Are you taking care of your kitchen cabinets properly? In the house, the kitchen is the most important space. It is where the food is stored, cut clean, cooked, and presented. Hence, it is the most active place in the house. Due to this, the kitchen must always be in the best shape. The cabinet and everything must be maintained regularly as well.
In this article, we are sharing a few steps to keep your kitchen clean and neat. So, the center of the house always keeps running at its best pace. However, there are different types of kitchen cabinets. Each type made of different materials. So, if you want to take care of your kitchen cabinets properly, you have to treat each of them separately.
Wood cabinets
It is one of the toughest types of kitchen cabinets for maintaining. wood comes with many kinds of finishing. There are different sorts of woods and they come with various seals. Unless we know which type of seal, your wood cabinet has it is hard to give you correct cleaning tips. However, we are trying to cover the basics that can be used on all types of wood.
Keep your cabinets water-free
First, point you should keep in mind about cleaning woods is that wood is sensitive to water. So, you should be careful before using too much liquid while cleaning wood. Only dampen the cloth lightly before wiping through the wood surface.
Use oil soap
Oil soap is a good handy supply to clean your cabinet as well as make them shine on wood. Oil soaps don’t damage the wood surface and keep it as good as new.
Clean grains from the surface
Grains should be wiped off with the help of a microfiber cloth. Buff, polish and clean the surface with it to get rid of the grains.
Some cabinets need extra care
You can clean all cabinets in the same way, but some need a bit of extra care. These are cabinets above or near the stove. Since these are exposed to steam and vapor, these cabinets are likely to die out fast that its other counterparts. It is best to add an extra layer of seals in these cabinets. Clean them frequently to keep them ticking for a long time.
Laminate Cabinets
Laminate is a good material for Cabinets. It is long-lasting as well as easy to maintain. Cleaning laminate materials is pretty easy. These are some of the steps you can take to keep the laminate cabinet clean.
Make soda paste to clean cabinets
Mix one part of water with two parts of baking soda to create a paste. Apply the paste on all the stains of the cabinet and let it sit for a while. After this, wipe the part clean with a cloth.
Marks on lower cabinets
Sometimes lower cabinets tend to develop marks. For these spots, you can use an eraser to rub them on the cabinet surface.
Vinegar solution
For regular cleaning, you can use a vinegar solution for the cabinets. Make sure the solution is diluted enough before applying on the surfaces. Dampen a cloth in the vinegar solution and wipe the surface to keep it clean.
Do not use rough pads for cleaning
Sometimes there are strong marks which are difficult to work with. In any case, use the methods we have described and only use cloths to clean the cabinets. Do not use any rough pads, it can damage the surface of the cabinets permanently.
Painted Cabinets
One of the popular types of cabinets for decorating the kitchen. Painted cabinets are preferred by many since one change in color can change the appearance of the entire kitchen. But keeping a painted kitchen cabinet up to mark is not that easy. You need to put some work to make them look perfect in the kitchen.
Cleaning oil blot from the cabinet
Oil stains can be a common problem in the kitchen. Sometimes they are difficult to deal with. To get rid of oil stains you can use an ammonia solution. Add water to the solution to make it dilute. Now take a piece of cloth and dampen it in the solution. Slowly wipe the oil off the cabinet. You will notice the mark it visibly fading, rub until you are happy with the results.
How to remove regular stains?
When there is a stain on the cabinet make a mixture of baking soda. Put one part of water with two parts of baking soda and form a paste out of them. Now find stains on the cabinet and dab some paste into the stain. Let it sit for a few minutes to clean them. After that, wipe it off the cabinet to clean the cabinet. Now you have a stain-free cabinet in your kitchen.
Repainting the cabinet
Although you take care of the cabinet, the paint on the cabinet will eventually wear off. Taking care of the cabinet makes the appearance long-lasting and nice. However, when you notice paint chips are coming off, it is a sign that the cabinets repainting. Be prepared for repainting when you see paint chips.
Glass cabinets
Glass cabinets are usually a mixture of two different materials. It can be a mixture of wood and glass, or laminate and glass. They can be cleaned easily. One fact you have to consider before cleaning glass cabinets is the material that is used with glass. Some chemicals don’t damage glass but it harms laminate or wood. So, you have to be careful while cleaning glass cabinets.
Cleaning the glass
Glass cabinets tend to develop fingerprints on the surface. A glass cleaner can help you to get rid of those, along with other marks on the plane. Polish gently with the liquid to clean the surface.
Do not use oil-based washers
As you know that some oil-based cleaning supplements are good for a smooth cabinet surface. However, if you use them on glass cabinets they leave a tough mark on the connecting point of glass and its frame. This streak could be strong and hard to remove. Hence it is best to avoid oil-based cleaners on glass cabinets.
Clean both sides of the glass
While you are cleaning the cabinet, make sure to clean the interior of the cabinets as well. Glass transparency can easily show any stain on the other side and make all your hard work to clean the front go to waste.
How to deal with some common stains in the kitchen?
After sharing how to clean some particular types of cabinets, here are some more cleaning ideas according to the stains of cabinets;
Food spots
If you are working in a kitchen cabinet, you will have to face food spots often. This is one of the biggest enemies for cabinets because food tends to sit there and dry up. In case you leave it there for a while it will harden and leave a mark that will be harder to wash away. It is especially a problem if you have wood cabinets or similar material that absorbs easily.
The best way to deal with food marks is to clean them up right away. Use the baking paste we have suggested above to make sure the stain is clean. Wash it instantly the moment you saw it, and hopefully, you will have a clean cabinet.
Fingerprints
Fingerprint develops mainly on the glass surface, but you may find them on laminate or wood, or any shiny cabinet surface. Vinegar is a good medium to remove fingerprints. Take a cloth and damp it on vinegar solution, polish the surface until all fingerprints are wiped clean.
Water spots
Sometimes water can leave a mark on cabinets. This is true, especially for hard water. The best way to deal with water stains is to use distilled water to clean the facade. However, if your tap water is hard water, you may find this problem hard to deal with. Watermarks will build-up often of the surface. If that is the case, you might need to replace tap water with soft water.
Oily marks
Since your cabinets are placed inside the kitchen they are likely to get food and oily stains. However, cleaning food stains are different than oil stains. You can’t use soda paste on them to clean them properly. For this, you need a vinegar solution again. Use a cloth and dampen it in the solution then wipe the spotted area. Comparative to fingerprints, oil stains are harder to get rid of. So, you will need to work until they are completely wiped off. You may need to repeat the process a few times to get the cabinet shiny again.
Final words
These were some basic ways to keep your kitchen cabinet shiny and new in appearance. If you take care of your cabinets well then your cabinets can last for years and you don’t need to replace them often. Keeping your cabinets clean indirectly affects your health. If any stain is left untreated, cockroaches and other similar pests could be attracted to it. Making your kitchen unhealthy. It will eventually end up affect the food and cause your family member to fall ill.
Sometimes cleaning the kitchen can seem a bit tough, but any mistake can compromise your health. It is a risk no one is willing to take. If you clean your kitchen cabinets regularly you will be rewarded in many ways than one.
