As most of us know, a messy kitchen can turn a beautiful morning into a dreadful one. Just as we’re on our way to brew some delicious coffee, we are met either with stains (on the floor or countertop), dishes in the sink, crumbs on the table, or even worse!

On top of that, it’s not that we don’t actually clean our kitchen cabinetry – we do, and almost daily as well! However, some things may escape us, or we simply don’t have time to deal with a messy kitchen!

As such, in the following lines, we’ve prepared a bunch of ideas that will help you keep your kitchen clean no matter how messy you have it or how busy you are!

Keep Dirty Utensils Off the Counter
As pleasant as it may be to simply leave a dirty utensil on the counter while you’re in a hurry, thinking that you’ll wash it later – don’t do so! If you don’t have enough time to leave it in the sink, place it on a piece of paper towel, a small dish, or even on a rag.

You can also rely on a spoon rest for this kind of situation. The idea here is to never leave dirty and sticky utensils right on the counter!

Things that Have to Be Immediately Washed
Even if you want to leave a dirty dish on the table, there are three things that you should always wash right after you’re done using them!

Namely, we refer to the chef’s knives, strainers, and cheese graters. As you may know, if you don’t clean them right away – when it’s easier – you’ll have a very difficult time scrubbing dried food off of them.

Whether you choose to shop for kitchen knives by faneema cutlery or already have your own set, remember to always clean them immediately after use. Also, don’t forget to pay attention to the drying process! Allow them to dry before you put them away – on a dish rack or towel.

Kitchen Counter Zones
It is also very important to know where you should be doing specific kitchen tasks, so to say. By this, we mean that you should designate particular areas of your counter for certain tasks.

For example, you should bake only in a certain corner – preferably where you have your stand mixer. If you do so, you’ll know that you have a single area to clean and not the entire counter.

Empty the Dishwasher
The last thing you want to experience is wanting to place dirty dishes in the dishwasher only to find it filled with clean dishes from its last venture.

If the above happens, you’ll waste a lot of time unloading the dishwasher and then loading it again with dirty dishes. If you’re in a hurry, you will end up not cleaning any dishes! Therefore, we strongly recommend you empty the dishwasher in the morning, while your coffee brews – assuming that you run it during the night.

The Always-Empty Sink
A lot of us dream of an always-empty sink!
However, this is not that hard to achieve. For example, even if you spend all day indoors and let dishes pile up in the sink while you have your daily meals, you should never go to sleep without washing them.

In short, you may procrastinate a bit, but make sure that, at the end of the day, you go to sleep with an always-empty sink.

Counter top Discipline
One good way to keep a big part of the kitchen clean is to decide what should stay on the counter top and what should go away.

If there are too many – useless – things living on your counter top, then you’ll have no problem leaving dirty utensils or dishes there too. As such, it is recommended that you approach a minimalist style when determining what to keep there.

The Bottom Line
Naturally, there’s no secret idea on how to keep your kitchen clean. As you’ve noticed so far, if you make a habit of regularly cleaning it throughout the day, you won’t have to spend your evenings washing dishes or scrubbing knives and/or graters.

Moreover, you should also make sure that the rest of the family understands how things work in the kitchen. For example, they should know where certain things belong, as well as the places they should clean more often!

In short, if you plan the cleaning of your kitchen regularly, you’ll soon be able to keep it forever clean without even realizing it!