Every year when the snow turns to rain and the sun stays out just a little longer each day, we know that the time has come to spring clean our homes. When it comes to cleaning our major appliances you want to make sure you are doing it efficiently and effectively so that all of your time and effort doesn’t disappear in a week. Here are some tips on how to spring clean your home’s major appliances!
Dishwasher External:
The exterior of dishwashers are most commonly either stainless steel or some sort of an enamel coating. Since these are different materials that means they are cleaned differently. For any kind of enamel coating you’re going to use an all-purpose household cleaner and either a sponge or rag and scrub the entire exterior. For dishwashers that are made with stainless steel you’re going to need to purchase a stainless steel cleaner. Spray the cleaner across the entire external and then wipe it down. Be sure you are not using any sort of sponge that has metal on it to scrub because that may cause scratches to form. It’s a good idea with all appliances to scrub the exterior twice to be sure you do not miss anything.
Dishwasher Internal:
The first step to cleaning the interior of a dishwasher is to empty it out and then run it on the most powerful setting. Next you want to make a vinegar cleaning solution wipe down the entire interior of the dishwasher with it and then run the empty dishwasher one last time!
Refrigerators:
To clean to exterior of a refrigerator you can use the same steps as cleaning the exterior of a dishwasher. The interior cleaning of a refrigerator is usually the longest cleaning process of all the appliances. The first step to cleaning the inside of a refrigerator is emptying it out. For the refrigerated items that can safely be outside of the refrigerator for an hour or so you can just set them on your countertop for all other foods place them in a cooler during the duration of your cleaning. The next step is to remove all of the removable drawers and shelves and hand wash them, and then set them aside. Now that your refrigerator is completely empty you can take a sponge or a rag (preferably a sponge) soak it in a baking soda and water solution and scrub down every single inch of the refrigerator. Once the refrigerator has been scrubbed down you can put your cleaned drawers and shelves back in followed by your food.
Freezers:
A lot of people skip there freezers during spring cleaning because either they don’t think bacteria can live in that cold of an environment or they don’t want to go through the process of defrosting there freezer. Though defrosting your freezer is timely and is means a lot of melted water to wipe up it is important to clean your freezer because germs and bacteria can live in that cold of an environment. Once you defrost your freezer it’s pretty easy to clean because all you need to do is scrub it down with a disinfectant cleaner.
Oven/Range Exterior:
For gas ranges you first want to remove the heat plates and hand wash them, then set them aside until the rest of the exterior is cleaned. You can use a normal all-purpose cleaner or a vinegar solution to clean the rest of your as oven/range. You need to be extremely careful when cleaning near the igniters and the knobs, if liquid gets inside of the igniters or knobs it can cause internal issue for your oven/range. Once everything is cleaned you can put your heat plates back on. Flat top stoves are extremely easy to clean you can just purchase a stove top cleaner and scrub it down. For electric oven/ranges that have coil heaters you can use a toothbrush to reach the hard to reach places.
Oven/Range Interior:
Ovens that have a self-cleaner function are extremely easy to clean. Make sure your kitchen is well vented or open a nearby window while the cleaning cycle is happening because it can get smelly or muggy during the cleaning cycle. Once the cycle is finished just take a damp cloth and wipe out any residue. Ovens/ranges that don’t have the self-cleaner function the cleaning process is a little more tedious. You’ll want to start by removing the oven racks and scrubbing them down until they are spotless. With the racks out take a damp warm rag and wipe everything down until there is no dirt or grime anywhere. If there are tough grease stains you can use ammonia to clean them out. Once the inside is cleaned out you can put your oven racks back in and our all set!
Microwaves:
*MAKE SURE TO UNPLUG BEFORE CLEANING* Like the refrigerator you can clean the exterior of the microwave using the same steps as the exterior of the dishwasher. The first step of cleaning the interior of a microwave is removing the turntable and either hand washing it, or running it through the dishwasher. Next, take a damp rag and scrub down the entire interior to remove any residue. Then you can use an all-purpose cleaner to once again scrub down the interior. After you have scrubbed down the interior twice, once with water once with cleaner, you can put the microwave turntable back inside of the microwave and your all done.
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Written By: Claire Begalke
1st Source Servall Blog 