Works for Me Wednesday: Kitchen Edition
Calling all kitchen tips! Shannon has organized a kitchen tips edition of WFMW and wants to know what I’ve got stuffed up my bloggy sleeve. The kitchen is probably the room that is the hardest to keep clean, requires the most work, and therefore the place that I utilize the most tips.
I’ve already shared some kitchen cleaning tips with a previous WFMW post (see bottom), but I think I can add a few more. Well, I’m sure I can! Here’s my two cents or twelve.
By the way, I’m feeling much better after a 5 hour nap and a day with no children. Mother-in-law’s are great! ๐
Cleaning:
1.) To mop, I use my bleach solution and a damp mop – Spray a small area, mop, and occasionally rinse. The bleach solution will clean & disinfect and it seems to work the best on the linoleum floors, not leaving any film or residue like other cleaners. The spritz and mop method is the least messy. The real trick is keeping the kids from walking on it until it’s dry!
2.) Uncluttering the refrigerator and keeping it that way – Lately, when I’ve been loading the dishwasher (which incidentally is directly across from the fridge) I’ve been checking the fridge for any science experiments or experiments-to-be and pulling them out right then to clean and throw into the dishwasher immediately. If there are several (and there very well might be in my fridge) I pull out two or three and save the rest for the next dish-washing. I do this at least once or twice a week. It keeps things from growing in there. ๐
3.) Also, to clean the inside of the refrigerator, I wait until the day before I go grocery shopping when it is nearly empty so that I have less to pull out and move around. This is easier done at nap time to prevent baby-in-fridge syndrome.
Cooking:
4.) Spices – My two allotted stove-related cabinets are overhead. I’ve used baskets to hold my spices so that I can pull the basket down and select what I need and put the basket back. If I didn’t I’d probably lose stuff back in the back, and let’s face it people, standing on a stove isn’t exactly safe. I’ll stick with the baskets.
5.) To “drain” the grease from meat – I don’t actually drain it. I soak it up with paper towels and toss them in the trash. I’ll fold a couple and lay it on the meat and then move it around while soaking up all the grease. I will do this a few times until I get absolutely every last bit of grease that I can. Grease it not on the food pyramid and I have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to that sort of grease (whereas grease on a bacon cheeseburger is perfectly acceptable of course.) The clean up couldn’t be easier and I’m sure my landlord appreciates me not getting grease anywhere near the sink.
These kitchen tips really do work for me! I hope they work for you, too.
Previous WFMW:
- Happy House Cleaning
- Meal Planning
- Childrensโ Calendar
- Valentineโs Day 101
- Chocolate Cake
- Magnets
- Kitchen Tips
Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by Rocks In My Dryer. Stop by Shannonโs and peruse other WFMW participants, or enter your own! Be blessed!
Great tips! I shared a similar one with the spice trick, great minds think alike ๐ I’ll be using your grease-paper towel method from now on. Thanks for sharing! =)
Excellent tips.
I do number 5 too and I thought I was the only one. I have another secret – I blot my eggs & bacon when we eat at restaurants too…
I do the paper towel thing because I am crazed about not putting anything bad down the sink. We live on the fifth floor and it could be scary to get a 5 floor back up!
We have baby-in-fridge syndrome too. We also get bad cases of baby-in -dishwasher.
You’re way ahead of me with the baskets for your spices! I only have old granola bar boxes I cut down…
Mama Says
Great tips. I am going to try your mopping method one. I have white linoleum in the kitchen that is slowly but surely turning to an icky gray. Short of pulling out full stregth ammonia and risking my life, I have tried just about everything. Your other tips are awesome too. I started using little white plastic baskets in the fridge a while back for deli meat and bags of cheese, etc. It is so easy now to clean with just pulling that basket out.
Great tip!
Thanks!
Have a great Wednesday.
blessings~
Annie
I like this idea! Picking up a heavy skillet to drain it is annoying, and hard on my back. I’m going to definitely try this. Oh, and you are right about bacon grease…it’s the fifth food group, you know.
I don’t want to pay for a plumber to unclog my lines all the way out to the street! So we do the same with the paper towels. Grease also messes up the city lines. Great tips!
Milehimama: We have bad cases of baby-in-dishwasher, too. :)And my baskets were only three for a dollar at the Dollar General! That’s the only reason I could afford them. ๐
Kim: I love your basket in fridge idea!! I’m using it!
Heather: I used to drain my meat but there was still too much grease for my taste so I started blotting it and that led to the all-out paper towel method of just soaking it up in the pan. ๐
I had a friend who always drained her beef with a paper towel. I’m guilty of just using a strainer and the grease goes down the drain (flushed with hot water).
Great tips, thanks for sharing. I will have to get myself a large spice basket ๐ !!
I really like the grease tip. I have to try it out. I don’t have much in the fridge to toss. Really. Since I go shopping for food daily, I cut down on my ‘science’ projects in the fridge. I just buy what we need for dinner…
Have a blessed day.
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