Kitchens

My final room in the house for spring cleaning is the Kitchen.  Its fair to say your kitchen takes quite a beating day to day.  Here are my tips for cleaning it effectively and cheaply.

 

Wash your cupboard fronts down with warm water and washing up liquid, don't forget to do the tops too.  Washing up liquid is perfect for this as cupboard doors tend to accumulate grease.  Washing up liquid will dissolve this no problem and you already have it in your kitchen.

I have a stainless steal sink and hob.  When we viewed this house I fell in love with the kitchen, I loved the units and the french doors onto the garden.  But I remember looking at the sink and hob and saying they're going to be a nightmare to clean.  What that says about me, I don't know.  I was right though.  However I have discovered two things.  The 1st tip will remove limescale from around your taps.  Soak cotton wool in vinegar and wrap it around your tap.  leave it for an hour of two then remove.  The acid in the vinegar will dissolve the lime scale.  This works well about as well as any lime scale remover I have ever tried but is significantly cheaper.  I won't lie to you it won't completely remove lime scale but I have never found anything that does this.  For really stubborn water marks try lemon juice instead of vinegar the acid is stronger.

When you have cleaned your sink give it a polish with... baby oil!  Just a small amount of a piece of kitchen towel gives a wonderful shine.

For my hob I use warm water and washing up liquid to remove grease, vinegar also works well and then polish with the baby oil.  It really does give an outstanding shine to stainless steal.

Moving on to the oven.  I tied the "green oven cleaners" Ecover, the one endorsed by a TV chef and the eye wateringly expensive Method oven cleaner.  They did nothing!  In frustration and desperation I went out and bought a full on chemically loaded oven cleaner.  It got the oven clean enough but every time I used my oven the kitchen smelt of oven cleaner and when I opened the door my eyes would burn with the fumes.  Not nice!  Then I saw this video on you-tube of a woman sprinkling bicarb onto the bottom of her oven and then spraying it with water.  She left it over night and in the morning wipes all the gunk out.  I tired it... It works!  I will never use oven cleaner again.  Don't believe me see for yourselves

  A paste of Bicarbonate of Soda and water on a glass oven door works well too.  Leave the paste overnight and clean off.  I use a scouring pad to lift off any remaining dirt