Keeping Your Kitchen Free of Dangerous Germs: Five Tips from the Pros

No matter how clean you like to keep your house, chances are that you wouldn’t like having dangerous germs anywhere near your food. Thus, keeping the kitchen in pristine condition becomes a task of paramount importance, even if you let your kids pile clothing pyramids on the floors of their rooms.

Getting rid of the germs in the kitchen is far from an extraordinarily challenging task. You’ll simply need to come up with a new cleaning routine that targets the problematic areas.

We’re ready to share some of the secrets that cleaning professionals rely on to annihilate kitchen germs. Here are a few basic tips that will help you get rid of those bacterial colonies that potentially live in your sink, on the countertop and the other surfaces in your kitchen.

Throw away the Sponge

Yep, the thing you use to clean dishes and produce is probably full of germs. Studies actually suggest that the sponge is the dirtiest item in your house. It’s nearly 200,000 times dirtier than your toilet seat (gross!) and nearly 10 million bacteria live in a square inch of your kitchen sponge.

Zapping the sponge in your microwave is one of the quick and easy solutions for killing some of the bacteria. It will not get rid of all the germs, however. A solution of vinegar and water that you use to soak the sponge in between uses can also be a good option for getting rid of some germs.

A microfiber cloth is a much better alternative because it dries quickly and doesn’t feature the wet environment bacteria need to multiply.

Clean the Kitchen Sink Frequently

The kitchen sink is next. In commercials, it looks spotless and shiny. In real life, a kitchen sink is probably covered in at least some buildup and grime. The situation gets to be even more troublesome if you have kids and you lack the time needed for intense scrubbing and de-greasing.

You may want to sprinkle baking soda on the stains. Let it act for some time, wipe and rinse. In addition, baking soda will help you get rid of unpleasant odors. It can also be used to deal with minor kitchen sink clogs. Treating stains on a regular basis will remove the buildup that bacteria need to grow.

Greasy stains? Use lemon juice on those. Lemon juice is a powerful de-greaser that you can also use on the dishes for environment-friendly cleaning. Just add some lemon juice to your dishwasher soap or the detergent you commonly use. You’ll find it much easier to get rid of cooking stains this way.

Get Rid of Bacteria on the Countertops

The countertop is your working surface and as such, it can easily get contaminated with bacteria-containing substances. You use it to cut meat, make salads and sweet temptations. If you’re not careful with countertop cleaning, cross-contamination can easily take place.

You can wipe the countertop with a vinegar solution to kill most of the bacteria.

To make an anti-bacterial product for the cleaning of food preparation surfaces like the countertop, add 25 drops of tea tree oil to one cup of distilled water. Tea tree oil has very powerful anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. As such, it’s ideal for cleaning the food preparation surfaces without using chemicals.

Dirty, Dirty Fridge (No More)

As much as you’d like to believe that the place where you store your food is clean, chances are that a colony of germs has settled quite comfortably there. Listeria, e-coli and salmonella are just some of the bacteria that could be living in your fridge.

Keeping raw meat close to cooked food, leaving the fridge door open for long periods of time and failing to clean the entire fridge frequently can all encourage the growth of bacteria there.

One of the simplest things you can do to prevent contamination is wash the fridge door with a disinfecting solution frequently. Keep the meat stored away from other foods, preferably in sealed containers or plastic boxes. Throw out all spoiled items and things that are past their expiration date. Finally, you may want to wipe the fridge every now and then with a solution made of half a cup of vinegar and two cups of distilled water.

The Cutting Boards

Here’s one final kitchen item deserves special attention due to the risk of cross-contamination that it carries. If you’re using a single cutting board for all produce, chances are that you’re increasing the risk that bacteria have for moving from one ingredient to another.

You need to have several cutting boards. Use one solely for meat, one for veggies, one for poultry and one for seafood. By keeping the cutting boards separate, you’re reducing the risk of cross-contamination. Soaking the cutting boards in bleach solution will disinfect them completely.

This is it! Just keep the vinegar bottle handy and you’ll find it easy to get rid of even the most stubborn kitchen bacteria. Getting rid of germs is simple and very inexpensive, if you take the time to wipe surfaces every now and then. Oh, and throw that sponge away. It is as bad, as it smells!

By Cliff Derksen, Owner of the Winnipeg Janitorial Company First Impressions Janitorial (www.firstimpressionsjanitorial.ca),