How to Clean Different Surfaces in Your Kitchen

When it comes to cleaning, the kitchen is probably the one place where you don’t want to take the task lightly. This is the place where you prepare your food and where you eat, so you’d better clean it right.

However, cleaning the kitchen can be a complex task. It’s not as simple as cleaning your bathroom where everything is made of ceramics and you can use one or two cleaning products for the whole room.

Depending on the materials used in your kitchen, you may need to use different products and different cleaning methods. We asked experts at Maid Easy to tell us their kitchen cleaning tips. This is what they shared.

Stainless Steel

A lot of your kitchen elements and appliances may be made of polished stainless steel or aluminum. Luckily for you, you don’t need to know the difference between the two when it comes to cleaning them.

Both stainless steel and aluminum are typically highly polished surfaces and as such, they tend to attract stains such as fingerprints and food remains. However, just as they are easy to get dirty, they can be pretty easy to clean, too.

If the staining is just minor, you can put some baby or coconut oil on a cloth and wipe the whole surface. If, on the other hand, your polished metal surfaces are pretty messy, you can use some dish soap and water with a cloth, followed by a detailed buffing with a dry and clean cloth.

Granite Countertops

Granite has been a favorite countertop surface for over a decade now since it is far less porous than marble. It absorbs fewer stains, attracts fewer bacteria, and is much easier to care for.

Most home cleaning experts will tell you to clean your countertop as soon as the spill occurs to protect the surface.

When it comes to regular cleaning, you can use dish soap and water or a solution of rubbing alcohol, since it adds disinfecting properties.

It is important not to use vinegar (even though a lot of people use this handy substance for a variety of cleaning purposes). Vinegar is acidic, and that can damage the coating of the countertop and the stone itself.

Wooden Surfaces

Most kitchens have at least some wooden surfaces. Be it chairs, the table or even cupboards, wooden surfaces require regular attention.

A soft cloth with warm water is required in order to clean the wooden surfaces from stains. You can also use a specialized cleaning product for wood, but do not use dish soap, as it can dry out the varnish and stain wood.

If you want your wooden surfaces to keep their sheen and glow, you can have them re-oiled or re-varnished at least once a year, though carpenters recommend doing this twice as often.

Glass

Windows, doors, tables and more kitchen segments can be made of glass. Unlike glass in other rooms in your house, kitchen glass is exposed to a lot of changes. It is exposed to cooking and changes in temperature and humidity from the cooking. And let’s not forget the stains from food.

Keeping your kitchen glass clean and looking good is pretty much the same as keeping any glass surface, but you probably need to do it a bit more often.

Start by wiping down the glass with a dry cloth to get rid of dust and similar particles. Next, repeat the same process with a cloth dipped in hot water. If the glass is really dirty, adding isopropyl alcohol to the hot water can truly do wonders to clean the glass. Finally, wipe the glass with the dry cloth again.

There are some other types of surfaces in the kitchens as well, but these are the most common or require the most special attention.