WFMW – 5 kitchen tips that really work!

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!

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.

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
• Childrens’ Calendar
• Valentine’s Day 101
• Chocolate Cake
• Magnets
• Kitchen Tips

Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by Rocks In My Dryer. Stop by Shannon’s and peruse other WFMW participants, or enter your own! Be blessed!