How to keep your kitchen spotlessly clean...

…and germ-free as well! This is a handy list for busy homemakers who want to ensure that their kitchens are 100% sanitised.

Try as you might, keeping your home, and particularly the kitchen, completely clean is really tough. You feel like you are on a constant war against water spots, dust, dirt and pests. You wipe down the kitchen every single day, you dust it often, and you don’t let a single cobweb settle. But still, you suspect that the kitchen is not as clean as it should be – and maybe it isn’t!

Why the kitchen should be germ free

The kitchen is the most important space in your house. It is where you cook for the family and serve food as well. You also do the dishes here. As such, the kitchen is a major wet area in the home, since you have a kitchen sink here, and there are frequent food and liquid spills as well.

But since the kitchen is warm and often humid, it attracts pests, mould and fungal growths. Germs and bacteria are instantly attracted to raw food, as also the splashes of purees, juices and other substances. They lurk on the cooking and serving surfaces, waiting to contaminate food and make you and your loved ones really sick.

Maintaining kitchen hygiene is a daily task – but it need not be a difficult one. Here’s how you can keep your kitchen clean and germ-free:

1 Wash your hands often: Your hands can touch contaminated surfaces, and then touch raw food and plates. Thus, they spread germs from one spot to another. Make it a point to wash your hands every couple of hours with antibacterial soap. Always wash your hands before and after preparing food, after doing the dishes, after visiting the restroom, and after cleaning the kitchen.

2 Mop up food spills immediately. You can be forgiven for spilling a little food in the kitchen, but be sure to clean it up at once. After wiping it, spritz some antibacterial spray on the spot so that germs are removed completely. Keep an antibacterial kitchen wipe handy for such spills.

3 Use disinfectant on the floors. This is most important for kitchen hygiene: the floors must be clean enough to sparkle. This means that not only must the floor be swept and mopped every day, they must also be treated with disinfectant cleaners mixed in clean water. The floor can get really dirty, and all bacterial growth must be removed with the best disinfectants.

4 Scrub the sink. The sink harbours a lot of grime and germs. Pour undiluted disinfectant down the drain and scrub the sink bowl with kitchen gel. Use an antibacterial wipe on the taps and sink sides.