Quick Clean Tips For The Holiday Season

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WipeAwayHolidayMess #CollectiveBias

To have the best stress-free holiday you can have, now is the time to start thinking about getting your home ready for the holidays. Nothing feels better than sitting down to a holiday meal with family and friends in a cozy and clean home. The cleaning part can be overwhelming especially when you have to cook a large elaborate meal and your schedule before the holiday season is swamped with never ending to-do lists and activities.

Today, I am sharing how I clean and organize my kitchen and hope that this will help you make the cleaning for the holidays quicker and easier.

Get Your  Kitchen Clean and Organized for the Holidays

Declutter

• Deal with the mail
• Declutter countertops
• Put things in their place
• Put dirty dishes in the sink

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen, and my island and countertop always seem to get cluttered with stuff – mail, cookbooks, notes and other random stuff. When I clean my kitchen, I go through the mail and decide what is important, what has to be thrown away and what needs immediate attention (like bills, receipts etc). I also try to pick any items that don’t belong in the kitchen and put them back in place. Also, I gather any dirty dishes on the table and countertops and put them in the sink. The secret to a truly clean-looking kitchen is clutter-free counters. Decluttering the kitchen takes me about 10 minutes.

Wash

• Quickly unload then load dishwasher
• Hand wash dishes as needed
• Dry and put away any hand-washed dishes, then rinse sink 
• Wipe down the island and countertops

Next, I unload the dishwasher if it’s full and load it with the dirty dishes. then I hand wash any other dishes, pots, and pans as needed. And finally, I dry and put away any hand-washed dishes, then clean and rinse the sink. Washing the dishes and cleaning the countertops takes me about 20 minutes depending on how much dirty dishes I have.

I recently bought the Scotch-Brite® Scrubbing Dish Cloth for my kitchen and I absolutely LOVE it – it’s washable, reusable and sturdy. It not only makes cleaning quick and easy but it’s also environmentally friendly and economical. I don’t need to waste hundreds of paper towels every week for wiping the countertops and cleaning messes. I definitely prefer this product than any regular dish sponge or paper towels.

The cloth is premium quality and you can feel it when you touch it. The textured fiber dish cloth features the scrubbing dots technology on one side and soft cloth on the other side. The scrubbing dots on one side of the dish cloth allow you to take on tough messes in the sink, pots, pans and non-stick cookware. It is so much easier and quicker to use this dish cloth. I also use it not only to clean and scrub dishes but it is also great for wiping countertops and even some appliances.

The Scotch-Brite Scrubbing Dish Cloths are available in 4 beautiful colors – navy, tan, gray, mint. I am planning to go back to Kroger and buy some more in different colors and use one for the countertops, another one for the dishes, third one for appliances and another one for the bathroom. Below is a picture of the aisle where I found the dish cloth. Also, starting 12/04, you can get an in-store Clip Strip Offer for $1.00 off 1-pack promo.

Deep Clean

Thoroughly clean:

• the dishwasher
• oven
• microwave
• fridge
• pantry and cabinets

And finally, give your kitchen a deep clean. When it comes to cleaning the kitchen, most of us usually do the dishes, wipe down the countertops and sweep the floors. But there still may be dirt and germs after this quick cleaning method. To ensure that your kitchen is in a tip-top shape and ready for the holidays, it is best to do some deep cleaning periodically. I try to clean my dishwasher, oven, microwave, fridge, pantry, and cabinets once a month. I used the Scotch-Brite Scrubbing Dish Cloth this time and was impressed how nicely it cleaned and effortlessly removed any residue (especially in the microwave and dishwasher). To deep clean my kitchen takes me about a couple of hours but my kitchen is sparkling clean and ready for some holiday festivities.

Do you have any other tips for quickly cleaning your kitchen (or home)?