Importance of Kitchen Deep Cleaning
Despite 91% of people planning to cook more as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic increasing their interest in the activity, in reality less than 50% of us cook from scratch everyday, or even once a week. That, of course, doesn’t mean the heart of the home isn’t a bustling space for a regular UK family.
The kitchen is used for making a brew (or five), as a temporary remote working base, a homework hub, a breakfast club, a romantic meal setting and more.
Even with very little cooking use, it’s a magnet for dirt, debris and bacteria, making it the place in the home (along with the bathroom) most likely to be cleaned the most often. But how often is often enough, and are we cleaning as deeply as we should be?
How Often Should You Be Deep Cleaning A Kitchen?
Almost all of us do a regular wipe down, vacuum/ mop and general cleaning of the kitchen in order to ensure that it stays neat and tidy. However, what many of us don’t necessarily do is regularly give our kitchen a deep clean.
Once every Spring? Sure. But more regularly than that and you’ll find most people are not giving their kitchen space the attention that it needs to be properly clean.
In reality, it should be deep cleaned once a month, or at least every quarter, depending on how dirty it gets.
Why Are Kitchen Deep Cleans So Important?
Cleaning surfaces regularly in a kitchen is important, and it does go some way to removing regular dirt and debris. However, it’s the less tended areas, and the hidden areas that are the reason a deep clean is needed, because they become very dirty, very quickly and can even be dangerous. Let’s take a look at these grubby hotspots:
Grease Traps
Grease traps like the Extractor fan in a domestic kitchen can become stinky, they can attract pests and they can become fire hazards. They should be cleaned every few months at home, and in a professional kitchen every month, or sometimes every week.
Extractor fan filters should be done at the same time, although home extractor fans can be cleaned as little as every six months in a domestic setting and depending on how often you use them.
Ideally, any kitchen cleaning involving grease and cooking fats should be done by a professional, particularly if the cleaning is taking place in a professional kitchen. This means there will be a health and safety paper trail associated with your professional cleans, helping you to prove your efforts with health and safety and fire safety on your next inspection. You can find out more information about dealing with grease and fats as a professional kitchen here.
Dishwashers/ Washing Machines
20% of people never clean their dishwashers and many others do not wash their washing machines. Sometimes it just isn’t that obvious that we have to clean the things that help us to clean. And yet, without cleaning, these items can build up mould, limescale, dirt and debris, and they can become blocked. A regular deep clean includes cleaning these items, getting into the filters, nooks and crannies of the machine and ensuring it’s spotless and able to effectively clean your things more efficiently.
Horizontal Surfaces
A study showed that there is no direct correlation between visual detection of dirt and the number of bacteria present. Essentially meaning that we often cannot see the majority of dirt present on our surfaces. Another study showed that once a surface has been wiped with anti-bacterial spray, bacteria pretty much immediately begins to recolonise as soon as the spray has dried.
Whilst regular wiping is important to keep on top of bacteria, deep cleans get into the crevices, the areas between sink tops and worktops, behind faucets and in plug holes, and in other areas that bacteria hide, and thrive. We’re talking about nasties like salmonella, Norovirus, E-coli just as an example.
If they are recolonising after being wiped, imagine what’s going on where dirt and debris isn’t tended to for long periods of time….
Kitchen Walls & Light Fittings
Kitchen walls are often part of a spring clean routine and are wiped down once a year. Unfortunately, this is not regular enough to deal with the accumulations of dirt that occur on this part of the kitchen.
Food particles, hand oils, debris, dust and grease all get stuck to kitchen walls, light fittings and blinds, and this just continues to layer up until it gets cleaned. A professional deep clean ensures that the kitchen walls, fixtures and other vertical accessories are freshened up and these nasty layers of dirt are removed.
Cupboards
The cupboards are a place that we often interact with by shoving things in and grabbing them to take out, and that is about it until maybe once a year we clear them out. This can lead to various crumbs, spillages, bits of debris and dust accumulating over time as we focus on the items, and not the cupboards themselves. This is especially true in condiment and spice cupboards. A deep clean ensures the cupboards can be scrubbed inside and out so that the items you put in there are not going to become dirt carriers.
To help keep on top of this issue, it’s a great idea to use items like spinning plates and storage tubs to contain cupboard items and to help you gain access to those items with ease. You can also clean and wash those tubs really easily, helping to maintain better cleanliness moving forward.
The above are just some examples of areas of the kitchen that get dirty and which fail to be cleaned properly by a quick daily wipe and spritz. In reality, all domestic kitchens require a little more attention to help protect surfaces and equipment from deteriorating over time, and to keep things as safe and hygienic as you would want for the good of your family.
When it comes to commercial cleaning, the same as the above applies but it is amplified by the requirements for health and safety for employees and customers.
Hire A Professional Cleaning Team To Deep Clean Your Kitchen
Why not hire a professional cleaning team for a quote today? It’s the ideal way to sit back and relax whilst the hub of your business or home is scrubbed, spritzed and blitzed to the levels of hygiene and cleanliness you know is necessary to keep your family safe, or in the case of a professional kitchen, to keep employees and customers safe.