Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
Kitchens are one of the most commonly used rooms in the house. What’s more, because they’re where we cook our food, it’s vital that they’re kept clean and sanitary.
But if you’re ever at a loss as to what to clean in your kitchen and when, this article is for you. Below, we’ll cover the best kitchen cleaning checklist to help keep you on track.
Daily Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
The following checklist covers kitchen cleaning jobs you should do every day to ensure it’s free from bacteria and is tidy for your next meal:
- Wash the dishes
- Load and unload the dishwasher
- Wipe down surfaces
- Rinse and dry dishcloth
The point of daily cleaning tasks is to maintain a clean environment that’s pretty much always ready for you to cook in. A standard kitchen cleaning or antibac spray is ideal for daily use.
Weekly Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
Weekly cleaning involves slightly more in-depth jobs that don’t need doing daily. Bear in mind, though, that for the purposes of this article, wiping down your cooker hob counts as a daily task.
Every week, make sure you:
- Scrub the hob and clean the cooker hood
- Remove out-of-date items from the fridge
- Clean the sink
- Hoover and mop floor
- Wipe down cabinet doors
For scrubbing jobs, a cream cleaner is the best thing to use. Other than that, everything should be fairly self-explanatory. Weekly jobs cover areas that aren’t used directly for food prep but that can get dirty in the process of cooking.
Monthly Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
Unsurprisingly, monthly cleaning jobs are ones that require a bit less attention but still need doing more often than your deep cleaning jobs. Add the following to your monthly checklist:
- Clean appliances (washing machine, dishwasher, microwave, etc.)
- Clean inside and outside of fridge
- Disinfect your bin
- Organise and clean out cupboards
- Wash splashbacks and floors
You might find you need to clean your microwave more than once a month depending on what you’ve cooked in there. Considering food shouldn’t make direct contact with any surface in the microwave, it’s not a massive issue to only clean it once a month. But when you do, make sure you disinfect the inside and wash the plate.
Similarly, it can be easy to overlook areas like fridge doors and handles. But it’s important to keep these clean because it reduces the risk of cross-contamination from handling raw food. Soapy water should be fine, but you can always use a disinfectant spray instead.
Kitchen Deep Cleaning Checklist
There’s no set timescale for when to deep clean your kitchen. Some say monthly, but if you’re thorough with the checklist above, this is unnecessary. Instead, aim to deep clean it every 3 months or so. But what does deep cleaning actually involve?
Empty and Clean Your Pantry
Your pantry could be anything from a separate room to a few cupboards – it’s just wherever you store your dry food. Pull everything out, check it’s in date (or at least still fresh) and bin anything that isn’t.
While it’s empty, wash the shelves and any spare storage containers. Then, put everything back so it’s organised and visible.
Empty and Clean Your Freezer
Freezers are easy to ignore when it comes to food management, but even frozen food can go bad. During your deep clean, pull everything out and throw away anything that looks off. The main thing to look for is freezer burns, especially on meat.
While it’s empty, let it defrost if necessary. Wipe out ice cube trays, clean the drawers, and put everything back.
Deep Clean the Oven
If your oven has a self-cleaning function, start with this. But you might need to get in there and scrub it with some cream cleaner or something stronger. Either way, take out the baking racks and wash them in the hottest water you can manage. They might need soaking, but the hot water will help shift dried on food.
Wipe down the inside and outside of the cooker doors and scrub the hob. Then, clean the dials and buttons and wash the cooker hood. You should ideally clean these monthly, but a dedicated scrub during your deep clean won’t hurt.
Clean and Organise Worktops
Your worktops should get a daily clean, but now is a good time to move everything off them and clean in those dark corners you might usually ignore. If you have any decorations or storage containers that sit on the worktops, wash them in hot soapy water.
Wash the worktops with disinfectant to get them sparkling. As you put everything back, think about what could be stored in a cupboard, or disposed of completely. Deep cleans are the perfect time to de-clutter your kitchen!
Kitchen Cleaning Schedule
Developing a kitchen cleaning schedule should be pretty easy using the checklist above. Based on this, the next thing you’ll need to work out is who does what and when. Some examples include:
- Daily tasks like wiping down surfaces are best done after dinner by an adult (because of the cleaning products involved)
- But loading or unloading the dishwasher is a perfect chore for older kids, and can be done in the morning if needed.
- As for weekly and monthly jobs, set aside an hour or so at the weekend. Provided you’re not a messy cook, you can get a lot of the jobs done while sorting the Sunday roast!
- Deep cleaning could take several hours, so make sure you set aside at least half a day or more.
It might help you to draw up a rota if there’s more than one person in your house. Use it to divide tasks based on age and ability. Kids can’t be tasked with too much, but smaller jobs like sorting the dishwasher or sweeping the floor are ideal.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this kitchen cleaning checklist covers all the jobs involved in keeping your kitchen sparkling. Provided you do the small and necessary jobs daily, your weekly and monthly jobs won’t be as bad.
The same is true for office cleaning, although you at least have the advantage of taking it in turns!
Cleaning Express Deep Cleaning Services
Deep cleaning a kitchen can feel very overwhelming, especially if it’s been a while since you last did it. If you’re putting it off for this very reason, get in touch with Cleaning Express. Our deep cleaning services are exactly what you need!
Cleaning Express covers London, and our team of highly-trained cleaning experts can help get your kitchen back into perfect shape. Reach out today for a free estimate and to discuss your exact needs.
Also read: End of Tenancy Cleaning Checklist
