Washing alone won’t remove smells from the cutting board.
A good cleaning hack goes a long way and makes the difference between a spotless, comfortable cooking space and a kitchen you want to run out of each time you finish cooking.
But sometimes, it’s not that you don’t want to clean your pots or that dirty corner, it’s just that the dirt seems to lurk in a spot that’s difficult to reach. In time, you’ll be left with an ugly stain or worse, mould that’s not going to budge.
Read on to find out how to get around these stubborn dirty spots. — Compiled by PATSY KAM
1 Steam your microwave
Usually, you’ll probably give your microwave a good wipe after cooking or heating up food.
But sometimes, food splatters are inevitable and what’s worse, they stick stubbornly to the walls when they dry out. Use steam to loosen the dirt by cooking a glass of water with a spoonful of vinegar and a slice of lemon.
Heat it up for a few minutes then leave it inside for the steam to sit for a while. After that, you should be able to wipe off the grime easily with a microfibre cloth or sponge.
Polish stainless steel pots with a dash of oil.
2 Polish stainless steel
The usual practice is to clean your stainless steel pots and pans with all-purpose cleaner. To level up and get it gleaming, polish it with a touch of oil − either coconut oil or olive oil − and buff the surface with a soft cloth.
3 Clean under your cupboards
Surely when you sweep and mop the floor, you try and reach underneath to clean the hidden corners. It can be a real chore to move the whole cupboard or stove every time, so you probably tend to skip this and wait for the big spring cleaning sessions. One way around this is to remove the last drawer of your cupboard. Voila! You’ve got easy access right there!
Clean the blender with baking soda.
4 Clean your blender
A blender is probably one of the hardest appliances to clean properly as bits of fruit or drink residue in those hard-to-reach corners tend to hang on stubbornly.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, baking soda is a time-saver as it’s not just used in baking but it does wonders for your utensils.
When your blender jug looks more cloudy than clear, try cleaning it with a baking soda paste and then, use vinegar diluted with water as a thorough cleaning routine.
Use an old toothbrush to clean.
5 More uses for toothbrushes
Don’t throw away your old toothbrushes.
You can use them to clean the rims of your pots, sink or oven.
If the toothbrush head is too big for what you want to clean, use a thinner paintbrush to brush out crumbs in your toaster or oven, or even dustballs hiding in your kitchen window sill, for that matter.
Baking soda and vinegar work wonders for cleaning the kitchen.
6 Baking soda for oven
You know that baking soda paste we were talking about earlier?
You can use it for your oven as well.
Use half a cup of baking soda mixed with half a cup of water for a toothpaste-like consistency that you can spread on the oven base and walls.
Make sure you coat the dirty corners and hard-to-get-to places, and especially rub it into greasy areas. Leave it for a couple of hours or even overnight.
Then, wipe everything down with a damp dish cloth and remove all the baking soda.
You can also spray some diluted vinegar.
This will react with the baking soda, so don’t be alarmed if you see foam.
Use your damp cloth to continue wiping and thoroughly clean the oven.
7 Clean cutting boards
After cutting onion, garlic, meat and what-have-you, your cutting boards might end up still smelling even though you’ve washed it well with soap water.
Sprinkle some salt over the board generously.
Then, cut half a lime or lemon and squeeze the juice over the cutting board.
Scrub the board with the lime or lemon, then rinse. The smell should be gone.
