Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. You’ve got friends and family coming over. Everyone’s finally seeing each other face-to-face after a couple of years of virtual dinners via video-sharing platforms, like Facetime or Zoom, due to the pandemic. Unless you’re in charge of kitchen cleaning and dealing with the aftermath of all the holiday parties, it becomes a dreadful day.
If you love hosting but hate the major kitchen cleaning that comes after, fret not. Here’s a special Christmas cleaning guide created with expert tips from the best Louisville house cleaners for a smooth and stress-free holiday season.
Let’s delve right in!
Pre-Christmas Cleaning Checklist
Prepping holiday feasts and kitchen cleaning can be more manageable when you plan ahead and have an efficient system in place before the actual day. Here are some tasks on your cleaning checklist that should be done at least a couple of weeks before Christmas.
1. Deep Clean the Oven
If you love baking or roasting every day and have used your oven to whip up a feast last Thanksgiving, we highly recommend giving it a deep clean before cooking with it for Christmas. The more frequently you use your oven, the more greasy and filled with gunk and splatters it’s going to be. One of the easiest ways to deep clean your oven is using a homemade eco-friendly cleaning paste made of baking soda and white vinegar.
2. Deep Clean the Dishwasher
Your dishwasher will be a lifesaver when you’re hosting friends and family over the holidays, so you want it to always be in excellent condition. Neglecting to deep clean your dishwasher at least once a month can cause a buildup of sludge from soap and food debris, making it a hotbed for germs and bacteria. You know it’s time to deep clean the dishwasher when the dishes come out with a slippery film and smell weird.
So a week before Christmas, put a dishwasher cleaner, like Afresh or Finish, to work. Or you can also do it naturally by filling a dishwasher-safe bowl with 1 cup of white vinegar and placing it on the bottom of the empty dishwasher. Set the dishwasher to run on a hot water cycle.
3. Deep Clean the Fridge
You will store a lot of food and ingredients in your fridge during the holiday season. Part of your Christmas cleaning checklist should be to declutter, clean, and disinfect it.
- Take everything out. Sort everything and get rid of spoiled or expired items.
- Hand wash the shelves with dish soap and warm water. Wipe dry before putting it back inside.
- Take a clean, damp kitchen cloth and wipe the inside walls of your fridge— spot clean stains with vinegar and baking soda paste.
- Lastly, don’t forget to make room for leftovers from Christmas feasts.
4. Declutter Pantry and Counters
Often, a kitchen can look chaotic even when nothing is happening because of so much clutter and random stuff occupying the counters and lying everywhere. Make sufficient space for all the prepping and cooking that you need to do with these kitchen decluttering tips:
- Make an inventory of food items and supplies in your kitchen pantry. Get rid of everything that’s already expired.
- Clear unnecessary items on your table and countertop, including small kitchen appliances that won’t be used for your Christmas recipes.
- Clean kitchen countertops and other surfaces that you’ll be using for prepping. Usually, a homemade cleaning spray with one part vinegar, three parts water, and three drops of dish soap works for most surfaces, except if they’re made of quartz, marble, and other stone materials.
5. Stock Up On Kitchen Cleaning Essentials
Clean as you go is the easiest way to keep messes to a minimum. Make cleaning quicker by putting garbage bins in strategic locations. Have a ready stock of paper towels, disinfecting wipes, kitchen towels, hand towels, and garbage bags.
After-Christmas Cleaning Strategies
- Have a bin ready for scraping food debris off dishes.
- Put a small bucket, pitcher, or bowl filled with warm water near the sink. Use it to soak used silverware to remove food debris and grease so you can load them in the dishwasher more quickly. In addition, soak used dishes and casseroles in a sink filled with warm water for at least five minutes.
- Reduce cleaning time by hand washing other items while others are loaded in the dishwasher.
- Don’t have the energy to deal with pots and pans? That’s okay! Soak them overnight and deal with them in the morning.
Lastly, there’s no shame in admitting you need help. Assign cleaning tasks to other members of your household, or treat yourselves to a well-deserved break. Instead of dreading the post-party clean-up, check out the most magical Christmas events in Louisville, and book a professional home cleaning service.
Let SuperCleaning Louisville Save the Day!
Whether you need help with kitchen cleaning or Christmas cleaning? We got you!
We are best known for our excellent team of professional house cleaners who are all insured, bonded, and carefully background-checked to guarantee premium-quality service and peace of mind. We offer standard residential and deep cleaning, perfect for making the holidays less stressful.
So what are you waiting for? Give yourself the best grown-up Christmas gift. Book our cleaning service in Louisville today!