4 Simple Secrets For Keeping Your Kitchen Under Control – Kitchen Cleaning Tips

Are you staring at another sink/counter full of dishes and wondering how on earth we got here again?! 

In this article, I will share my top 4 kitchen cleaning tips so that you spend less of your precious time with your hands in a sink of dirty water!

Food, dishes, more food, dishes, “Mom, can I have a snack?”, dishes….repeat. Is this the never-ending cycle of your kitchen too?

If you are like the majority of Americans surveyed below, dishes are tied for the most disliked chore.

graph showing least popular chores with laundry, dishes and bathroom indicated as the most disliked

today.yougov.com

That being said, a messy kitchen can be a sign of good things like family connection, well-fed kids, and delicious food. 

So instead of dreading the aftermath of these wonderful things, check out these 4 kitchen cleaning tips and tricks to help you keep your kitchen feeling and looking like “the heart of your home!” 

  1. Always start the day with an empty dishwasher.
  2. Only touch each dish once.
  3. Serve food in lid-friendly dishes.
  4. Clean one appliance daily.

Kitchen Cleaning Tip #1: Always Start The Day With An Empty Dishwasher/Dish Rack

There HAS to be a place for the breakfast dishes to go. Even just a few plates piled into the sink or on the counter after breakfast will create a domino effect throughout the day. 

empty open dishwasher

As much as we like sitting down to the soothing hum of the dishwasher at the end of the day – emptying the dishwasher before going to bed sets us up for the ability to be on top of the mess all day. 

They say habits take 21 days to really sink in (ok, more recent research says 18 to 254 days). Let’s start with 30. Try emptying the dishwasher before bed everyday for 30 days. Trust me when I say you will be motivated for the next 224 when you see the difference it makes!

My passion is to equip you with resources that help you and your kids thrive!

So I’ve put together a free guide for you called “30-Days To A Dish-Free Counter”. In this guide, you’ll find a Clean Appliance Planner (for Tip #4!) and a New Habit Tracker. You can print them or use them digitally to track your progress toward these game-changing habits!

You can download it for free by clicking on the big green button below!

Click here to download Danae's: 30 Days To A Dish-Free Counter

 

Kitchen Cleaning Tip #2: Only Touch Each Dish Once

dirty plate with fork and spoon

Because we have a nice empty dishwasher (or dish rack) to start our day, our goal is to touch each dish the least number of times possible. 

So if we are carrying a dish to the kitchen (ie. breakfast bowl, coffee cup), these items should be placed directly into the dishwasher, rather than being placed in the sink or on the counter, and then retouched when we begin loading. 

This will obviously be harder to do after a full meal has been served. This is why it is important to teach kids to clear their dishes from the table, and depending on their age, to wash it or place in the dishwasher.

Sticking to this ‘one-touch’ rule for as many dishes as possible will make a huge difference in dishes piling up.

Clean Kitchen Tip #3: Serve food in lid-friendly containers. 

chicken fajita toppings in glass lid-friendly dishesI recently invested in some glass containers with lids – and what a difference this has made! I regularly use these to serve up our dinner sides, condiments etc.

After we are done eating, if any leftovers remain, I pop the lid on and stick it directly in the fridge (with no extra dishes!) This makes fajita/taco night such an easier clean-up! 

 

Kitchen Cleaning Tip #4: Wipe-down one kitchen appliance per day

While cleaning every kitchen appliance can seem like a huge job that we tend to put off – getting into the habit of giving one (and only one!) a wipe down is hugely rewarding. I like to work counter-clockwise around my kitchen. You can easily follow a schedule like the following depending on the layout of your kitchen:

kitchen with clean stainless steel appliancesMonday – dishwasher

Tuesday – oven, stove hood

Wednesday – fridge

Thursday – Microwave

Friday – toaster

Saturday – coffee maker/kettle

If you want to know my favourite time-saving tool that I use to make my stainless steel appliances sparkle in minutes using only water, click here to learn more.

Just like making your bed can make your whole room look cleaner, your sparkling appliances will make your whole kitchen feel cleaner and brighter! 

In Closing

I hope these 4 kitchen cleaning tips were helpful to you! A dish-free counter definitely makes me feel more at peace and rest in my kitchen…and we spend a LOT of time there!

Don’t forget to download my free “30-Days To A Dish-Free Counter”. Once you are on a consistent schedule for cleaning your appliances and starting your day with a clean slate – you’ll be off to the races!

You can download the planner and tracker by clicking the big green button below! 👇

Click here to download Danae's: 30 Days To A Dish-Free Counter

Additional Resource to Check Out:

📝 Monthly Meal Planning That’s ACTUALLY Easy! 

In this post, I share how I plan our family’s meals out one month in advance. There is even a free template that you can customize for your own family’s taste preferences! It comes together exceptionally easily – so head on over if you want to take the stress away from knowing “What’s for dinner?!” before 4pm.

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Thanks to these awesome photographers for sharing their talents:

  1. Photo by Castorly Stock from Pexels
  2. Photo by sliice on Unsplash
  3. Photo by Sidekix Media on Unsplash
  4. Photo by Szabo Viktor on Unsplash

Monthly Meal Planning That’s Actually Easy!

“It’s 4:00 and I have no idea what to make for supper“. I know I’m not alone on this!

 

Meal planning just wasn’t happening around here. The odd time I’d try to scratch a quick list together before a trip to the grocery store but I’d often end up forgetting a crucial ingredient, or with extra food I didn’t need that would end up rotting in the fridge.

Not cool. 

I had once chatted with a fellow mom who planned her meals out a month in advance. A MONTH! I couldn’t wrap my mind around this. In fact, I chose not to wrap my mind around it and decided it wasn’t possible for me. 

Then COVID left our grocery store shelves scavenged over and created long wait times for scheduling grocery pickup (which I had fallen in love with pre-pandemic!) Now I was ordering groceries 3 weeks in advance. I thought I’d give this monthly thing a try! 

Turns out, it’s a game changer. And is remarkably easy. 

3 Reasons I LOVE Monthly Meal Planning:

Saves money with far less wasted food!

Have you ever wandered through the grocery store, grabbing random ingredients for things you might make that week? This was me for a long time…but I strongly dislike throwing away food. On “fridge-cleanout-day” you may have found me crying in a corner. Planning out my month of meals ensures that I buy EXACTLY what I need without anything in my cart that just doesn’t belong!

Easy grocery lists and recipe locating.

Easy. Is there really any other word that sounds more appealing in the craziness of raising small kids?! Taking a quick glance at the meals coming up for the week kicks you into high grocery-list-making gear! That list is done in NO time, leaving plenty of time for a peaceful (aka. snack filled) grocery shopping experience. All the recipe links are just a click away if you need to double check that all the ingredients you need are on your list!

girl writing a shopping list on paper

Stress free. No more 4pm frantic chicken defrosting!

The number of times I opened the fridge and freezer, staring at the array of food, hoping something would magically come together in my mind to create an epic dinner in under an hour, was exhausting. To already know what is planned for dinner before you even get to your (lukewarm) breakfast coffee leaves your mind ready for the rest of the wildness the day may hold in store! And that, my friends, is worth every minute of planning!

And remember, having a monthly plan doesn’t mean you must follow it to a T! It’s just a helpful guide. Somedays, on a whim, I’ll trade our Thursday meal for a Monday, just because it’s sunny. Or we may go out on an unplanned family adventure and just decide to order pizza on the way home. Life happens – keep it fun and enjoy the freedom of simply having a ‘plan’!

Click Here To Download Danae's Customizable Meal Plan Template

3 Steps To Customize Your Meal Plan:

  1. Identify 7 meal categories.
  2. Fill in your favorite 4 recipe names in each category.
  3. Hyperlink the recipes in your calendar for easy access! No printing required!

Step 1: Organize Your Favourite Meals by Category

This is where you get to customize to your family’s taste-buds! The categories are up to you. Our family loves trying food from different cultures. It’s so fun introducing our kids to new dishes from other countries and knowing that their appreciation for diversity is growing daily! 

I set up our monthly meals based around regions of the world.

Categories listed for each day of the week including Breakfast for Dinner, Ghanaian, Thai/Asian, Mexican, Italian, American

The categories are endless! You could try:

  • Meal Proteins – chicken, beef, fish, chickpeas etc
  • Types of meals – casserole, stir fry, instant pot etc
  • Family Member Faves – Monday-Mom’s fave, Tuesday’s – Tots fave, Wednesday – Wildest child’s fave

Fun right?! You get the idea!

One of our favourite traditions is “Breakfast for Dinner” on Sundays! Sundays are just one of those days that I don’t want to think, prep, or fret over dinner. I truly think it’s so important to take a rest at least one day per week, to recharge, refocus and reconnect as a family. Waffles and pancakes lend so easily to a rest-filled day!

Step 2: Identify Your Favourite 4 Recipes From Each Category

ItMexican food column from meal plan in Google Sheets‘s easiest to fill in your Meal Plan template by column/category. It just seems to fill in faster that way since your brain is already tracking within ‘Mexican Food’ (for example).

This is where the oh-so-handy Google Sheets app comes into play.  I love using it because I can hyperlink my favourite recipes right into the plan (or even attach a photo if it’s your Grandma’s secret!). This makes it a breeze to find the recipe quickly and not get sidetracked browsing Pinterest on my way to the recipe. The struggle is real my friends!  

Trust me…when it’s prep-time and you pop open the Meal Plan spreadsheet, you want to be only 1 click away from the recipe.  So go ahead and plug in your 4 favourites for each category!

Step 3: Hyperlink Your Favourite Recipes Into the Meal Planner

If you have recipes you find yourself going back to often, you’ll be glad you took the extra time to do this step. You’ll need to hop on a computer to add your hyperlinks in.

  1. Open your Meal Plan by going to sheets.google.com (sign in with your Gmail account).
  2. Click on a meal in your Meal Plan to highlight it.
  3. Click on the ‘insert link’ tool.
  4. Copy and paste the recipe URL in.

Google sheets screenshot inserting hyperlink for Greek Gyros recipe into meal plan template

Now that you’ve got your month ready to go, just imagine how EASY this will be next month! It’s just a simple copy, paste and tweak (or not!) from there. Basically, you just planned a year’s worth of meals. Congrats momma! You’ve got this!!

Here’s your new 4:00 scenario:

  1. Open Google Sheets on your phone
  2. Click on your Meal Plan
  3. Click on the link for your recipe-of-the-day
  4. Get cookin’!

I’d love to hear what categories you come up with for your family’s plan! Comment below and let me know what you’ve got planned. 

Here’s what our family’s meal plan looks like!

Monthly meal plan with all recipe links included

Click Here To Download Danae's Customizable Meal Plan Template