Believe it or not, I woke up to a clean kitchen. You can't tell that from the following photos, however, because I made a giant mess with a marathon of cooking and meal prepping! This morning I made air fryer bagels, cut up a watermelon, tried a new recipe for energy bites, and made a fresh batch of my laundry detergent. Needless to say, my kitchen was a wreck!
Looking on the bright side, it made for some pretty incredible before and after photos. Let's get to work!
Our kitchen is tiny and hard to take one shot of, so you get multiple angles of the disaster.
Step One
To begin with, we gotta start putting things away. I put away some of the ingredients I was done using and put away the food I made.
Step Two
As I started to work, I realized cleaning one side of the room done would make me feel a lot better. So I started on the side with our fridge. After I put everything away, I got out my All Purpose spray and cleaning cloth and went to town spraying everything down. I wiped down the counters, the microwave and the small appliances I had used. Then I put the air fryer back on the shelf, and tucked away the mixer.
I'm using the same Grove Collaborative All Purpose Concentrate I used in the bathroom and their matching spray bottle.
Already a huge improvement! Only if you don't turn around...
Step Three
Do the same thing on the other side! I put away what I can and then start wiping down the counters. I also check the cabinets for spills. The toaster is looking a little crumby, so I wipe that down as well. My essential oil diffuser is set up in the kitchen and I am diffusing Lemon while I clean. It makes everything smell so fresh!
Step Four
I rolled my dough on the stove top this morning, because all my other counters were taken! So, it's quite a mess. First I wipe it down to remove the flour. Then I use a scraper to remove the sticky stuff. Normally I use Mrs. Meyers Baking Soda Scrub on the stove top, but I'm out, so I'm going to use baking soda and lemon essential oil to scrub. My scrub brush is from Grove. It's a lot easier to clean with baking soda when you use water in a spray bottle! After it's clean, I like to use Real Simple's cooktop cleaner and protectant for a final layer of cleaning and protection. It shines when I'm done!!
Step Five
Time to tackle the dishes. Oh man, there are a lot of them! We are no stranger to hand washing dishes. I usually put my phone up in the window and watch Youtube. (I wrote about my favorite channels here) I'm using Grove Collaboratives dish soap and sponges. We have a pretty impressive dish drying rack that we've had for almost a decade now. It's kinda pricey, but it's great.
Step Six
After the dishes are done, I want to clean out the sink. Again, I usually use the Mrs. Meyers scrub, but a baking soda DIY will do just fine now.
Step Seven
I don't want to leave a bunch of dishes laying out, so I take time to towel dry them and put them away. I could have left them out, but I really wanted to have the kitchen 100% done. Most of the dish towels we use are from Grove! They are just so nice. (I obviously buy almost everything cleaning related from them!)Step Eight
When I was putting away the dishes, I noticed our dish drying rack was getting really gross. I took it apart and sprayed it down with the Mr. Clean spray. I honestly don't even know how I ended up with this spray, but I thought I'd try it out on this project. It worked really well!
I'm actually kind of embarrassed of how bad that got! It looks so much better and is a lot more sanitary. After it was dry, I stored it back under our sink. We used to keep it out on the counter, but because our kitchen is so small I like to keep everything put away.
Step Nine
That spray worked so well on the dish rack, I decided to use it on our disgusting trash can as well.
Step Ten
Wiping down the appliances is one of the last things I like to do. Our fridge stays fairly clean, but I definitely needed to be shined. I use a spray bottle of water and an E Cloth to polish. I also wiped down the front of the oven with the same method.
Steps Eleven and Twelve
The floors are so disgusting, I couldn't wait to get them clean. First, I vacuumed. I love our Dyson because it's easy to get under our wired shelves! Next, I mopped. As in my bathroom cleaning post, I use my swiffer mop with the Grove floor concentrate and reusable pads.
Alright, you guys ready for some gorgeous after pictures?! For such a small kitchen, this cleanup took for-ever and it was so satisfying to finish!
I made some animations so you can see some side-by-sides:
Leave a comment below and tell me I'm not the only one with a disaster kitchen! What room should I clean next?
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