Welcome back, busy bees. In today's episode, I'm going to
talk you through speed cleaning your kitchen.
This is not a deep clean by any means, but if you want to get
your kitchen under control fast and move on to something else,
this episode is for you. For those of you who are new to
the show, my name is Ronnie and you're listening to Clean With
Me, the podcast where I talk you through cleaning your house.
Let's get right into the episode.
It's time to gear up for our cleaning session.
Maybe you need to get your house smelling fresh.
This could mean taking out your kitchen trash.
That's almost always the way I start when I'm cleaning my
kitchen because you got to take out the trash and reline it.
You're going to be tossing things while cleaning the
kitchen, so that's an important first step.
If people haven't been running the garbage disposal, you may
want to run your garbage disposal.
And then of course, you may want to gather up dishes from around
the house. Now, if you're not feeling
presentable or ready for the day, or you want to get shoes on
because there are crumbs on your kitchen floor, go ahead and
pause the episode and do that. But I'm getting straight to the
point in this episode because I want you to get your kitchen
clean in 20 minutes as promised for those of you who showed up
already ready to clean. But I understand if you need to
pause and take care of some other things, now's the time to
do that. The first thing I want you to
do, other than taking out your trash and relining it, is
gathering up any dishes from around the house.
And by dishes, I mean anything and everything that you're going
to wash along with your dishes. OK, this could be a mug on the
night stand, a glass on the ledge around your master
bathtub, or it could be a forgotten cereal bowl and spoon
in a teenager's room. I don't know what you're dealing
with today, but you want to make sure that you brought everything
to the kitchen so that nothing goes unwashed and it's not going
to take on. Just be a busy little bee
buzzing around your house and get that stuff to the kitchen.
This is going to be a fast-paced episode.
If that stresses you out then just click on a different
episode because most of my episodes I'm talking slowly and
it it's a calm relaxing talk through.
But I'm I've had lots of caffeine this morning and this
is going to be a fast-paced speed clean talk through.
So if you're up for it, be buzzing around right now
gathering up those dishes. OK, once you have everything to
the sink area, I want you to take care of the difficult items
first. Meaning those items that need to
soak. Maybe you have a pot or pan that
needs to soak, or even a glass or mug that has a ring around
the bottom from your coffee, milk chocolate, whatever.
Let's get all these items that need a pre soak.
Let's get those soaking right now I'll give you an example.
Yesterday I was re hit. I was re hit yesterday I was
reheating some cheese dip that my husband had made and in
typical me fashion, I forgot about it.
I didn't set a timer and I forgot about it in the oven and
he's like Oh no, that dip. So I ran in the kitchen.
Fortunately it was not burnt, meaning it wasn't blackened or
anything, but we were reheating something in the same dish and
we've been listening a while, you know, I don't advise doing
that, but it was in the same dish it had originally been
heated up in, so it was like dark brown dried on cheese
around the edges. It was still edible, but it was
going to be a son of a gun to clean, if you know what I mean.
So I just told him I said OK I didn't burn it, but this pan is
going to need some serious soaking.
I'll probably have to drop a dishwasher pot in the pan or
something and soak it possibly overnight.
I try to not let things carry over overnight, but it happens
sometimes. The important thing is that
you're not getting into a cycle of always having something
perpetually soaking, because usually things only need to soak
for an hour or so or less, often, much less.
Get those items soaking at the beginning of your cleaning
session. The next thing you're going to
do is empty your drying rack and dishwasher.
And don't try to don't be tempted to skip that step.
You might be thinking that's OK, there are only a few things in
the drying rack I can pile more on.
Most stuff's going in the dishwasher, blah blah blah.
And I realize some of you are hand washing.
Don't be tempted to skip that important step of getting all
your clean stuff put away. Obviously if you're going to do
and you know if you're going to load the dishwasher, you know
it's going to be an empty reload and run.
But the drying rack needs to be emptied too.
And your drying rack might be a drying pad or a towel that you
have laid out. OK, we're putting away all the
clean dishes before we start the loading the dishwasher or start
that for a sink load. OK.
And remember your difficult items are soaking.
We're going to get back to those.
We're going to talk about those later.
So once you've gotten your difficult items soaking and
you've put away all your clean dishes, you're going to want to
either load the dishwasher or start that first sink load if
you're 100% hand washing. OK, I'm going to give you a
couple minutes to do that and then we're going to do a little
bit of straightening. So for the next couple of
minutes you're going to be starting on your dishes,
whatever that means for you. It could mean that you're pre
rinsing things under running water with a scrub brush or an
abrasive sponge and placing them into the dishwasher.
This is often your glasses, your cups, your mugs, what I call the
small stuff, your silverware, your bowls, and I even put
spatulas, you know, cooking spatulas in the top rack of the
dishwasher. Just be strategic in how you
place those and then get that dishwasher running.
You might be hand washing, in which case I would pre rinse all
of the silverware and maybe a few glasses, but you don't want
so many that they're banging around and they're breaking or
anything like that. And when I'm hand washing, I
like to get the water super hot so that the items are soaking
while that water cools down slightly to a comfortable level
for me to stick my hands in. So once you've loaded the
dishwasher and then started the first sink load while you know
the dishwasher is running or that first sink load is doing
its soak, after the pre writes, you're going to straighten up
your kitchen. So you're going to turn your
attention to the rest of the kitchen and you're going to
start straightening up. OK, I'm talking about clearing
clutter off of your kitchen islands, countertops, kitchen
table. It could be trash that you need
to throw away. It could be items that just need
to be relocated to another room. It could be appliances that you
don't use very often because you want to streamline your counter
space. It's it's going to make it
easier to clean when you don't have so many obstacles and
people are going to keep it cleaner.
It, it's a psychological thing. Less is more.
You want to go minimalist with your kitchen countertops.
This is not a major decluttering session or anything.
It's just quickly removing items.
You know, maybe you don't need to have that KitchenAid mixer on
display to keep up with the Joneses when you only use it
once every three months. Be honest with yourself if you
haven't been using your bread maker, your Instant Pot, your
crock pot insert appliance here, let's get that put away for a
while. You still have it, but it
doesn't need to just be a constant obstacle.
OK, so let's clear off your countertops and remove anything
that doesn't belong. And let's not get used to items
just becoming part of the decor that are not everyday items.
And your everyday appliances can change over time just depending
on what kind of phase you're in. Like there was a time when I was
just obsessed with baking bread. It is one of my hobbies, but
it's not an everyday thing for me right now.
So I'm honest with myself. And I have another place where I
store that. I bring it out when I'm going to
use it. Everyday items are a toaster
just because it's inconvenient to be moving the toaster around
due to crumbs and stuff. The toaster stays out and coffee
makers stay out. Pretty much every other
appliance is put away. Like we don't use the blender
every day. We don't use the crock pot every
day. Air fryer, we don't use that
every day. All of these items need to have
a place other than on your countertop unless you're
literally using them every day. And I feel like the constants
for everyday items are the toaster and the Keurig.
But then that third item varies. Are we in a blender phase?
Are we on a bread making phase? Are we in an Instant Pot phase?
Or let's clear that clutter off. OK, now I know you need to wipe
down your countertops and everything, but we're going to
do that closer to the end. I just wanted you to remove the
visual clutter and streamline it so that you don't have so many
obstacles after your dishes are done.
So now what you're going to do is just continue working on
dishes, whatever that means for you because you're in different
cycles of dishes. I mean, some of you have more
than one sink load. Some of you put everything in
the dishwasher except those pans that were soaking.
Some of you are doing one sink load after another.
If you're like me, when you're hand washing, you like to change
the water constantly. And we're not using nasty water
to just keep washing stuff, obviously.
So I'm not sure what stage you're in, but I'm going to give
you a few more minutes to do dishes and then we're going to
wipe down the upper surfaces and then end with a sweep and at
least a spot mop of the floor. In case you're new to the show,
I'm on a serious kick where I try to separate the act of
putting away clean dishes from the act of washing dishes.
Meaning when I go in to wash dishes, I don't want to have
clean stuff to put away. And obviously in this session, I
assumed that you did, but bonus points if your clean stuff was
put away in the morning and you're listening to this episode
another time of day and you were able to just dive in and start
washing your dishes. It's it's such a game changer
for me. And different things resonate
with different people. Some of the tips that I give you
will work for you and some of them won't because we all think
differently and have different lifestyles, routines, family
dynamics. There's so many differences.
But a kitchen episode wouldn't be complete without me saying
that I like to put away my clean dishes in the morning while my
coffee's brewing. And I'm talking about emptying
the drying rack and dishwasher to set the stage for a day where
people are cleaning as they go in the kitchen.
So if you're facing a disaster right now, that could help you
moving forward if you try to implement that new habit.
This show isn't about just preaching to you that you need
to change your habits. It's about getting you through
these tough cleaning sessions where you didn't do all the
right things, but also giving you tools to make things easier
on yourself in the future. Some people mistakenly think
like I'm really into cleaning. No, I just wanted a show like
this for myself and ended up making one because I saw a need
there. I wanted something to get me
through those mundane household chores.
Once you've gotten your dishes done, maybe you need a couple
more minutes for that. But once you've gotten it done,
you're going to grab your favorite cleaning spray.
Or if you don't have an appropriate spray to wipe down
your cabinets and countertops, you can always just use a clean
dish rag with hot soapy water. You know, just dish dish soap on
it and wring it out and wipe things down with that.
If you're worried about your wood, you can dry it immediately
afterward. Or maybe you have a dedicated
product that's great for spraying your wooden cabinets.
But a lot of times I like to just spray my upper cabinets,
wipe them down and then get a different product that I use on
my ground at countertops and then yet another product that I
use on my cook top that's a little stronger.
And you might also have a stainless steel cleaner for
spraying the fronts of your appliances.
But I often just use a glass and surface cleaner or glass cleaner
when I'm spraying and wiping down the front of my
refrigerator. And part of it is because some
of these large appliances have stainless steel and glass, the
front of the microwave, the front of the oven, the
dishwasher. But never use the lack of
cleaning supplies as an excuse because you can use a rag with
just dish soap. Use what you have on hand.
If you don't have all the perfect products, wipe those
cabinet fronts. Just get spray happy.
Spray down your kitchen counters and stove top and wipe these
surfaces down. And of course, you might not
have a glass cook top. You might need to remove the
burners to properly clean in there.
I'll wait. I'm going to give you time to do
that, so be working on that. But basically cleaning the
kitchen involves picking up and putting away items that don't
belong. And that includes putting away
your clean dishes that have already dried and then of
course, gathering up the dishes, putting them in the sink slash
dishwasher or next to the sink if you're like me and you don't
like to pile all your breakable glasses into the sink.
If you have a dishwasher, load it.
If you don't wash everything by hand.
Or if you're like me, do a combination of both.
I'll admit that on some days I will load the dishwasher, set a
timer, go do something else, and come back and reboot the
dishwasher. But I I caution against that.
It's usually best to just hand wash whatever's remaining
because you want to get down to dish 0 after every meal if
possible, but especially by the end of the day.
OK, no judgement here if you're not doing that and you've always
got something perpetually soaking, but I want to help you
change that so have the goal of getting down to dish zero at the
end of the day. Sometimes the procrastination
with something soaking can be a problem.
OK, now for those of you who did get something soaking at the
beginning of this session, unless it's like that cheese dip
that's just double baked on, you can probably finish washing it
at this point. It doesn't always take that long
to soak things unless there's a mistake where you burnt
something on or bake something on.
So by now you've probably washed your dishes.
Now scrub those items that you left soaking if it applies, OK,
otherwise, or just continue with cleaning the surfaces of your
kitchen from the top down. OK, this is not a deep cleaning
episode. Or I'd talk about the top of
your cabinets. I'd talk about the top of your
refrigerator. I'd talk about scrubbing switch
plates, baseboards, the wall behind your countertop, all the
things. But this is just an everyday
speed clean where you do dishes, you scrub your you wipe down
your cabinets because they might have fingerprints on them.
You clean the front of your large appliances and you wipe
down the counters. And of course, those small
appliances that you're keeping on your countertop, you wipe
those down in the same step that you're wiping the counters and
you pick them up, you wipe under them.
OK, your toaster, your coffee maker, your other favorite
appliance. And then you move down to your
lower cabinets and you wipe those down.
And then once you've scrubbed those items that you left
soaking, it's time to detail your sink.
Scrub out your sink, shine that up, especially the faucet, the
area behind the faucet that can be a harbor for germs.
And it's going to feel good to just be able to see your sink
and not have like a couple inches of water in it and
something soaking. And bonus, if you have
teenagers, they're going to be more likely to help you with the
dishes when they don't have to stick their hand in some yucky
water to pull the plug. Like a lot of people have an
aversion to that They gross out. I mean, you can tell them to use
tongs or whatever, but better yet, don't leave yucky water.
When I talk about soaking things, I'm not usually talking
about having them submerged in the sink.
I'm talking about having those items sitting on the counter
full of the hot soapy water, because then you can just dump
it and nobody's sticking their hand in the gross water like
they just don't want to do. So let's deal with those items
that were soaking. No judgement here if there's
something that you have to leave overnight, but you can use
things like crock pot liners. You can use disposable aluminum
containers. If your biggest struggle in the
kitchen is the fact that you have things perpetually soaking,
there are ways to prevent that. For example, you can move your
food into a serving dish right away after dinner and then clean
that pan while it's still hot. OK.
You can avoid reheating things in the same casserole dish.
You can buy disposable items. Sometimes you've got to ask
yourself, what's your time worth?
OK, and I'm all for being frugal and you know, as frugal as
possible. I'm all for that.
But at the same time there are certain things that I will spend
money on that are just game changers for me.
Like I love the disposable disinfecting wipes, I love the
pre moistened mop pads that go on the Swiffer and I also use
them to clean certain things by hand.
Love those. It's worth it to me.
But different people spend money in different areas.
And it's so funny. Like we'll look at somebody and
we'll be like, I can't believe they spend money on that.
But then there's something that we're spending money on that
they can't believe. That's just just the way it is.
And most cleaning lists have a step of drying and putting away,
hand wash, hand wash dishes. Obviously the things in the
dishwasher are not ready to put away yet.
So that's not on these checklists and that could be a
thing. That is another way to separate
the act of putting away your clean dishes from the next time
you have to do dishes. So you don't have to put clean
stuff away and then wash. And it's always like a whole
thing. One way is what I said, putting
away your clean stuff in the morning if you're just team air
dry. But another thing you could do
if you want to just get it all done while you're in the kitchen
is to dry those items. And put them away like you'd see
in a 1950s or 1960s sitcom. You know, one person's washing,
one person's drying. There's something to be said for
that. I just air dry with a drying
rack. So does my husband.
That's the way his mom did it. And my mom let things air dry on
a towel. So we're just not like a dry the
dishes type of family. But that's definitely a valid
way to separate the putting away from the washing and help you
avoid overwhelm where you have to do it all at once.
Once you've cleaned your upper cabinets, your countertops,
stove top, appliance fronts, you've done your dishes, you've
cleaned out your sink, the last step is to sweep the kitchen
floor and maybe do a quick spot mop of any sticky areas.
Since this isn't a deep clean, I'm not expecting you to
thoroughly mop your floor, but sometimes spot mopping can make
a huge difference. Just remember, cleaning is not
an all or nothing proposition. Sometimes good enough is OK.
And yes, if the job's worth doing, it's worth doing right.
But is it doing a job right when you're not prioritizing your
time, when you're hyper focusing on certain things and you're not
looking at the bigger picture? No, absolutely not.
So realize that doing something right means prioritizing your
time and knowing when good enough is good enough.
I hope you got a lot done during the Speed Cleaning Session
Special. Special thanks to my financial
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And I'll put all the links in the episode notes to make it
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If you're not able to support the show financially and unlock
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sign or subscribe, whichever applies on whichever platform
you're listening on. But when you go the extra mile
and pay for bonus episodes, that helps me tremendously.
But most of all, just keep listening.
I appreciate each and every one of you.
And as always, happy cleaning. I'll talk to you soon.