How clean is your kitchen?

There are many, many things I am more interested in and more inclined to do than housework. I do give the house a pretty thorough clean once a week, but my home is by no means immaculate. I am reasonably tidy, but I’m not paranoid about a bit of dust or a used teacup on the draining board. I am, however, fairly fussy about kitchen cleanliness.

I try to keep my kitchen tops clear – it just makes them easier to wipe down – but this can be difficult to manage if, like me, you have things that are used frequently, and you have insufficient cupboard space to house them (things like the kettle, toaster and microwave spring to mind immediately).

My counter tops are polished black granite, which looks very smart when clean, but getting them clean can be problematic because I can’t use a chlorinated cleaning agent – it dulls the shine over time. I’ve found the best thing to use is very hot clean water and a clean dish cloth: sometimes I add half a cup of white vinegar to the water – vinegar helps cut through grease and is mildly antibacterial. Cleaning agents generally leave smears and chemical residue, which can transfer to food, so rinse well if you do use one.

Counter tops should be swabbed down before and after food preparation. Once you have washed the surfaces down, hang the dish cloth somewhere to dry before running it through the washing machine on a hot wash. You should use a fresh drying cloth each time you do the drying up, too, and recycle the same way. A damp drying cloth left hanging around is a wonderful breeding ground for bacteria, as is the dish cloth.

Replace scouring pads at least once a week, and make sure to rinse them well after each use. Keep your pot- and bottle-brushes fresh by standing them in a medium strength solution of bleach and water for half an hour or so, then put them in the dish-washer (if you have one) next time you run it.

So much of life and living revolves around the kitchen, let’s keep it healthy.