can combat the off-putting smells with a few simple maintenance tricks.

The more you use your cast-iron, the stronger and more reliable it becomes. And as I began to research how to properly care for my skillet, I realized that the key to maintaining an impeccable cast-iron can be broken down into three simple factors: cooking, cleaning, and seasoning.

Unfortunately, if you want to clean your electric stove, you’re going to have to disconnect those coils somehow. And trust me, you want to clean that stove. Just imagine how good you’ll feel when it’s finished.

In either case, with the right products, rubber gloves, and the exertion some upper-body strength, you can scour your way to an impressively spotless oven. Keep in mind, this is not a quick clean—it would be wise to set aside some time strictly dedicated to the cause.

The first thing you want to do is throw away the culprit: The burnt food. If you did accidentally overcook something to a crisp, take the blackened item outside, eliminating the source of the smell. Soak the pan in which the food was burnt in soapy water and clean up any leftover residue on your counters and stove top. Next, you have to address the odors in the air.

A wet and stagnant sponge grows new bacteria at the absolutely horrifying rate of once every 20 minutes, according to Dr. Philip Tierno, a clinical professor at the Microbiology and Pathology departments at NYU Langone, and author of, The Secret Life of Germs. Meaning, if you’re just using a sponge to clean your dishes, they might end up grosser than when you started.