CLEAN – Kitchen
Our kitchen is the central place of our home. Visible by everybody that visits and we can see it while we eat dinner and sitting in the lounge room. For this reason I like it to be tidy through the day and at the end of the night, to make it easier to relax. Plus having a tidy kitchen makes cooking and baking much more enjoyable.
Cleaning task
I don’t want you to clean the cornices, floor, stove, oven, dishwasher, fridge, freezer or pantry today, we will get to them soon, instead today’s task is a good kitchen clean:
[wlchecklist name=’Day1CleanKitchen’]
Tip: Cleaning stainless steel appliances: spray appliance with vinegar and wipe over with a soft cloth. To remove fingerprints and give it a shine use some olive or baby oil on a cloth along the direction of the stainless steel grain.
Here are a few posts I have shared previously about the kitchen:
DECLUTTER – Kitchen Bench
Remove everything from the kitchen bench that does not need to be there:
- Paper clutter – consider making a specific home for all your papers
- Rubbish – should be thrown in the bin straight away
- Appliances
- One too many canisters
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My kitchen is very open plan, all visitors to the house see it. I don’t keep too much on my bench except for the appliances that I use nearly every day such as the kettle and Thermomix.
I got these canisters from the Reject Shop, whilst they are the perfect colour for my kitchen, they aren’t completely airtight.
ORGANISE – Under the kitchen sink
You want to make this cupboard organised enough that everything has a place, to avoid it from becoming a mess and you only have supplies in there that you use, to avoid it becoming too cluttered.
- Remove everything from the cupboard and reassess what you have
- Throw away anything you no longer need
- Organise your products appropriately amongst the kitchen and laundry
[wlchecklist name=’Day1Organiseunderthekitchensink’]
Key for me to keeping this cupboard tidy is exactly what I outlined above. Only keeping the cleaning products I use for the kitchen under the sink and giving everything a place.
These drawers are from Bunnings. In the top drawer, I keep my tea towels. Previously I stored them on the other side of the kitchen. I’ve moved my stash to directly under the sink so we don’t drip water onto the floor. In the lower drawers, I have dishwasher tablets and spare sponges.
This tension rod holds my cleaners helping to keep the cupboard clutter free. I got this rod a few years ago from Daiso. Tension rods are extremely hard to find. Bunnings don’t sell them. Spotlight do, however their smallest is 80cm.
I placed 3M hooks on the cupboard door to hold our gloves. I have 2 pairs one for my small hands and one for my hubby (our water is sooo hot here, which is good and bad, we need gloves so we don’t burn our fingers).
I have recently changed from my glass jar of reusable wipes to this plastic tub, only because I wanted more wipes on hand as I found I was using up the 6 wipes that would fit in the jar far too quickly.
- Microfibre clothes were $10 for a pack of 20 from Bunnings
- Container for wipes, Decor from Spotlight $14.99
- Stackable Drawers $19.98 each from Bunnings
- Tension rod from Daiso
- Sink Tidy Caddy $19.99 Spotlight
- Long white Slide n Stack plastic basket $16.95 from Howards Storage World
- Smaller white plastic basket from local dollar store
- 3M hooks, local supermarket or Bunnings
- Gold Bulldog clips from Kikki K, but can also be purchased from Officeworks
I also want to show you my old house’s under sink cupboard. I kept my bulky appliances on the lower shelf and kitchen cleaning products on the top shelf. To keep everything grouped together I used plastic baskets found cheap from the dollar stores or Big W.
I kept my toaster under the sink, purely as I had nowhere else to store it. I kept it in a plastic storage basket to catch all the crumbs, makes it easier to keep the shelf clean. My homemade antibacterial wipes are great to have on hand for quick clean ups.
NEW HABIT – Clear the kitchen bench
To help you stay in control of you home I will share a new habit for you each day to add into your daily routine.
Clear your benches and clean the dishes before relaxing for the evening.
These are the steps I take each evening when cleaning the kitchen:
- Clear dining table
- Pack dishwasher
- Wash all pots and pans, cutting boards and any other items that don’t go in the dishwasher
- Clear away clutter on the kitchen bench
- Wipe over the bench, picking up all crumbs and cleaning up spills
- Empty sink, wipe over sink
- Turn on dishwasher
- Leave clean dishes to drip dry and put away in the morning
By following these steps above not only helps me to relax in the evening, but I also wake in a better mood with a clean and tidy kitchen.
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5 MINUTES ONLY – Tidy a bookshelf
These 5 minute only tasks are little snippet tasks that you can do while on the phone or have a few spare minutes while waiting for the pot to boil on the stove. If you can’t complete them that’s fine, at the end of the challenge I will provide you with a full list of al the 5 minute tasks, so you can work through them all at your own pace.
[wlchecklist name=’5minutesonlyDay1′]
DOWNLOAD
Print the daily sheet and checklists to keep for reference while you are completing the above tasks.
Throughout the eCourse, I will provide you with checklists for each room. It’s important to note I have provided a complete cleaning checklist so at the end of the eCourse you have it as a reference. However, please note as mentioned above there are some tasks on the list that you don’t need to complete today. ie. you do not need to clean the cornices, floor, stove, oven, dishwasher, fridge, freezer or pantry, they will be completed on another day within the eCourse.
- DAY 1 DAILY TASK SHEET – file behind ‘Daily Task’ divider – click to download.
- KITCHEN CLEANING CHECKLIST – file behind ‘Checklist’ divider – click to download.
- BLANK KITCHEN CLEANING CHECKLIST – use this to create your own checklist, file behind ‘Checklist’ divider – click to download.
- KITCHEN ROUTINE CHECKLIST – file behind ‘routine’ divider – click to download.
- BLANK KITCHEN ROUTINE CHECKLIST – file behind ‘routine’ divider – click to download.
608 comments
What a shame no one can see on top of the kitchen cupboards!
LOL Helen, but you know that your kitchen is absolutely spotless from top to bottom!!
Whew I’m exhausted! Have done most of today’s (huge) list.
I have a tip on cleaning kettles and coffee pod machines:
To clean a coffee pod machine fill the water tank with 1/2 container citric acid (from baking aisle) dissolved in water (so that water tank is full).
Run coffee pod machine as per normal but without putting a pod in until the water tank is empty.
As you do this tip each mug full of citric acid water into your kettle.
When water tank is empty, rinse it well under the tap, and refill with plain water.
Run one tank of plain water through coffee machine to rinse out. (Tip water into kettle as you go til it’s 3/4 full)
Rinse and Refill coffee tank with plain water ready for your next cuppa.
Then to clean kettle switch kettle on and boil it (3/4 full only otherwise it will spill). Then leave citric acid sit til kettle looks sparkling clean, then rinse really well.
Fill kettle with plain water and boil to rinse. (Tip boiled water onto your garden weeds to kill them)
Rinse and refill kettle with plain water ready for your next cuppa.
You can tip the citric acid out down drain (clean drains), or alternatively tip into any thermos’s and leave sit to clean them too.
Great tip Darra, thank you for sharing.
Got most of the day 1 tasks completed but whilst focussing on the kitchen my kids have made a terrible mess in the rest of the house…can’t win! At least my kitchen is looking lovely 🙂
ooh no… don’t let them near the kitchen. Well get to the rest of the house soon!
That is quite a list for a working mum with a meeting after school. Glad the 20 day challenge can be extended.
Absolutely Julie-Ann, lifetime access so you can go back and finish tasks whenever you need 🙂
All done! Nearly didn’t do everything as we’ll be remodelling the kitchen later this year but realised that was a ridiculous thought given my aim is to get clean, tidy and organised – started how I mean to go on.
Great thought Julie that is the perfect start and you will now continue to keep the kitchen tidy and be ready for your remodelling!
I know it looks so good you don’t want to spoil it, but sharing the chores has meant it still looks that good and we have had dinner. Strangely excited for tomorrow.
love it!
So the day is at an end and surprisingly enough the only thing on the list I haven’t done is the 5 min bookshelf task, that will get added into tomorrow, or maybe the weekend, when my two young boys can help me clean it completely. Risk is I’ll forget, but I’ll just keep putting it on my To Do list and it will get done eventually.
One comment Kat, it would be great to have a dashboard view of all days for each category where you haven’t completed all the tasks. IE: (imagine the work tick is actually a tick, or complete or a different colour, something to denote that I’m done with everything on that list.
Day Clean Declutter Organise New Habit 5 Min
Day 1: Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick
Day 2: In Prog In Prog Tick Tick Not Started
Day 3:
etc
Thanks for the great motivation, and the great organisation comments!!!
Great idea Megan, will consider how to do this for the next round 🙂
Try the 5 min task is a great one to do when your on the phone next!!
I agree Andea, it is such a relief to have a clean kitchen! I keep opening the cupboard under the sink just to admire it.
LOL, absolutely love this!!
Me too! Haha – I’ve opened it about 3 times today. Just took a photo to send to my mother-in-law!
Took me a little while to finish, my 6 month old would pick opportune moments to pull me away from my tasks. But we got there in the end!!! Moving to a new house in a month so I will probably have to redo all this then but at least I’m going to be moving less stuff with the decluttering.
Hopefully this will make the move easier for you Chloe, decluttering the rooms over the next 20 days so all you will be packing and moving to your new home is the things you really do want and use.
I can’t believe I have actually completed all of todays tasks, except the 5 minute task which I can do tonight. There is just enough time to have a cuppa and relax before school pickup. There certainly was a lot on todays list, but it made me realize just how much I wasn’t cleaning in my kitchen. I don’t want to cook in it now, so it remains sparkling clean. Bring on tomorrows jobs.
I hope you took some time while you were having your cuppa to sit back and be proud of your achievements today!! LOL, love your idea of not cooking. Maybe a one pot dinner tonight??