Kitchen Cleanup And Organization Ideas

Get a monthly guide to kitchen cleaning and 5 clever organizing tricks.

Your kitchen sees more activity than most rooms in your house. They don’t call it the heart of your home for nothing!

But staying on top of kitchen cleaning tasks can feel overwhelming, especially when the space needs to stay sanitary for cooking. The solution? A manageable cleaning routine that divvies up kitchen cleaning into daily, weekly and monthly chores – and gives you peace of mind, too.

Daily: routine cleaning

Get in the habit of regularly cleaning easy-to-see areas. Taking a few moments to tackle highly visible, splatter-prone spots can make all the difference, plus it helps prevent grease and grime buildup on:

• Countertops
• Tile backsplashes
• The stovetop

Use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Extra Durable to quickly clean grease, stuck-on food and grime from these surfaces.

Tip: Speed up the daily routine by clearing countertops of pots and pans and small appliances. Not enough cabinet space? Use a hanging pot rack or mobile kitchen cart.

Weekly: all in the details

At least once a week, turn your attention to small but mighty messes in and on your appliances, such as:

• Microwave
• Oven
• Coffee maker
• Kitchen sink

Tip: As part of your weekly regimen, wash dishtowels and linen napkins.

Monthly: complete kitchen clean

Every 4 to 6 weeks, conquer the often-forgotten areas. Look high and low for dust, grease splatters, drips and scuff marks you may have missed during your daily and weekly cleaning. A (Swiffer Dusters Heavy Duty Super Extender is great for trapping and locking dust and pet hair in high and low spots!) Focus on:

• Trim
• Under the kitchen sink
• Baseboards
• Doors and frames
• Windows

5 essential kitchen organization tips

Keeping your kitchen clean is the first step in organization. When you’re working with a blank slate, implementing an organization plan feels much more achievable. Use these tips to get started:

1. Keep the items you use most often at eye level and within arms reach
2. Over the course of the month, keep track of disorganized situations and pileups. Does mail commonly find its way to the countertops? Is the pantry always messy? Define the problem areas and create solutions for them on a case-by-case basis
3. Use containers or baskets with labels whenever and wherever possible
4. Consider utilizing unused space: Hang a pot rack from the ceiling, attach magazine files to the underside of cabinet ceilings to store spices and grocery bags, or fill a deep drawer with dividers
5. Centralize similar items together in cabinets. Assign one for baking equipment, another for mixing bowls and so on