Deep Clean Your Kitchen with This One Essential Cleaning Product
At The Tidy People, we mainly use one common household product to clean most surfaces in a kitchen. There are a few other products we use to add the finishing touches, however, the majority of the kitchen can be deep cleaned with this one product.
I’ll share this with you below. But first, I’d like to share some thoughts on the importance of simplicity:
Sometimes we can overcomplicate things — especially when it comes to the task of cleaning. I’m sure you’ve found yourself walking away from the cleaning aisle, more than once, with an armful of products. Likely, with the hope of the gaining the result of a sparkling clean home.
With your armful of 20 products purchased and the actual task of cleaning still ahead — the overwhelm can set in. So we let those products sit out on the countertop for a couple of days (or even weeks…months?) until eventually what was originally a source of inspiration becomes a nagging sensation every time we walk past the product display we’ve created at home. And so, those products get shoved under the sink or utility closet and never see the light of day again…until maybe we move or do a big organization project.
I’m a fan of simplicity…especially when it comes to cleaning.
Yes, it’s important to be detailed when doing the actual cleaning. However, it’s important to use a simplified product system and just get started. This can be hard to do when there’s so much conflicting information and products available that claim the same results.
So. Let’s get you started and get your kitchen clean! Here’s the ONE product & ONE tool you need to deep scrub a kitchen:
Dish Soap + Terry Cloth Cleaning Towels
Any dish soap will do — I like to use eco friendly dish soap that’s free of phosphates and paragons such as Ecos Dish Soap. and a big stack of terry cloth cleaning towels.
Why terry cloth towels for cleaning? The fabric has natural micro scrubbers in it, naturally, with the loop texture. It’s also naturally absorbent, which you’ll come to find this useful in a later step in this article. Terry cloth towels are far superior over paper towels or microfiber towels for various reasons (such as environmental), but the biggest reason we use these at The Tidy People is for their effectiveness.
Now, let’s dive in with step-by-step instructions on the application of dish soap and terry cloth towels in cleaning to get you a super sparkling clean kitchen:
1: Set Out Supplies
Place your dish soap and a stack of clean terry cloth towels on the countertop.
2: Apply Dish Soap
Holding your dish soap above the towel, squirt the dish soap in a zigzag pattern to evenly disperse the soap on the towel.
3: Activate the Soap with Water
Run the the towel under water in the kitchen sink to create a wet soapy dish towel and to activate the dish soap.
4: Get Ready to Scrub
Grab your soapy towel in one hand and in the other hand, a dry towel.
5: Move & Scrub Strategically
Create a strategy by choosing a place in your kitchen that you’ll start from. You’ll complete a full circle to ensure you’ve wiped down every surface.
Moving from left to right (or right to left if that’s what you prefer) wipe down every reachable surface — cupboard fronts, cupboard undersides, knobs/handles, backsplashes, countertops, items on countertops, stovetop, microwave, and so on.
Within a minute of wiping a surface, ensure you polish it dry with your polishing cloth (see next step).
6: Polish Dry as You Go
pssst…this is a very important step!
Since soap has a similar structure as dirt and debris (and when mixed with water, it helps “repel” the soap and dirt off a surface), you’ll want to complete this step before things dry. If it dries, it just ends up being an added layer of soap scum that gets left on top of the surface as well as the dirt/debris that was there in the first place. And ultimately…that cancels out your hard work.
As you wipe with your wet soapy towel, ensure you polish and buffer the surfaces with the dry towel as you go. Replace the dry towel as it gets damp.
7: Refresh Soapy Towel
In addition to replacing your dry towel as it gets used, you’ll want to do the same with your wet soapy towel.
If your towel gets too dirty, you can first try rinsing it out in the sink (you’ll notice the soiled water as you wring it out…sooooo satisfying) and then add more dish soap.
If your soapy towel is too dirty and/or you’ve rinsed and reused a few times, replenish with a new soapy towel (sometimes I’ll use the damp towels I used from polishing).
