Your kitchen might be the heart of your home, but it’s also the place where spills, splatters, and mysterious crumbs seem to appear out of nowhere.
You scrub, wipe, and promise yourself you’ll stay on top of it, yet somehow the chaos always sneaks back in.
The good news? Professional cleaners have a few clever insights that will make life a whole lot easier. Here are nine kitchen habits they secretly wish you’d stop doing.
Table of Contents
Allowing Fat to Build Up on Your Stove
Skipping a proper clean after cooking feels harmless enough. The trouble is that all those tiny ‘I’ll clean it tomorrow’ moments add up faster than you think. Before long, you won’t just be dealing with a light splatter but a full layer of grease that clings on like it pays rent.
When oils are left to cool and harden, they form a sticky film that looks grimy and becomes a cosy little spot for bacteria.
And once that layer builds up, removing it will require the kind of elbow grease no one should have to use on a Tuesday night.
That’s why professional cleaners swear by a simple habit: give your stove a quick wipe while it’s still warm after each use. It’ll take seconds and save you hours of scrubbing later.
Scrubbing with Abrasive Sponges
It’s tempting to reach for the roughest, toughest scrubber you can find, as if you’re gearing up for battle. But here’s the twist: those abrasive sponges can wreak havoc on your shiny surfaces.
Stainless steel, glass hobs, non-stick pans, and anything with a delicate coating can end up scratched, dulled, or completely stripped of its protective layer.
One overly enthusiastic scrub session, and your brand-new pan will look like it’s aged a decade.
Instead, swap the scratchy tools for something gentler. Microfibre cloths and non-abrasive sponges still tackle grease and grime, but they do it without leaving your appliances looking like they’ve been in a sandpaper showdown.
And yes, it doesn’t feel nearly as satisfying as going full force with a scouring pad. But trust us, your cookware will silently thank you.
Forgetting to Clean Behind Appliances
The places you don’t see and probably don’t want to think about can give you a lot of trouble. Those little gaps behind your toaster, under the air fryer, and around the mixer are where crumbs, dust, and grease tend to hide.
Give these areas a few weeks, and they’ll turn into a hotspot for ants and bad odours.
Professional cleaners recommend shifting your appliances every couple of months. Also, quickly wipe down behind and underneath them to keep pests uninterested and prevent that slow-growing grime layer from getting out of control.
Think of it as spring cleaning but in bite-sized, less emotionally overwhelming doses.
Overlooking the Sink Area
It’s time to turn your attention to a spot that looks clean, right up until you get close enough to notice the water spots, soap scum, and yesterday’s leftovers clinging on for dear life.
The sink area is arguably the hardest-working part of your kitchen and, ironically, one of the easiest to forget.
Because your sink deals with everything, from rinsed veggies to greasy pans, it becomes a magnet for grime. If you don’t clean these spots often, you can also end up with bacteria, limescale, and that odd smell you can’t quite trace.
Luckily, a bit of regular care is all you need. To lift stains and make everything gleam, scrub the area with some baking soda or vinegar. Give the tap a little polish, too, to restore that showroom shine.
And don’t forget the drain. Food bits and oils tend to sneak down there and set up camp, causing slow drainage, smells, and the kind of clogs that plumbers dream about. A quick flush with hot water every now and then will keep everything moving smoothly.
Applying Harsh Chemicals Without Testing Them
When you’re dealing with stubborn stains, it’s easy to assume that the harsher the product is, the better results you’ll get. But your kitchen surfaces would very much like to disagree.
Sure, powerful chemicals can work wonders, but they can also scratch marble, dull stainless steel, and strip protective coatings in a single wipe.
That’s why experts always recommend testing any new cleaner on a small, hidden patch first. It’s the cleaning equivalent of doing a patch test on your skin.
And here’s the good news: you don’t always need the heavy-duty cleaners anyway. Natural ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, and lemon pack a punch and don’t come with the overwhelming fumes or the risk of ruining your countertops.
Overloading Your Dishwasher
If you’re like most people, there’s a good chance your dishwasher is packed tighter than a holiday suitcase.
We get it. Dishwashers seem like they can handle anything. But when you overload them, water can’t circulate properly, the detergent can’t reach all the nooks, and leftovers cling on stubbornly.
So, you’ll probably end up with half-clean dishes, complete with baked-on surprises that need a second round of washing.
Following the manufacturer’s loading guidelines genuinely helps. When you space out the items, the jets can do their job, meaning that you’ll get sparkling dishes without running three cycles or blaming your machine for underperforming.
Cleaning with Dirty Tools
After a long day of wiping and scrubbing, your cleaning tools stay damp, warm, and full of microscopic snacks. In other words, they become the perfect little breeding grounds for bacteria.
Expert cleaners warn that using dirty tools doesn’t just make cleaning harder; it spreads germs around.
A few simple habits can help you keep things fresh:
- Rinse and squeeze out cloths and sponges thoroughly after each use.
- Let them dry completely, not balled up in the sink.
- Pop your cloths and towels in the washing machine every few days.
- Replace your sponges regularly.
These tips pay off massively, especially if you’d prefer not to scrub with a tool that’s technically more contaminated than the mess you’re cleaning.
Failing to Sanitise Chopping Boards
When you’re slicing veggies, raw meat, fish, or poultry, your chopping board becomes the frontline of food safety.
And while a quick rinse under the tap feels like enough, unfortunately, it isn’t as effective as you might think. Germs cling to the surface, hide in knife grooves, and multiply happily if left alone.
To keep things safe, give your chopping board a proper scrub with hot, soapy water after every use.
Then, once a week, level up your hygiene game by sprinkling on some salt, adding a splash of vinegar, and scrubbing away. These ingredients will disinfect your chopping boards naturally and get rid of odours, stains, and whatever your last meal left behind.
Also, use separate boards for raw meat and veg. Cross-contamination is a real risk, and no one wants their fresh salad getting mixed with yesterday’s chicken juices.
Piling Up Dirty Dishes
We’ve all done it—stacked some plates in the sink ‘just for now,’ then totally forgot about them.
When dishes sit for too long, food dries, hardens, and requires more chiselling than you’ve bargained for. This can also damage delicate dishware and turn a simple wash-up into a mini workout.
Then, there are the smells, insects, and the drain that slowly starts acting like it’s trying to retire early.
Food scraps and grease slip down the pipes, settle in all the wrong places, create plumbing issues, and make your whole kitchen smell bad.
To stay ahead of the chaos, rinse your dishes soon after using them so food doesn’t harden and keep your sink clear of stale water, scraps, and abandoned mugs.
Conclusion
It’s kind of wild how quickly things improve once you stop feeding the habits that make your kitchen work harder than it should.
And as that confidence grows, these tips will feel less like rules and more like shortcuts you should have taken years ago. So, jump in now and enjoy the surprisingly addictive glow of a kitchen that finally feels easy to live with.
