When cleaning your home, don’t forget that your kitchen appliances need care and attention too. Although your appliances don’t need to be cleaned as often as the rest of your home, it’s important to not neglect them entirely. Grime and bad odours can easily accumulate over time. However, with their many parts and the persistent stains that can cover them, cleaning your kitchen appliances can be a daunting task. So, if you’re unsure about how and how often to clean your kitchen appliances, then here are some handy cleaning tips on four common appliances.
Dishwasher
You should clean your dishwasher around once a month. This maintains the appliance and ensures your dishes and cutlery continue to come out sparkling clean after each wash. The outside of the appliance can be easily cleaned with a cloth and any household cleaning spray. However, the inside can be a little trickier. After cleaning out any debris, you should place a cup of white vinegar on the top rack and run a cycle with hot water. This will eliminate any bad odours. Once this is finished, you can scrub the dishwasher racks and even remove the filter and clean the space around it.
Refrigerator
Although you may clean the outside of your refrigerator more regularly, you only need to deep clean your refrigerator once every several months. To do this, you need to take out all of the removable parts of your fridge. Then you should clean each shelf and drawer with hot, soapy water. After this, you can clean the inside of the fridge, making sure to dry everything with a clean towel afterwards.
Oven
Cleaning an oven is often quite a difficult task due to all of the cooked-on grime. Luckily you only need to clean it every three months or so. For this task, you need to take out any removable parts. To get started you can cover the inside of the appliance with a store-bought oven cleaner or use your own mixture of baking soda and vinegar. It’s important to wear gloves because oven cleaning products contain strong chemicals.
Leave the cleaning product inside for the time specified on the packaging. If you’re using the homemade paste, leave it on the grime for 12 hours. Then, scrape away the cleaning product and grime. Continue scrubbing stubborn grease with a scourer and cleaning product. Once this is done, you can scrub the oven racks with the scourer too.
Microwave
Cleaning your microwave is relatively straightforward. First, you should heat a bowl of water and vinegar in your microwave for five minutes, and then let it sit in there for another couple of minutes. This will loosen the grime inside and make it easier to clean. After this, you can simply wipe the inside of the microwave with a cloth or sponge and your favourite cleaning product. As always, you should dry the surfaces afterwards with a clean towel.
