The kitchen is the heart of the home – everything from family dinners to cocktails with friends happens in this space. Now, more than ever, families are cooking at home to abide by social distancing guidelines due to the coronavirus pandemic. With that, it’s easy for bacteria and unwanted smells to form over time, so it’s important to do regular cleaning and sanitizing. To ensure a safe home environment, these five important areas should be a staple of any cleaning routine.
1. All Handles
Handles get forgotten about when cleaning often, but doorknobs, sink handles, the fridge handle, cabinet knobs, and microwave pads are touched more often by more people than most other household items. Making sure that these areas stay sanitized is essential when keeping a clean kitchen and a healthy environment. Using a spray disinfectant can make these tasks quick and simple.
2. Sponges and Kitchen Towels
The two things used most often to clean and dry dishes, countertops, hands, and more should also be getting cleaned weekly, if not daily. Studies have found that these items can harbor more germs and bacteria than the toilet seat, making them prime suspects for spreading illness. For sponges, immerse them in a bowl of water and microwave for 1-2 minutes, then remove and let air dry. When it comes to kitchen towels, make sure there are designated towels for particular uses – one for dishes, and one to use for cleaning and wiping down surfaces. To ensure their cleanliness, toss them in the washer as often as possible.
A Pull-Out Towel Bar cabinet by Dura Supreme provides a dedicated space for storing towels, sponges, soaps, and hand-sanitizers next near the sink area.
3. Refrigerator Shelves and Storage Bins
The fridge is one of the most important areas in the kitchen, as it contains all the food everyone is eating. At the same time, this is another area of the kitchen that doesn’t get disinfected as much as it should. Although it can take a little more time to clean thoroughly, one trick is to clean small amounts more often during everyday use so nothing gross builds up requiring a heavier hand.
4. Cabinet Shelves
Cabinet shelves are another cleaning practice often forgotten about or outright ignored, mostly because it can take some time to remove all the plates and glassware to do a thorough job. For this reason, dust and dirt can really build up on the shelves, but a dab of water and microfiber cloth can be all it takes to keep your cabinets clean and dust-free.
Dura Supreme Cabinetry design by LJ’s Kitchens and Interiors of Mt. Pleasant
5. The Kitchen Waste Bin
The hardest working cabinet in the kitchen is the one that stores the kitchen waste bin. This cabinet is usually frequently opened and closed throughout the day and many times while the homeowner is holding garbage, food waste, or other bacteria collecting items. This is an important cabinet to keep clean and sanitized. A kitchen waste bin with the ability to open with the tap of a knee can help the cabinet and its hardware stay cleaner longer by decreasing the amount of times it is touched. It can also help prevent wear and tear on the cabinet by preventing years of wet or sticky hands from touching the finish.
Every Dura Supreme Base Recycling Centers comes standard with a touch-latch mechanism that allows you to easily open you bin hands-free. Our Base Recycling Centers are also available with an optional SERVO-DRIVE if you’d like a more advanced, electronically powered system to open your cabinetry hands-free.
Cabinet Storage That Will Encourage a Clean Kitchen
Many people like to keep their cleaning products organized under the kitchen sink, or in an easy to access location to help them stay on top of cleaning. Creating a dedicated space for your cleaning supplies nearby where they are used the most will make cleaning easier and our cleaning routines easier to maintain.
Organize cleaning supplies in our convenient pull-out caddy from Dura Supreme with a detachable, portable basket (SBPOC) that you can keep under the sink.
Our convenient pull-out caddy (SBPOC) from Dura Supreme shown with the basket detached.
A standard wood roll-out or a stainless steel roll-out from Dura Supreme offers easy to access storage under the sink for organizing and storing cleaning supplies.
Dura Supreme’s convenient storage rack on the cabinet door organizes cleaning supplies and provides a space for you most used products to be close at hand.
A toe kick drawer near an area that requires frequent cleaning, link at a kitchen island or near a kitchen sink can provide a space to store cleaning supplies close at hand.
Keeping the kitchen as clean as possible is a huge step in preventing bacteria to build and spread throughout the rest of the home. By ensuring these key places are a part of a designated cleaning routine, it’s easy to stay on top of everything before it becomes a big task to tackle.
