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Greetings!
I can hardly believe it's October. This is one of my favorite times of the year -- the deliciously crisp air, the smells of fresh goodies wafting out of the kitchen, the crunch of leaves under your feet. October also marks the kick-off of fall and winter baking, with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanza filling up this three-month long holiday season. Our kitchens are the hub of all this holiday baking, plus craft-making, gift-wrapping, and sharing the abundance of family meals. The constant activity in the kitchen can make for a real clean-up nightmare. Leave the dishes one night and you will inevitably find that they have multiplied by the next morning (at least that's the case in our house). Spills on the floor that don't get cleaned up immediately somehow find a way to track around the kitchen and throughout the house. For many of you, a weekly speed clean of the kitchen is impossible, because just washing and putting away dishes takes 45 minutes. That's why this month we're taking a look at how to keep your kitchen clean and tidy day-in-and-day out, so that the weekly cleaning chores don't seem so impossible.* Our feature article looks at some of the psychological barriers to a clean kitchen, including discouragement and perfectionism, plus it gives you an easy list of seven daily chores that will keep your kitchen in tip-top shape. *This advice might seem a big redundant for the 51 of you who answered our most recent poll that you're kitchen is sparkling 24-7. Wow, I'm impressed: Keep up the great work! And maybe you want to come over to my house sometime ;-)Poll: Be sure to check in with our monthly poll over at The Clean Team Blog. The month of November will focus on dusting and round out our series on Tough Cleaning Jobs Make Easy. Click on over and tell us what your favorite dusting tools are. And please don't forgot that I love to hear from you, our readers. Check in with me this month about kitchen cleaning. Do you have a great tip to make daily maintenance in your kitchen easier? | |
The Secrets to a Clean Kitchen
I am going to share a secret with you: The longer you spend thinking about cleaning your kitchen, the less time you spend actually cleaning it. Until suddenly the task has become so insurmountable that when you finally do dig in, it will take you hours of back-breaking, toothbrush-wielding work.
On the other hand, if you routinely clean your kitchen as you go, you will never have more than a 20-minute clean-up in front of you. And even deep cleaning will be a cinch, since the daily chores will be done and out of the way.
Get The Edge on Discouragement
So, how do you maintain this perfect kitchen stasis, without giving up all your free time? The answer is simple: Make it a habit to clean as you go. You've no doubt heard this advice before -- and perhaps you've made a valiant effort to implement it. Maybe you've kept the kitchen clean for a few days or even a few weeks. But then life got hectic and your kids got sick and the next thing you knew, all your momentum was gone and your kitchen sink was once again full of three-day old dishes.
The discouragement of that overflowing sink is quite powerful: It makes it seem like your kitchen will never be clean again. Or worse, that the whole process of cleaning is totally futile, since even if you do spend an hour cleaning now, it will just be like this again tomorrow.
The truth is that maintaining a clean kitchen -- just like keeping up with the laundry or any other home maintenance task -- is a bit redundant. You do it, it's clean for an hour or for a day, and then it gets messy and you have to do it again.
The key to not getting discouraged by the repetitive nature of cleaning your kitchen is to accept that messes happen, especially when you have young kids. A mess is not a sign that you have failed as a home manager; it is a sign that vibrant life is happening in your home, which is as it should be. Once you accept -- and embrace -- the mess, it will seem a lot less daunting to dig in and keep up with it.
Let Go of Perfectionism
Another thing holding many of you back from having a clean kitchen is your own perfectionism. What's that, you wonder? Wouldn't a perfectionist have a perfectly clean kitchen?
The answer is no -- and here's why: A perfectionist starts by washing the dishes. But as she is soaking a particularly greasy pan, she notices some hard water stains on the faucet. So she grabs a toothbrush and some hard water stain remover (Tile Juice or Scum Bum) and begins to furiously scrub her entire sink. Next thing she knows, she is using a toothpick to remove build-up from under the calking. Pretty soon, she is on her hands and knees, scouring the oven, bleaching the garbage pail and rearranging the fridge.
All of this activity is caused by perfection-itis. This is an incredibly common condition that causes people to avoid doing tasks they can't do perfectly. And of course, the perfectionist's definition of perfect is a whole lot more exacting than that of the non-perfectionist.
The good news is that there is a cure for perfection-itis: Limit yourself to no more than 20 minutes of daily kitchen cleaning. Set a timer if you have to. It may seem impossible at first, but you will get used to it.
Make a List and Check it Twice
Make a master list that tells you everything you have to do each day to keep your kitchen clean. Below is a basic outline with the seven essential chores, but you may need to tweak it for your personal set-up. These tasks should take you no longer than 20 minutes, and that includes washing the dishes!
If you are a beginner at keeping a clean kitchen, you may want to print out this list and post it on your fridge as a daily reminder. If you are a perfectionist, you may want to print multiple copies, so you can cross off items as you go (perfectionists love checking off lists!).
1. Load the dishwasher. If you have a personal dishwasher rather than an electric one, make sure that all dishes are hand washed by the end of each day. Before you go to bed, all dirty dishes, pots and pans should be vanished from the sink and the countertops. I prefer to run the dishwasher at the end of each day, right before I go to bed. I pop into the kitchen, get a glass of water and press start on my dishwasher.
2. Unload the dishwasher. Start your day by emptying out the dishwasher or the dish drain. That way as new dishes get dirty throughout the day, you will have no problem popping them into the dishwasher. If your dishwasher is still full of last night's clean dishes, the dirties will quickly pile up. Avoiding the pile-up helps you to avoid feeling negative about your kitchen and yourself.
3. Wipe the counters and table (if you have one) as you go. Don't leave this task until the end of the day. It takes less than 30 seconds to wipe off your counter tops and table after preparing or eating a sandwich, so don't let those crumbs sit. Like dirty dishes, crumbs tend to multiply, which discourages you from your goal of a clean kitchen. Keep a stack of cleaning cloths under your sink, along with a spray bottle of Red Juice. Unless your crumbs/splatters really go flying, there is no need to move your toaster and any other appliances. Just clean what you can see is dirty.
4. Wipe the stovetop as you go. Like with the counter top, this is a 30-second task that should be done as it needs doing. If you wait until the end of the day, you'll end up with burnt-on messes. Instead, wipe down your stovetop as soon as you are done cooking. Let the burners cool a bit and then spray them with Red Juice and wipe with a cleaning cloth.
5. Sweep the floor. You can leave this task until the end of the day, unless there is some major Cheerio disaster at breakfast. Do a quick sweep and dump the crumbs in the garbage bin. If there are major spills, spot clean them with a paper towel or sponge. Unless your floor is a huge mess, you can leave mopping for your once-a-week cleaning. Remember: The goal is not perfection! The goal is clean.
6. Empty the garbage and sort the recycling. Depending on how much garbage you produce and how large your bin is, you may need to do this nightly, or just a few times a week. Also, be sure to wash out any containers for recycling and put them in the right place.
7. Put away mail, school papers, etc. Kitchen flat surfaces are magnets for paper clutter. Since you can't wipe off your counters or your table when they are full of permission slips and junk mail, find a central place (like a pretty basket on top of your kitchen table) to keep this stuff until you can sort through it all.
Whether your cleaning challenge is perfectionism, laziness or untested skills, these seven steps will make it a breeze for anyone to maintain a clean kitchen. None of these tasks should take longer than 3 or 4 minutes -- and most will take less than one minute. And remember the key: Accept the mess, then roll of your sleeves and dig in to clean it up.
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Answer Our New Poll: Dusting
Please head on over to the Clean Team Blog to weigh in on our poll about your favorite dusting tools.
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OCTOBER SPECIAL: 20% off Refrigerator Coil Brush
Regularly $7.95, Now $6.36
Does your refrigerator run constantly, rather than cycling on and off properly? If so, it's likely due to the build-up of crud on your fridge's coils. Just what is that crud? Dust, animal hair, human hair, and generally anonymous debris, that's what.
The good news is you can easily clean off that crud with the Clean Team's Refrigerator Coil Brush. As often as needed, take this long skinny brush in one hand and your vacuum wand in the other. It's the single best thing you can do for your fridge.
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Thanks for reading us this month! Come visit us on the web at www.thecleanteam.com.
Sincerely,
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Jeff Campbell
The Clean Team Catalog |
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