Let's just assume you do because, let's face it, no one washes and de-greases their cabinets daily. If you have cherry cabinets you probably have no idea just how nasty they are. If you have white like this household does then you look at the filth daily. Most days I just ignore with firmness. Yesterday morning I cleaned them with a surprising snowball effect... it started with the microwave buttons. You know, the buttons on the microwave, they seem to be magnetic to all kitchen grime. Well, for some reason this grime was bothering me at 7:00 am and it needed to be DEALT with. I scrubbed with the dish rag. Hahahahaha! Yeah, right. It's grease embedded with 478 finger touches worth of who-knows-what. But I want you to hitch up your britches 'cause I am about to blow your mind into thrifty cleanliness.
Ta da! I really can't explain how this so quickly was produced in my brain as the answer, but there it is. Dish soap (preferably the blue one *wink wink*) and baking soda. Mix together about 3 tablespoons of baking soda to 1 tablespoon dish soap and thin with water until a just pour-able paste forms like this:
Then it's just as complicated as finger painting. Smear this on the grimiest spots and let it sit for about 5 minutes (see first picture) and then scrub lightly with a barely damp rag and scrub the rest of the cabinet. After it has come clean, wipe several times with a warm wet rag and use a toothpick to get any paste out of the tiny corners if it doesn't wipe out. Dry with a dry towel to avoid water spots.
This will dry slightly as it sits so little bits of paste will end up all over the floor and counter as you scrub. They wipe up no problem, scrub the floor and counter as you do. The results of cabinets that look like you just repainted will make this worth it! See how this can snowball? I just tried to make it feel purposeful and called it my fall kitchen cleaning.
Reasons I love this breakthrough of brilliance:
Non-toxic.
Cheap.
EASY.
Makes you get over your tactile issues with finger painting.
Your welcome. Til next time!
The same experience happened to me earlier this year. I started with cleaning cupboard handles I think, which snowballed into me scrubbing film off of all our kitchen cabinets. Our cupboards are oak, so it is easy to hide dirt, and I didn't realize just how much! It was so bad, I actually took a picture of one freshly cleaned cupboard door to the next which I hadn't done yet. Kudos to you for sharing - yes, you are definitely not the only one with occasionally grimy cupboard doors ;) Here's to the results. And nice recipe by the way!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I think I might try it also with castile soap for scrubbing the tub sometime. Those clawfoot tubs don't like harsh stuff.
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