Today we’ll tackle the kitchen and get it deep cleaned. But the kitchen is a really busy area of most homes and its hard to have the kitchen out of order for very long, so you may want to take two days to clean.

Everyone wants a clean and orderly kitchen. It is the center of much activity in most households. Poems and odes have been written to the household kitchen. If you are a homeschooling family, the kitchen is a vital area of activity in your home. So much more should it be clean and organized.

But organization is not the only reason for having a clean kitchen or the most important reason. The kitchen is where our meals are prepared and is the place where we are most subject to bacterial and viral contamination. For the sake of our family’s health we must be clean and tidy in our kitchens. This habit of having a clean kitchen should include frequent hand-washing and keeping our hair out of the way while we prepare meals. We should use only freshly laundered or bleached wash cloths and clean dish towels daily. Sinks and counter-tops should be sanitized every time food is prepared there.

So, our plan is simple. We want to get a clean kitchen that is as germ free as possible and that has no obvious places for germs and vermin to live, and we want to get it organized and clutter-free so that we can find everything we need and store our kitchen tools conveniently.

Number one on my list is getting the kitchen rid of junk and stuff that you do not need in that room. There’s nothing wrong with having decorations in your kitchen, but if those decorations take up valuable counter space or wall space, best to move them to another more appropriate room.

In most kitchens it is wise to start at the TOP of the kitchen and work downward. This way, all the dirt, food particles, etc. will drop down to the floor as you clean and it can all be cleaned up just once.

Here are three quick ideas to help you keep your kitchen in order all through the week:

Every morning, start your day by drawing up a sink of hot soapy dish water. This sink of very hot soapy water will serve you all day long. You may have to change it once during the day depending on how many dishes you usually do. Use the sink of water and a clean dish rag to clean spills, wipe up after work, and to keep your sink wiped down during the day. Put all dirty dishes in the sink as soon as you have used them.

Clean as You Go – You’ve heard it before and it’s true. You must clean as you go in order not to overwhelm yourself with cleaning at the end of the day. Teach yourself to wipe down and clean all day long while you are in the kitchen. This is something that no one can do for you, you have to discipline yourself.

When you bake or cook, don’t be haphazard. So many cooks have ingredients every where, tools slung here and there….. You don’t have to cook that way. Get all your ingredients out, measure them into small containers and put away the ingredients as soon as you are finished with them. This will help you to not only be an organized cook, but will keep your kitchen cleaner, longer.

Now, let’s start the cleaning process:

The kitchen is usually the hardest room to Spring Clean because we use it so much and its hard to have it out of commission for a day in some families. So I suggest that you utilize your crock pot or other means of having supper on the day you plan to clean it, so that you can concentrate on cleaning instead of breaking to cook.

First
* Take out trash.
* Pick up countertops
* Take everything out of the kitchen that doesn’t go in the kitchen.
* Take down curtains – wash if possible.
* Take up rugs – wash if needed.

The kitchen can become a catch-all if you’re not careful. If your family has a habit of depositing things in the kitchen, and you’re OK with that, try to have a receptacle for all their stuff. Baskets are great for keys,
change, pocket contents. Mail really clutters up kitchen counter tops! Try using a box or basket to hold mail, both outgoing and incoming. Move out furniture and take everything off your countertops that you possibly can. I will use my living room to store these things while I am cleaning because I have just cleaned my
dining room and I don’t want to mess it up!

I use laundry baskets to hold everything while I am cleaning. Two two big areas to clean in most kitchens are the refrigerator and the oven. Here are steps to cleaning out the refrigerator.

* Make a sink or large tub of hot soapy water.
* Empty the refrigerator.
* Throw away outdated, old food.
* Pull out shelves and drawers that can be taken out.
* Wash all the shelves and drawers with your hot soapy water (WARNING: Don’t put a cold glass shelf or glass drawer in warm or hot water!!! Don’t ask….)
* Wipe down the inside of the refrigerator with your natural cleaner or cleaner of choice.
Rinse well.
* Wipe down gaskets and outer portions of the door, also clean the vent under the door.
* Replace drawers and shelves.
* Wipe down jars and food containers.
* Replace food.

On with the Kitchen Cleaning…
1. Sweep down cobwebs.
2. Make a sink of hot soapy water or use your chemical cleaner. Get out your rags and start washing down.
3. the ceiling if needed, door frames, window frames, baseboards and walls. Wash windows.
4. Put a load of dishes in to wash while you work, or go ahead and wash all the dishes by hand.
5. Clean the top of the refrigerator, the stove exhaust hood, all large appliances. Go ahead and use oven cleaner in the oven if you’re adventurous. Take out the drip pans and put them in a pan of hot soapy water to soak.
7. Clean of shelves and inside cabinets. Wash them down. Order and organize your pantry food and your pots and pans.
8. Wash inside your cabinets while they are empty.
9. Re-line cabinets if needed. Did you know that in the “old days” we used to use newspaper for this?
10. Replace everything that goes in the cabinets, washing and dusting off as you go.
11. Wash down the outside of the cabinets, use de-greaser if needed or a wood soap. Dry them and then polish them with lemon oil if they are finished wood. This is going to be the really hard, arm-breaking scrubby part for me today. My cabinets just need a really good deep scrub. But when its done, it will make the whole kitchen look better!
12. Don’t forget the areas over the stove!
13. Change your wash water if needed.
14. Wash down all the bottles, canisters, containers, etc. that sit on your counter tops and clean small appliances.
15. Scrub the counter tops. Wash and replace the drip pans.
16. Sweep the floor. Make up your mop water and get to scrubbing. I will use a scrub brush this morning and scrub under the stove and all around the cabinets. Then I’ll mop the rest of the floor.
17. Can you move the stove and clean under it? That would probably be a good idea.

Consider setting up a Baking Center if you cook and bake a lot. I sat mine up in one of my cabinets. I put these items in the
Baking Center:
•Mixer
•Food processor
•Flours
•Yeast
•Baking powder and soda
•Salt
•Cornmeal
•Shortening
•Oil
•Spices

You could put more in it, like measuring spoons and mixing bowls. It really is a time saver for me because everything is there together when I’m ready to bake.

Finally…
* Put all your curtains and dry rugs back down when the floor is dry. Give the appliances one more look and a polish.
* Rearrange all your counter top things.
* Light yourself some candles, make some tea and enjoy your kitchen!

We will be working on the main cleaning of the Master Bedroom today. If you’d like to make your own cleaning solutions, you can find my recipes here.

Here are some tips for cleaning your Master Bedroom:

Take everything out of the bedroom that doesn’t belong in there.  

Clean off tables, organize drawers and storage containers that will stay in the room.

Fold up and hang up all clothing and put it away.

Take down pictures and put all the doo-dads in a box, take it out of the room for now.

Take up your rugs.

Put your curtains in to wash if they are washable, or take them down and shake them outside.

Take up rugs, shake and wash if possible.

Start by sweeping down the ceiling, walls, window frames and door frames.

Use a soft tool made for this or pin a soft, old t-shirt or dishtowel over your broom and use that. Take care with textured ceilings.

After you’ve dusted, you’re ready to clean. You will start with the walls and window frames and work from the bottom to the top so that the cleaning water doesn’t stain the walls as it drips. Wash down the walls, window and door frames then clean the baseboards.

Next, give the floor a good sweep or vacuum.

Mop the floor if you have hardwood or other solid surface.

Now you’re ready to clean mirrors, pictures, doo-dads and nic nacs.

Clean and polish all the wood furniture, next.

Return all your doo-dads, mirrors, pictures and nicnacs to their places.

Rehang your curtains.

Change the bed linens, make the bed.

Replace rugs.

What a beautiful room you have!

Are you ready to tackle the bathroom and get it nice a sparkly clean? Today is the day we start cleaning in that room and we will begin with a little decluttering.

Whether you have a one-holer or something a bit bigger, the bathroom can be the most difficult room in the house to keep clean, simply because it has so much traffic! Things tend to fall apart and need repair in the bathroom quite a bit too, especially if you have a large family.

We will start today with getting the bathroom free of clutter and junk. Here are some tips for decluttering the bathroom:

Go through all the bottles of lotions and potions and throw away old, unusable items. Combine bottles of stuff when you can. Get rid of all the old razors, toothbrushes ( though a few could go to use in the cleaning bucket), hairbrushes, small appliances past their usefulness, etc, etc.

Next, pull all the linens out of the closet. Go through them and sort. You don’t really need 6 sets of sheets for each bed, now do you? I have two sets per bed. That gives me one for the bed and one to wash and put away…and a whole lot more space to store linens.

Here’s a tip for folding sheets: If you must have several sets of sheets try this. Fold the flat sheet and the fitted sheet as small as you can, without bunching them up. Stack them. Fold the pillowcases and lay on top of the stack. Tie each stack up with some grosgrain ribbon. The ribbon is sturdy, keeps the set together, and looks kind of nice when anyone takes a peek into the linen closet.  You can tie up towels like this to give as a gift for wedding showers.

 

Fold towels in thirds

Here’s an idea for folding towels: If your closet is small, to get the most towels in the closet you can without crowding and everything spilling out, fold your towels in thirds. Fold the towel in half, width-wise first, then in half again, then in thirds.

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ow clean out all the other cabinets, drawers, shelves and storage areas. Get rid of stuff you don’t use, wipe down bottles and packages, wash out the storage areas themselves, then put your things back. You might be interested in making some scented drawer liners for your cabinets and closets.

Take up the rug if you have one. Take it outdoors and shake it out. Launder it if possible.

Now, work on getting the walls clean. Clean the ceiling before you tackle the walls. If the ceiling just needs dusting, pin a clean towel over your broom and sweep the ceiling. If it needs a real cleaning, you’ll need to stand on something sturdy and clean it using a cloth and mild soap. Be careful not to fall!

Use your natural cleaner or what ever you like, but be sure to start at the bottom of the wall near the floor and work up. This is especially important if you have dry wall so you won’t leave streaks. Not so important if you have tile.

Clean the windows, mirrors, doors and shower door next. Then clean window frames and door frames.

Move to the sink and cabinets next.

Now clean the floor and baseboards.

Clean the bathtub next and the sink.
While you are  cleaning the bathtub, be sure to clean the faucets and shower head.  If the shower head is plugged up with hard water deposits, remove it and use some vinegar to soak the head in and then replace it on the shower.

Clean the outside of the commode. Raise the lid and clean all around the ring.  Lift the tank lid and clean the wall behind it.  Be sure to clean the base of the commode and lift off the plastic or ceramic bolt covers to clean them and clean under them.  Odor causing bacteria can form there.
Now clean inside the commode using a scrubbie or scotch-brite that you have set aside for cleaning the bathroom.  Wipe down with a cloth.

Finally, clean your mirror and window with some glass cleaner or vinegar. For a final touch, light a candle and put down a nice clean rug.  You’re all done!

To keep your bathroom clean through the week, try using my helpful  Bathroom Cleaning System.

Tell us what you’re doing today in your home and leave a link to your blog post if you make one about spring cleaning in the bathroom!

W

 

elcome to Spring Cleaning at CHK!  

Spring Cleaning at CHK is a yearly event where I offer ideas, instructions and encouragement as you clean your house…. and I usually clean along too. We were supposed to start yesterday but I wasn’t feeling well so we’ll start today.

Today we will be working on the eating area. This is a difficult area to dictate what to clean because some have dining rooms and some don’t.  Some use the dining room regularly and some don’t.  So we are going to have differing levels of need for our eating areas.

I have a dining room that we use every single day. Its the first room that anyone coming into the house sees, so I try to make sure it is always presentable and neat. Since we eat in it most every day, I also have to be sure to get it clean every day.

Here are some general cleaning recommendations for most any room, with a few suggestions thrown in here and there for the eating area. If you have suggestions of your own, feel free to post them!

First Things first:
De-clutter. Get everything out of the eating area that doesn’t belong there on a daily basis. If you have a real clutter problem, get out your 4 boxes, baskets or bags and label them like we did for the master bedroom. You will throw away some things, store some, put away some or give away some.

If you are having serious storage issues in your dining room/eating area and need help with that, check out the Decluttering The Dining Room Post.

Clean out hutches, cabinets, clean off shelves, tables and chairs. Get everything out of this room but the furniture.
Move things off walls and off of all surfaces.

Anything that can be wet, go ahead and make a sink of hot soapy water and immerse it. Anything else, just sit it on the kitchen counter for now.

Now Start Moving Things Out Of Your Way

Take down curtains, toss in the wash if you can or air them outside.

Take up rugs, wash or air.

Take up chair pads, wash or air.

Get the chairs out of this area for now.

Get rid of cobwebs. use a towel on the end of a broom or other tool. Don’t use polish or cleaner for this you can streak your ceilings and walls!

The Nitty Gritty Cleaning Part

Make up a pan of hot soapy water or use whatever chemical you like.

Wash ceiling and walls if needed taking care with the kind of wall coverings or paint you have.

Wash down the door frames and window frames. Wash doors and baseboards. Dry if needed.

Wash windows.

If you can touch up paint in this room today, now is the time to do it.

Clean the furniture, wash and/or polish. Clean and polish chairs. Spend time cleaning and polishing the table.

Replace anything that truly goes in the storage areas of this room such as the hutch, cabinets, shelves, etc.

Sweep,vacuum and/or mop. Polish wood floors. Clean baseboards.

Bring chairs back into the room.

Spread out your tablecloth, if you are using one. Place a nice little arrangement on the table or a candle.

Replace curtains and rugs.

If you’d like to make your own natural cleaners and disinfectants check out my recipes.

If you’d like to have the whole Spring Cleaning enchilada in one document, have a look at my Spring Cleaning eBook.