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Cleaning the built-up food residue off pots, pans and ovens can seem like a long and arduous task. However it doesn’t have to be if you know what to use. This doesn’t mean having to go and buy expensive cleaning equipment, often the answers are already lying in your kitchen! Below are 18 of the best quick and easy cleaning hacks that will show you how to clean nearly everything in your kitchen and beyond:
- Inside the Microwave: Place a bowl of either water and lemon juice or water and white vinegar in the microwave. Turn on and heat until the liquid is boiling. Leave the bowl for a few minutes, allowing the acidic steam penetrate the built-up food, then simply wipe everything off.
- Greasy Baking Trays: Use baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to clean baking trays and gas hob rings. Sprinkle on baking soda, pour on a little peroxide, and sprinkle on more baking soda and wait at least two hours. After that, you can practically just wipe the grease clean!
- The Oven: Put a shallow dish with a cup of ammonia on the top rack, and a pot of boiling water on the lower. Let it sit overnight. In the morning, the mess wipes clean.
- Plastic Melted on a Toaster Oven Window: Use a straight-edge razor at a 45-degree angle to remove it.
- Waffle Maker: A knife wrapped in a kitchen paper towel gets inside ridges without scratching the surface.
- Coffeemaker: Run water mixed with white vinegar through the system, then run plain water through twice more. Carefully scrub inside the pot with ice cubes and salt.
- Humidifier: Run white vinegar through the system. Once you smell vinegar in the air, turn it off and let it sit overnight so the acid kills the bacteria. In the morning, run plain water through the system until the vinegar smell is gone.
- Fingerprints on Stainless Steel: The reason stainless steel appliances get fingerprints is that they are oxidising. Scrub the area with a gentle scrubbing powder or baking soda, then rinse. To keep it clean, use a microfiber cloth.
- Tile Grouting: Using an old toothbrush, scrub the grouting with a paste of hydrogen peroxide and sodium borate.
- Kitchen Walls: Wipe food grease off walls with a rag dabbed with rubbing alcohol to cut grease and oil. Since it’s flammable, make sure there are no open flames when you clean. If it’s been there a while, you can mix alcohol with baking soda. The alcohol cuts grease–the baking soda scrubs the stuck-on spots.
- Carpet Stains: Dab a little carbonated water on the stain. If that doesn’t work, spray hydrogen peroxide mixed with water to lift stains, then absorb with a clean towel.
- Kitchen Bin: Take it outside and spray it with a hose, preferably before it starts to smell, then let it dry outside. Use a baking soda paste on caked-on dirt before spraying.
- Stained Pan Bottoms: Use a mixture of salt, sodium borate and baking soda with an eraser sponge.
- Stained Countertops: Scrub stains off counters with whitening toothpaste.
- Cast-Iron Frying Pan: Don’t use soap! Soak the pan in water, then scrub with a chainmail scrubber. Scrubbing tough spots with a plastic scrubber works, too.
- Mirrors & Windows: For streak-free cleaning, use a fine woven microfiber cloth, such as an eyeglass cloth.
- Extractor Fan Hood: Lots of kitchen surfaces get coated with residue that’s hard to clean. It sounds strange, but one of the best solutions is to fight oil with oil! Pour a few drops of oil (any kind) on a microfibre cloth or paper towel and the gunk wipes right off.
- Any Surface: Using an eraser sponge is one of the best cleaning hacks: They clean fibreglass, stainless steel appliances, countertops, tables, walls–even the kitchen sink–without stripping the surface or leaving residue.
Wondering how to clean other tricky items? A little science goes a long way. The trick is to know what you’re cleaning, and then figuring out what you have to clean it with. For instance, alcohol breaks down oil and lemon juice bleaches out stains. It’s simple once you realise it’s just science!
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