People know there are blades in there and nothing's going down
the garbage disposal. I'm Ronnie and you're listening
to Clean With Me, the podcast where I walk you through
cleaning your house step by step.
Thanks for joining me. In today's episode, we are going
to speed clean your messy kitchen.
Let's get right into the episode.
The first thing I want you to do is to gather up any dirty dishes
from around the house. Maybe somebody forgot to clear
their plate and fork from the table.
Or maybe you and your husband both have some glasses and mugs
on the night stand. Or maybe you need to check a
teenager's room for dishes. Just quickly walk through your
house and gather up any dirty dishes.
And if you're ahead of the game and you don't have a lot of
dishes to wash and you're kind of looking for things to wash or
to put into the dishwasher, maybe grab some things from your
bathroom, like your toothbrush holder that could run through
the dishwasher. But some of you were just
overwhelmed with the kitchen right now.
So that was just kind of a bonus task you could throw in.
In case you're new to the show and these episodes, I have you
go a little deeper with your cleaning during times when
you're more caught up. These episodes are designed for
people who are either overwhelmed and doing the bare
minimum or people who are having a better day and are kind of
ahead on things that are looking for things to do.
So I will throw out little bonus tasks like that, like putting
your toothbrush holder into the dishwasher or something like
that. But for a lot of you, you just
need to gather up any dirty dishes from around the house.
I know you have a rule that people are supposed to at least
take their dish to the sink and rinse it out.
But I also know that not everybody follows the rule and
maybe even you forgot sometimes. I also know that that only took
you a minute, so let's move on to the next step.
This is a speed clean, so we're going to be moving right along
in this episode. The next thing I want you to do
is get any difficult items soaking.
OK, maybe there's a forgotten pot and pan or maybe you're
listening to this episode after dinner and it's just time to
wash the pots and pans that you cooked with.
But those items that have kind of some baked on food or dried
on food in them probably need a little bit of soaking.
So what I want you to do is quickly pre rinse those items
and then fill them up with hot water and a little bit of liquid
dish soap. And if you've been listening to
the show for a while, you know that the secret weapon is to
drop a dishwasher pod into something that is particularly
hard to clean, like something's baked on, dried on for too long.
You can do that kind of as a secret weapon.
And sometimes it's not just the pots and pans and cooking
spatula that are heavily soiled and need to soak.
And of course, when I'm talking about a cooking spatula, I'm
talking about sticking that into that pot that you have soaking.
Sometimes there are glasses or mugs with some residue in the
bottom, and you don't want to have to scrub those.
So you're going to want to fill those up with hot soapy water
too and get those soaking. And I'm not talking about having
them necessarily soak overnight or anything like that.
Most likely you're going to go ahead and wash them during this
session. If you're ahead of the game and
you're already done getting those difficult items soaking or
you didn't have any difficult items, it's time to put away
your clean dishes. I'm talking about emptying your
dishwasher and or drying rack or maybe you put things out on a
towel or a drying pad. Obviously, when I say drying
rack, I'm just talking about those dishes that were washed
and then left out to air dry. It's time to put away the clean
dishes. I'm getting ready to make a new
chore list for my kids, and that always appears somewhere on the
list, putting away the clean dishes.
For me, it's just so much easier to walk into a kitchen that has
an empty dishwasher and an empty drying rack rather than have to
do that step first. But you might need to do that
step first. OK, my drying rack's full right
now. I don't think my dishwasher's
full. But my drying rack's full right
now, and I'm planning to empty it early in the day.
I'm recording this early in the morning.
That way I will have kind of a clean slate and I won't have to
put a lot of thought into where I'm going to place dishes as I
wash them. Because when my dishes are
caught up, I don't necessarily put things into the dishwasher.
I'm more likely to just wash one or two items by hand.
Like if I just make myself something to eat, like when the
kids are at school and I'm at home.
Since I'm at home on Mondays, I do have that one day where my
kids are at school and I'm at home.
It's a hybrid school where they do some of the work at home.
It's called a university model. A lot of you already know that,
so I won't go on and on about it.
But my point is, when I'm home and the kids are at school, I'm
just heating up a little bit of food for myself.
Or even sometimes when they're home, we kind of fend for
ourselves because they're teenagers.
My husband and I kind of take turns making dinner, but
typically people make their own lunches.
So if I'm just cleaning up my own lunch mess I will just wash
those by hand. But if I'm maybe the kids have
left some things in the sink that they rinsed off then I
might load the dishwasher Just depending if there's enough for
a load. But I'm not super picky.
Like it doesn't have to be a full load.
I am totally fine with running my dishwasher at about 75%
capacity. OK, this is a speed clean, so
we're going to just keep moving to the next step.
But no judgment here. If you need more time, you can
always pause the episode or just be doing something different
than what I'm talking about. But ideally, by now you've
gathered up dirty dishes from around the house, you've gotten
those difficult items soaking, and then you've emptied out your
drying rack and dishwasher. It's time to pre rinse some
items and either place them into the dishwasher or place them
into your sink for that kind of preliminary soak.
When I hand wash, I rinse things off under running water using
either a scrub brush or an abrasive sponge.
It's the same thing I do before placing items into the
dishwasher and I do a combination of dishwashing and
hand washing. In our house, we call it putting
the small stuff into the dishwasher, meaning the plates,
silverware, bowls, maybe some strategically placed cooking
spoons, and then those larger items like the pots and pans we
wash in the sink because we don't want those to take up
valuable real estate in the dishwasher or impede the flow of
water. I am not against washing pots
and pans in the dishwasher, but when I have a lot of small
stuff, the priority is getting that stuff into the dishwasher.
But I realize you might be 100% hand washing.
My point is it's time to either load the dishwasher and hand
wash the remaining items or just start hand washing that for a
sink load. OK.
And when I'm hand washing, I again pre rinse and then they go
into a soak. You know, I fill up one side of
the sink and I realize your sink might not be two sided, but I
fill up one side of the sink with hot soapy water and
submerge those items. And then usually that water is a
little bit uncomfortably hot. That's a good thing.
It's working to clean the dishes.
Once I get that first sink load pre rinsed and submerged.
I will often start putting away items in the kitchen to kind of
get a head start on pre cleaning my countertops to get them ready
to wipe down. OK, so be knocking out all of
your easy dishes. Remember we have a few difficult
items soaking. I want you to do that at the end
of the session, so while you're plugging away on dishes, whether
it's hand washing, loading the dishwasher, or a combination of
both. I just wanted to talk about
cleaning the parts of your gadgets and just safety.
As far as washing your knives and whatnot, I learned a long
time ago that you should not submerge your dirty knives under
the water because there's bubbles in there.
You're not going to see them, and you or someone else might
forget that the knives are in there.
You might reach under the water and grab a knife and cut your
hand. Yes, I've done it before.
Okay. In fact, if you've been
listening to the show for a while, you may have heard the
story. But one time there was a broken
mug under the water, and this was kind of a freak accident.
I was in a hurry, plunged my hand under there, and when I
pulled my hand out, that jagged broken mug was just stuck into
my hand. And I was, I was bleeding like a
stuck pig. I ended up going to the hospital
for stitches. This is years ago.
I wasn't considered a cleaning guru in those days.
OK, I'm pretty sure I was in my late 20s.
But some of the precautions that I take and just be working on
dishes while I talk, some of the precautions I take is I don't
submerge knives and I don't even put the glasses and cups in
there and until right before I'm going to wash them.
I usually if they have like a dried on ring at the bottom or
something, I usually just fill them up and place them next to
the sink to soak. Then I do submerge them briefly
right before washing them, but I'm not just leaving them in a
sink indefinitely like I would maybe with silverware bowls and
plates that, you know, maybe been soaking under the bubbles
for a while, if that makes sense.
They go in, the cups go in right when I'm washing them.
By the way, you need certain tools.
You, especially if you have narrow glasses or cups, I
recommend getting a bottle brush.
I'm talking about something that you would find in the baby
department for cleaning baby bottles that works for champagne
flutes or other skinny containers.
OK, you need some kind of a tool, and there are also tools
like this in the regular dishwashing section.
But the brush that I use for cleaning inside a glass I think
is designed for baby bottles, whereas I have a different type
of scrub brush that I'm using to pre rinse the plates and pots
and pans. So I have two of these tools on
a handle. If you don't have the right
tools, that's OK. Just work with what you have for
now. I'm just giving you ideas for a
future shopping trip since this is a speed clean and I want you
to actually get your kitchen clean, not just your dishes
done. I'm only going to give you a
couple more minutes to wash those dishes, so please work
quickly. Don't forget about those items
you left to soak. We just saved those for last so
that they would have time to soak while you're working.
I'll talk about some of your gadgets with parts.
OK, I talked about not submerging knives.
You might also have other gadgets that have sharp parts,
whether it's a food processor or that little thing you use to
chop salsa or a little blade for your magic bullet blender or
other blender. And what I recommend is that you
purchase a dish pan, just a small rectangular container that
you can soak certain items in on the countertop.
Now if you don't have that, a stand in could be just maybe
that large stainless steel salad bowl you have in your kitchen.
You can use something else as your container for now if you
don't have an actual dish pan. And if there's somebody else in
the house who helps you with dishes, you can let them know.
This dish pan is for soaking the parts of the meat slicer or the
food processor or the blender so that they aren't just blindly
sticking their hand into that dish pan.
The key is knowing that it's, you know, kind of a danger zone.
That way, you can still soak those parts of things that have
blades without running the risk of someone reaching in and
cutting themselves inadvertently.
When you have these gadgets, sometimes you need to soak the
parts or maybe you just want to keep the parts of a certain tool
together and that causes you to procrastinate on washing that
gadget. The dishpan is the solution
because you're not putting everything in the sink and, and
maybe you have a 1, you know, A1 basin, a single basin sink and
you're like, I'm worried that somebody is going to run one of
the parts of my favorite gadgets through the garbage disposal or
something. I'm worried it's going to fall
down the drain. OK, I'm kind of like that with
the little paddle or I was kind of like that.
I don't the machine ended up giving up the ghost, but I used
to be really worried about the little paddle for my bread
machine. Like I didn't want that to fall
down the drain and somebody grind it up so nobody was
allowed to wash my bread pan but me.
My point is, you can solve that problem by having a dish pan and
putting the parts of your favorite gadget into that dish
pan to soak. And that can help you avoid
procrastination on cleaning that item.
You keep all the parts together and people know there are blades
in there and nothing's going down the garbage disposal.
OK, by now hopefully you're done with your dishes.
No judgment here if you just need to do dishes for the rest
of the episode, but a lot of you came here to speed clean your
kitchen. Congratulations.
If you got your dishes done, doesn't it feel good to be down
to dish 0? If not, pause the episode if you
need more time. But some of you are locked in
right now and you're getting your kitchen clean.
So the next step is to preclean your countertops and clear off
your kitchen table and clear off your kitchen table.
Maybe there are some seasonings left out from when you cooked.
Maybe the kids left out some cereal boxes or a peanut butter
container. I know you did the dishes, but
there are other items. Maybe you need to throw away
some trash. Or have you taken out your
kitchen trash and relined it? If your kitchen trash is too
full to put things in it, you're going to have to take that trash
out and reline it so that you'll have a place to put things when
you're clearing off the counter tops.
OK, we're not going to do a major decluttering in most
episodes. I talk about going more minimal
with your countertops, you know, putting away the stand mixer
that you haven't been using lately or whatever.
The Instant Pot. I'm not going to talk about all
that because this is a speed clean.
Just wipe those items down, pick them up, wipe under them.
The the point of this episode is to get your kitchen sanitary.
You can do a kind of a streamline countertop where you
put everything away later, but for right now, you're going to
put away things that obviously need to be dealt with, like your
seasonings, your cereal boxes, the ketchup that you can just
put in the fridge or whatever. I don't know what you have out
on your countertops, but there might be some items that don't
even belong in the kitchen. Quickly run those to the other
room, but don't get sidetracked. Come right back.
By the way, this step should not take long at all because once
your dishes are done, you probably only have a few items
on the counter. It can seem daunting when your
kitchen looks visually cluttered, but it's not going to
take as long as you think to just put those items away.
Just quickly put them away and reveal those countertops so that
you can go spray happy. And I realize you might have
some clean dishes in a drying rack and you don't want to spray
cleaner right there. That's OK.
When we wipe down the counters, you're going to use just a damp
rag with dish soap on it in those areas where you can't
spray, like maybe where you have a bowl of fruit or where you
have clean dishes drying. But I typically move my fruit
basket over to the table when I spray down my countertops.
Then after I scrub the countertops, I bring it back to
my kitchen island and then I clean the table.
Just clear your countertops and then start spraying and wiping
down surfaces. And it's not just your
countertops and stove tops that you're going to spray and wipe
down. It's also the fronts of your
large appliances, the outside of your refrigerator, the outside
of your microwave, your dishwasher, your oven.
OK, you're going to spray those surfaces with the appropriate
products and scrub them. If they're heavily soiled, you
might need to use an abrasive sponge with hot soapy water.
Sometimes that's a step that needs to be done before you just
spray and wipe down the surfaces with a cloth.
You know what to do, but you're cleaning all of those upper
surfaces of your kitchen. If you have time, at least wipe
the cabinets where they're frequently touched.
OK, but the main thing I want you to do is wipe your large
appliances and small ones that you have sitting out your
countertop, your stove top. Of course, your countertop
includes your kitchen island, if you have one.
Speaking of the island, there's probably a certain section of
countertop, whether it's an island or just part of your
counter where you prepare food. That's where you want to use a
disinfectant of some sort. OK.
For us, our prep area is the island.
So after I've cleaned the island, I like to go over it
with disinfecting wipes. You know, I do use a cutting
board, but inevitably you could get, you know, meat juices and
things on that surface and there could be germs lurking that you
can't see. And the disinfecting wipes are
kind of insurance. Of course, you don't have to use
wipes. You can just use a disinfectant
spray. But I'm a fan of the wipes.
By the way, we're going to be going into cold and flu season,
so one of the other uses for disinfecting wipes.
Is keeping some in the bathroom. My mom is a major germaphobe and
years ago she came to visit us and then all of a sudden my kids
were throwing up or whatever and she didn't want to catch it.
You know, her flight wasn't leaving for a couple more days.
She didn't want to catch it. What she did, she bought some
disinfecting wipes and then every time she used the
bathroom, she would go in there and wipe things like the
doorknob, the switch plate, the sink, the faucets.
And I'm not telling you to clean your bathrooms right now.
I'm just talking about another reason to have disinfecting
wipes in stock. And just basically, you know,
the flusher handle, the toilet seat, everything in the bathroom
she was going to touch, she cleaned it with the disinfecting
wipes first so that when she was touching the sink and flushing
the toilet, she would not pick up germs from whoever used the
bathroom before her. OK.
And I'll be the first to admit I'm not real good about this
kind of stuff. Like, I don't worry as much
about it. But obviously, you know, it is
important to practice, at least practice hand washing a lot when
you have people who are sick in the house.
And maybe consider using my mom's idea.
If people are super sick and you don't want to catch it, or you
don't want someone else who's vulnerable to catch it, you
might have people in your house who are immunocompromised and
someone has the flu, or someone has COVID or even a cold.
For some people, even a cold could cause them to get
pneumonia. Not trying to scare you here,
but I'm just saying you might want to use my mom's method of
using the disinfecting wipes. You know, Don't have the sickest
person in the house preparing food?
Have some disinfecting wipes in the bathroom.
OK, by now hopefully you've wiped down the countertops in
your kitchen. The last and final step of
cleaning your kitchen is sweeping and mopping.
Or if you have a vacuum that's good on hardwood floors,
vacuuming and mopping. OK, so after this episode, maybe
put some music on and clean your kitchen floors.
Speaking of music, I wanted to remind you that there's a new
way to unlock bonus episodes, and that's directly through
Spotify. I know many of you are already
supporting the show on Apple Podcasts, but some of you who
were listening on Spotify did not have a very convenient way
to unlock the bonus episodes. You can now do that directly
through Spotify or you can go to my Patreon page and I always put
a link to my website in the episode description clean with
mepodcast.com. You can find information on all
the ways to subscribe there, but I just wanted to kind of throw
that out there about the Spotify subscriptions because
subscribing directly through Spotify was not possible before
and now it is. Whether you're subscribing to
bonus episodes on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Patreon, it's all the
same to me and I appreciate the financial support more than you
know. I'm hoping you put on some music
or another podcast while you sweep and mop your kitchen.
It's important. It's an important finishing
touch. And maybe you can also finish
wiping down your cabinets because I know I didn't allow a
lot of time for that. It's my kids first day of school
so I've got to go. By the way, I'm going to be
providing more of a life update about me in the next bonus
episode, so be sure you subscribe to bonus content so
that you don't miss that. I hope you got a lot done during
this episode. Happy cleaning and I'll talk to
you soon.