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Now the days have lengthened and you’re freshly inspired with a new wave of enthusiasm to freshen up your home, it’s the perfect opportunity for a spring clean. Here are our top tips for revitalising your kitchen:
We’re all guilty of having a zone which becomes a dumping ground for odds and ends which haven’t found a true home. By tackling the most chaotic zone first and organising using draw dividers or containers, you’ll feel inspired to transform your entire kitchen.
If you work through your spring clean checklist whilst your home is filled with sunlight, you’ll be much more likely to see and sweep up all of those rogue crumbs and spillages. Not only will the sun illuminate your work surfaces, but it’ll help you see better into the depths of your cupboards and drawers. Remove everything from surfaces and cupboards as you go, so you can catch all that lurking dusk and those pesky crumbs.
Lemon, vinegar, salt and bicarbonate of soda are all wonderful natural cleaning products that will see your kitchen gleaming again. These are particularly useful for deep cleaning items such as your chopping boards to remove stains and that lingering smell of onion and garlic. Combining these natural products to make your own cleaners can be particularly useful for a more thorough cleaning like freshening drains.
It’s time to reach to the back of your cabinets and delve deep into the fridge to discard of any products that are way past their use-by date. It’s also a chance to rediscover ingredients that you’d forgotten you had in stock, enabling you to conjure up some creative new meals. Combine the ends of packets of pasta for a hearty bake or make a fresh summer salad with pulses and grains.
The oven and hob are notorious for tough, dried-on grease and food debris. Nowadays, many ovens are miraculously ‘self-cleaning’, but even if yours is not, there are many products available to take the strain out of the job. Invest in a complete oven cleaning kit to give it that thorough, annual deep clean.
Equally, the microwave, which is used for those quick heat up jobs, is often not given the attention it deserves after use. Take the opportunity to steam clean and freshen the fragrance of this small appliance following Good Housekeeping’s formula of water, citrus, baking soda and vinegar for a natural refresh.
As something that is always in use, take the chance before your next big shop to empty and clean all compartments of your fridge and freezer. If ice build-up is a problem, it’s also the perfect opportunity to de-ice the freezer section and clean ice trays.
Nothing is quicker to ruin a cup of tea then the dreaded lurking flaky dregs from the bottom of the kettle. Vinegar is particularly effective at descaling kettles; fill three quarters full, using an equal measure of water and white vinegar, being careful not to wet the underside of the kettle. Bring to the boil and leave to sit for half an hour. Pour away the mixture and boil a further couple of times with water alone to get rid of the taste of vinegar before making your next drink.
A piece of toast is a daily staple, but we rarely take the time to give our toaster some much needed TLC to avoid that burning smell that all too quickly appears. Slide out the tray from beneath the toaster to brush off the worst of the crumbs with a dry cloth. Then tip the toaster upside down to rid the remainder of those pesky crumbs.
It isn’t just Freddie Mercury who is inspired to complete a list of household spring cleaning chores with music as motivation. Whether you prefer the soothing tones of Classic FM or have a Spotify playlist compiled of your favourite songs, then what starts out as a chore can be an incredibly enjoyable experience.
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