The kitchen is one of the rooms in every house that gets messy the quickest, especially after cooking. Learning how to keep a kitchen clean after cooking is important, as it will help maintain the serenity of your home, and it will help to prolong the life of your kitchen utensils and cookware while keeping kitchen installations clean and safe for cooking and preparing food.
To clean a kitchen after cooking, begin by tidying the kitchen work surfaces, clearing away and cleaning the dishes, and cleaning the countertops and work surfaces with kitchen cleaner. Sweep the floor and mop it with a degreasing agent such as dish soap, and pack away the clean dishes when dry.
Keeping a kitchen clean after cooking can feel challenging, and an especially messy kitchen after cooking a large or complex meal can be overwhelming, but the truth is that the process can be relatively simple and painless if you understand the best way to get the job done. Let’s learn how to clean a kitchen after cooking.
How To Clean A Kitchen After Cooking
Cleaning your kitchen is always important, but the best time to clean a kitchen is right after cooking and eating a meal.
Kitchens are always at their worst after a big meal has been cooked, especially if the kitchen is small or if the meal that was prepared required significant prep work and was particularly challenging.
Cooking is a great joy, and eating the food that we make is even better, but cleaning up afterward always feels like a chore. The good news is that cleaning your kitchen after cooking does not have to feel so challenging and becomes far easier when you learn how to do it efficiently.
Let’s explore the best ways to clean a kitchen after cooking, regardless of the meal that was prepared.
Tidy The Kitchen Work Surfaces
The first step for cleaning a kitchen after cooking and eating a delicious meal is to tidy the work surfaces in the kitchen.
Tiding the work surfaces involves removing all clutter and used items from the counters and tabletops so that these surfaces can be cleaned effectively.
Gather all of the used kitchen utensils, cookware, cutting boards, and equipment into one place and stack them as neatly as possible.
Clear away any food scraps, trimmings, and food packaging that may be left on the surfaces, and discard them accordingly.
Once all of the worksurfaces are clear, moving forward in the cleaning process is far easier and much more straightforward.
Clean The Used Dishes
The next step in the process here is to manage the dirty dishes, cookware, and utensils used for cooking.
This process should come right after tidying the work surfaces, as cleaning the dishes is the worst part of cleaning the kitchen, and if it is not done early, it is likely not to be done at all.
If you have a dishwasher, load all of the appropriate dishes and cookware into the machine and get it running as quickly as possible. Try to fit as many dishes into the dishwasher that will still allow the machine to clean the dishes effectively.
The remaining dishes and cookware that do not fit into the machine, or those items that are not dishwasher safe, should be hand washed. The quicker you wash these dishes, the easier they will be to clean.
Allowing these dishes to sit without washing them will allow the food and sauces to harden on them, making the cleaning process significantly more difficult.
Take the time to clean the dishes by hand in hot water with effective dish soap, and your kitchen will instantly feel cleaner.
Clean The Kitchen Surfaces
Once the dishes are clean, the next step is to move on to cleaning the kitchen work surfaces. At this point in the cleaning process, the surfaces have been cleared of all the remnants of cooking, including all dirty dishes, and they are clear and ready to be cleaned before preparing the next meal.
Clean the kitchen work surfaces by first wetting a kitchen cloth and wiping down all of the surfaces. This includes all counters, tabletops, the stovetop, and even the walls and kitchen cabinets around the cooking area, especially underneath the kitchen cabinets.
This will loosen any food or dirt that has dried on the surfaces and wipe away all loose materials, such as salt, sugar, flour, and any other dry and loose ingredients that may remain on the surfaces.
Next, use cleaning products on the surfaces. A multi-purpose cleaning, kitchen cleaner, or even dish soap will work well for cleaning most kitchen work surfaces.
Simply apply a small amount of the cleaning product to the wet cloth or to the surface itself, and scrub the surface clean. Once all surfaces have been scrubbed in this way, thoroughly rinse the cloth under running water, and wipe the surfaces down again to remove soap residue.
Sweep The Kitchen Floor
Once the kitchen surfaces have been cleaned, you will find that much of the dirt from the surfaces and the cooking process has ended up on the kitchen floor.
The next part of cleaning the kitchen is to sweep the floor thoroughly and sweep up all debris into a dustpan. Discard the debris into the trash, and get ready to finish the cleaning process.
Clean The Kitchen Floor
Once the floors are swept, the penultimate step in the kitchen cleaning process is to clean the floor of the kitchen.
Simply fill a mop bucket with hot water and floor cleaner or dish soap, and mop the kitchen floor. Pay close attention to the floor near the oven and the stove, and be sure to scrub any hardened food or dirt.
Oil on the floor can be cleaned best by using dish soap, as this soap is designed to remove oil and grease from food and cooking ingredients.
Be sure to clean every area of the kitchen floor in this way, working from the back of the kitchen o the front to ensure that you do not walk on the wet floor.
Once the floor is clean, allow it to dry, and your kitchen has been sufficiently cleaned after cooking.
The only task left is to pack away the clean dishes that have had time to dry, and your kitchen will be completely clean, clutter-free, and ready to be cooked in again.
Conclusion
Cleaning the kitchen after a meal always feels like a chore, but the truth is that it is a necessity, and maintaining the kitchen right after cooking is far easier than cleaning up multiple messes that have accumulated after multiple meals.
Cleaning your kitchen can feel stress-relieving and therapeutic. Put on some music or a podcast, phone a friend, and clean your kitchen at your own pace. Having a clean kitchen is a great way to maintain the serenity of your home and keeps you accountable to yourself.