More Kitchen Cleaning Tips & Hacks Using Household Items

We know how tough cleaning the kitchen can be.

In fact, if you've already read part one of our Kitchen Cleaning Hacks blog series, you'll be familiar with the fact that the kitchen harbours more germs and bacteria than any other room in the house.

Fortunately, cleaning the kitchen doesn't have to be as formidable of a task as it seems! We've put together an extension to our original list, with a few more great examples of kitchen cleaning hacks using common household items.

Enjoy!

1.  How to clean your glass baking trays

Pyrex glass bakeware is an excellent heat resistant product that you can use to bake your most delicious treats. A problem associated with this common kitchen item is the unfortunate grease stains that are near-impossible to remove with a scrubbing brush and soap.

Here's a little tip to get rid of the marks with as little elbow grease as possible.

What you need:

• Dish-washing liquid
• Tinfoil (aluminium foil)

The technique:

Begin by rinsing your baking dish with hot water and a little dish-washing liquid. Take your roll of tinfoil, and scrunch together a handful to make a tennis ball sized sphere. Use this as a substitute for a wool cleaning pad and scrub down the sides of your bakeware. You'll quickly see the difficult to remove stains disappear, and leave behind only a crystal clear baking dish.

2.  How to deep-clean and shine your kitchen faucet

Often missed off the cleaning checklist, your kitchen tap is a key element of your kitchen that really should be regularly cleaned. Think about how often you use water from the tap; washing dishes, filling pots to boil, grabbing a glass of water, rinsing vegetables - you wouldn't want any grime and residue intruding on these processes.

Here's how to get rid of the gunk and enjoy a shiny faucet, completely hands free!

What you need:

• Vinegar
• A plastic bag
• A rubber band or twist-tie

The technique:

Fill up your plastic bag with diluted white vinegar (about two parts vinegar to one part water). Keep the bag open, and dip your kitchen tap into the solution (as shown above). Keep it in position with one hand, and tie the bag around your kitchen faucet with a rubber band or twist-tie.

Make sure you secure it properly, as the next step is to leave it over night. All you have to do when you wake up in the morning is remove the bag, rinse with water, and, hey presto - a clean faucet!

3.  How to clean and deodorise your Kitchen Disposal

Your kitchen disposal (or insinkerator, as you may know it) is where you put all of your food scraps and leftover bits and pieces when cooking. If you've ever had the misfortune of smelling decomposing food-stuffs, you'll already know how bad that can smell.

With that in mind, your kitchen disposal unit needs to be cleaned regularly to make sure there's no leftover scraps floating around.

What you need:

• Water
• Lemon
• Rock Salt
• Ice-cube tray

The technique:

Mix lemon, water and rock salt together in a bowl and pour the liquid mix into an ice cube tray. Leave this in your freezer until frozen, and once done, remove all of the cubes from the tray. Next, pour the ice cubes down your insinkerator (you may have to manually push a few down), and turn it on. Note - make sure turning it on is the very last thing you do!

The rock salt will scrub the blades, the lemon in the ice cubs will deodorise the unit, and the ice cubes themselves will sharpen the blade - all with zero elbow grease required!

4.  How to Clean Oven Racks in a Bath with Laundry Detergent

Cleaning the oven is undoubtedly an arduous task. There are many nooks and cranny's that are difficult to get to, but perhaps most difficult of all, is getting in between the gaps of an oven rack.

Luckily, there's a quick trick to getting this done too!

What you need:

• Bath Tub
• Water
• Laundry Detergent (this can be substituted with dishwashing liquid or baking soda)

The technique:

Begin by filling your bathtub with hot water (make sure the tub is clean before you do this), just enough to cover the oven racks. Next, add either 1/2 of a cup of dishwashing liquid, 3/4 of a cup of laundry detergent, or sprinkle baking soda. Once the foaming stops, submerge the racks and let them sit for either six-hours or over night.

Once that's done, scrub the racks with an old dishtowel and use a toothbrush to dislodge difficult-to-reach grime. Rinse the racks in cold water once you're done and you'll be left with shiny racks ready to go back into the oven.

Cleaning doesn't stop at the kitchen

Unfortunately, maintaining a healthy home doesn't just stop at getting rid of stains in the kitchen, it needs to be up-kept all around the home. If you'd like more tips, and help on how to maintain a healthy home (especially with Spring right around the corner) download our Healthy Home Guide for FREE!