Monday, March 4, 2013

Clean Your House in 10 Minutes a Day - Kitchen



I'm starting a new series today. I don't have a problem keeping the dishes done, the bathrooms fairly clean and the house picked up {at least at the end of the day}. What I DO have a problem with is those housekeeping chores that don't need to be done on a daily or weekly basis. If it's not in the regular routine I don't remember to do it.

So here's what I've decided to do. Each week day I will spend 10 minutes a day and pick something to clean or organize. The next week I will share with you what I did, and how long it ended up taking. {I originally wanted to do 5 minutes a day, but after doing it for a week, most things took longer than I thought they would.}

The 10 minutes a day are in addition to doing dishes, picking up, bathroom cleaning and floors. At our house dishes get done at least twice a day and we pickup as we go, but especially before bed. Saturday is cleaning day and the kids and myself all have jobs. That's when we get the bathrooms cleaned and the floors vacuumed, swept and sometimes mopped.


This week I focused on the kitchen.

Monday - Cleaned the outside of dishwasher and fridge - 3 minutes
Tuesday - Cleaned microwave, inside, out and top - 7 minutes
Wednesday - It was one of those days - 0 minutes
Thursdays - Cleaned Stove Hood - 10 minutes
Friday - Cleaned Stove - 50 minutes
Saturday - Saturday Jobs


Monday I cleaned the outside of the fridge and dishwasher. They weren't super dirty and I had some helpers so they were cleaned in no time.

 Tuesday I tackled the microwave. I hate a dirty microwave, so it wasn't too bad inside, but the top was covered in dust.

Thursday I cleaned the stove hood. It was covered in dust and grease. I sprayed it with an all purpose cleaner and it took of the dust but did absolutely nothing for the grease. Then I remembered my mom telling me that a baking soda paste was good for grease. So that's what I did. I dumped some baking soda in a bowl and added water to make a paste. I rubbed the baking soda paste on with a paper towel and scrubbed. I then washed off all the residue and finished it off with a stainless steel cleaner/polisher to shine it up.  I was super pleased with the results. It looks brand new again.

Friday - After my success with the hood, I decided to attempt to clean the stove. My stovetop stays pretty clean. I wash it each day when I do dishes, but I don't always remember to clean the part where all the knobs are. After 11 years it was starting to show. I used the same method as the stove hood, but it took much longer. I think part of the reason is was more greasy. The other part of it was that I had to clean around things.  I took off the knobs, but there were still things poking out that made it harder to clean. I thought this would take maybe 20 minutes and I was okay with that since I didn't do anything on Wednesday. But it took over double that amount of time. So don't tackle the stove if you only want to spend 10 minutes.




I hope this is motivating. I think that most of us can squeeze in 10 minutes {most} days.  I'd love to hear about what you've accomplished in 10 minutes today. 


12 comments :

  1. What a great idea! I am going to have to try the baking soda on my vent hood :)

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  2. I use baking soda to clean almost everything! Another great grease-cutter is one part hot water, one part AC vinegar, and a couple drops dish soap. This is what I used to clean decades of kitchen grease off the cabinets and trim in our fixer-upper, to prep for painting. Worked great! (Got it from MY mom! What would we do without them?)

    Happy 'Show Me What Ya Got' party!
    Jessica G from http://thecabbagerosecottage.blogspot.com/

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  3. I'm a big fan of baking soda as a natural cleaner. Vinegar, too! Good on you for making it a habit to set aside time each day to tackle the chores. If you haven't already, I'd love if you'd come join my How To Tuesday link party, too.

    http://housewifehowtos.com/link-party-2/how-to-tuesday-link-party-11/

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  4. Great Idea!!! 10 minutes doesn't sound that bad...maybe I can manage that :)

    Kristina@ mothersniche.com

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  5. Your inspiring me to clean with baking soda with the beautiful results you got.

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  6. I just started using baking soda to clean and I am SHOCKED at what a good job it does. Im also trying to do a little cleaning each day... your schedule sounds perfect!

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  7. This is amazing!! I'm getting ready to sell my house and have been looking for ideas to stay on top of it all while showing. These are awesome tips and I already have the baking soda on hand. Thank you for posting this!
    Jen @ Noting Grace

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  8. I love the baking soda paste! That's awesome. I have a little baking soda use tip on my blog.
    http://www.simplisticallysassy.com/2013/03/get-rid-of-bug-bite-itching.html
    I love finding out new uses for normal everyday products.

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  9. Do you strictly follow these? The moment I start cleaning any part of the house, I won't stop until everything's spotless! Once I clean, I'll notice other stuff that are dirty and I can't just leave it like that. So, I end up cleaning the entire house. Haha! That's why I religiously clean my house at least once a month.

    Guy Houchins

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  10. I'm going to have to get some of this stuff! Thanks for telling us about it.

    Cleaning Services Chandler AZ

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  11. 10 minutes a day sounds like a wonderful idea, especially for someone like me who’s not that young and strong anymore to do heavy house cleaning every day. I’m using baking soda as homemade cleaning solution too, and it’s very effective. How about rubbing alcohol for removing grease, have you tried that already? It’s good for cleaning too. Great post, by the way! I’d love to see more exciting tricks and tips on your blog. -
    German Zollinger

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  12. We use baking powder quite a lot when were cleaning, it particularly good at removing bad odours from furniture, when my new puppy made a best on our couch we used baking powder to remove the smell it worked really well.

    Cleen Company

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