A messy kitchen often leads to a messy life. As with cleaning the rest of your house (check out “Clean your house like a professional”) kitchen cleaning is completed much more quickly with a plan. When we are faced with kitchen cupboards that look like this:
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- Food Scraps: I have chickens so I keep all of my table scraps in a compost pot or bowl (one that is already dirty). Your food may go in the trash or in a garbage disposal.
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- Trash: Of course trash goes in a trash can, eventually! But, consider having a temporary trash container very close by. Each night when I begin cooking dinner I get out a clean produce bag and place it on the counter. This makes it a breeze to throw my trash away WHILE I am cooking, leaving me less mess to clean up at the end. I also like having a bag to tie up my ‘smelly’ trash like onion peels, this keeps my real trash can from stinking so bad.
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- Dishes: Hand washing and loading the dishes in the dishwasher is part of the clean kitchen plan but prior to this step the dishes should have a home. The obvious choice here is the sink. Make a habit to place dishes in their home every chance you get.
Following is my “Clean Kitchen” plan. Keep in mind I only follow this plan once a day (after dinner). I don’t have the time, energy, or desire to spit shine my kitchen after each meal so it only gets done ‘right’ once. That being said, I can’t stand to fix dinner in a mess nor do I enjoy living my day with a dirty kitchen so throughout the day I do a shortened version of the Clean Kitchen plan which includes 5 minutes of: putting food away, cleaning up trash, placing dishes in the sink, and quickly wiping up anything that may be extra sticky (syrup and oatmeal!).
- Start with a messy kitchen (this is the easiest part!)
(Messy Kitchen)
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2. Put away all food. Gather all items that need to be refrigerated, then all items that go in the pantry (can you do it making only one trip?). All things edible are gone.
(Messy Kitchen Minus Food)
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5. Remove EVERYTHING that does not permanently belong on the counter tops. Milk jugs, go outside, chicken food goes to the coop, appliances belong in the cupboard, etc.
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