The Importance of a Clean Kitchen

The Importance of a Clean Kitchen – Maintaining a property can be a lot of responsibility. Most know the basics of being a good neighbor and maintaining the exterior of a property – these are items that tend to get a lot of attention.

What’s less discussed is the importance of maintaining the inside of your property, which can be equally, if not more, essential to keeping a safe and sturdy home. No area is more critical in this regard than keeping a clean kitchen.

The kitchen is not only a major room in your house, it is the one with the highest cleaning responsibilities.

Beyond the health implications of having dirty kitchen countertops or cooking surfaces, it also contains your most expensive appliances, each with its own set of maintenance requirements.

Below we look at the importance of a clean kitchen and the maintenance steps you should take to make your life easier.

Keeping a Clean Kitchen is Good for Your Health

When considering what qualifies as a clean kitchen, it is helpful to think of the standards and expectations in restaurants. Not those of the wait staff or general ambiance of course, but the cleanliness you imagine for their kitchens.

If you knew the surfaces weren’t cleaned after each meal and that the stovetops hadn’t been touched in over a month, would you feel comfortable eating there? The same attitude should apply to your own home. Restaurant food safety rules are in place for a reason.

Cross-contaminated food, old juices, or grease are all havens for bacteria. If you’re cooking or eating food on unclean surfaces, you’re putting your own health at risk.

The thought that any bacteria will “cookout” is a misplaced one, as well. This theory is only as good as your surroundings allow it to be.

Sure, the temperature during cooking might be enough to prevent bacteria, but if you’re then plating and serving the food on unsanitary surfaces, you’ve re-exposed yourself to bacteria and germs.

Appliance maintenance is important here too. If you use the ice or water from your refrigerator, make sure you’re replacing the filter in a timely manner and not just hitting that convenient “reset” button. This too can contain bacteria and pose a risk to your health.

The same applies to maintaining your stovetop and performing regular cleanings on the stove’s interior.

A Clean Kitchen Avoids Pests

It is infinitely easier to avoid pests in the first place than it is to get rid of them once they’ve arrived. Pests such as ants or cockroaches love leftover food and tend to like moisture as well. Your kitchen has plenty of both.

Crumbs or old stains/spills on your countertops can act as a beacon to these unsightly insects.

Others are self-explanatory. As their name suggests, fruit flies are attracted to the fruits and vegetables that you may have sitting out on your counter or as a centerpiece on a table.

Leave these items out for too long and you’re sure to have unwelcome guests in the form of these flies or ants.

While having a clean kitchen is a major deterrent to these insects, regular maintenance can also assist in this regard. As mentioned above, a primary motivator for these pests, aside from leftover food, is moisture.

Ensuring your dishes don’t stay soaking in the sink for too long could go a long way toward preventing bugs from entering your home. Running your garbage disposal often, if you have one, and ensuring no clogs can also reduce moisture. In turn, this will reduce the likelihood of pests.

Should you find yourself with a pest problem, don’t compound it by letting your kitchen go uncleaned. Continue to maintain a clean kitchen while exploring the options for pest removal, such as DIY kits or professional services.

A Clean Kitchen Can Save You Money

The average cost of a new stove is $700, with a refrigerator running even higher at around $1,500.00. Taking good care of your appliances and keeping them in a clean state can help delay or put off these bills well into the future.

As an example, the filter on the refrigerator that we mentioned above can impact the lifespan of your fridge as well. By keeping the existing filter for too long, you can create scaling and another buildup in the water or ice machine of your refrigerator.

This can cause real damage to the unit as a whole and reduce the lifespan of those parts, not to mention reducing the quality of your water and increasing health risks.

Similarly, not cleaning your stove can have lasting consequences. Spills while cooking, or leftover gunk or food on the surface of the stove, can create clogs in your burners on the stovetop.

These can ultimately burn out or corrode the burner entirely, leaving yourself with a half-functioning stove in need of replacement, and a big bill to go along with it.

Keeping a Clean Kitchen Helps Your Mental AND Physical Health

If you’ve ever heard the saying “you need to look good to feel good” or something similar, know that the same applies to your surroundings. Various studies have proven that having and maintaining a clean home can have real psychological benefits.

A messy or disorganized home can subconsciously impact your mood and sense of self-worth. This is most evident in the kitchen. Dishes piled up and old food left out can both contribute to an unpleasant environment and feelings of being overwhelmed.

Conversely, a clean kitchen can be a source of pride and make one more comfortable having guests over or enjoying your space. Studies have also shown that when individuals feel overwhelmed, cleaning can help relieve stress are re-assert feelings of control over a situation.

Cleaning also serves as a relatively mild form of exercising. If you think of those hard-to-reach places and the scrubbing, you can see more than a few muscle groups receive a work-out during cleaning. Naturally, this process burns calories as well.

The Importance of a Clean Kitchen – Conclusion

A clean kitchen is much more important than it may appear on the surface. Looking at all the ways having a clean home can improve your physical health, finances, and mood, you should have no problem keeping that space in perfect condition!

We hope you enjoyed the article – The Importance of a Clean Kitchen!