There are improvements that need to be seen in person in order to be appreciated. This is one of those improvements. It falls into the beautiful side of the William Morris quote and touches again on the fact that you have to take care of your possessions, even though it isn’t fun or exciting or even all that noticeable in the short term. In the long run, chores pay off.
Kitchen cabinets are one of those things you walk by every day, several times a day, and pay scant attention to unless one has chipped paint, a loose door, or maybe a tarantula. Cabinets are easy to benignly neglect. Over time, they look good from afar but are far from good.
You can open the door beneath your sink and grab the dish soap without even looking. That’s a problem.
Because doing things with your eyes closed, metaphorically or not, allows you to overlook items that need to be repaired or refreshed. This is why cleaning schedules are important, at least for me. I deep clean my cabinet exteriors every Christmas and then once during the summer. I don’t keep a calendar so I go by holidays. And even then I suck. I read online that you should clean your cabinets at least 1-2 per week or every time you cook.
Sure. I’ll get right on that.
This past Christmas I didn’t clean the cabinets. I was alone for most of it while the Mister was away on business and I was dealing with floods and broken sewer lines. I didn’t have it in me. This summer I didn’t clean the cabinets. I was dealing with other things.
I skipped two cleanings and didn’t think much of it until I recently dropped a carton of yogurt at 6:00am. I was on my hands and knees scrubbing when I looked up and almost lost consciousness.
I’m sorry, what? When did that happen? I looked at all the other cabinets in horror. The others were nowhere near as bad–this set of cabinets sit where all the cooking and prep work happens but…still. They all needed a wipe down.
Later that night, in the kitchen after dinner, I mentioned it to the Mister. I think I was still traumatized.
“Our cabinets. So gross. They really need to be deep cleaned. Like, immediately.” I acted like I was imparting upon him a great, unknown fact. He just looked at me and said, “Oh, I know. I noticed that a while ago. They’re filthy.”
For a split second, no, a nanosecond, I was embarrassed. He noticed the cabinets were dirty! And didn’t say anything! He must think I am so lazy! or dirty! or negligent! or…wait a minute. He noticed the cabinets were dirty! And didn’t say anything! Why the hell not?
So I said, “Why didn’t you say anything?”
And he said, “I don’t know. I figured you knew or would see it eventually.”
Translation: I knew once you saw the cabinets you would not be able to keep yourself from deep cleaning them, most likely while I am at work. Problem solved.
Or, if you are a visual person:
He thinks he knows me so well. Sure, I may have spent the better part of the afternoon cleaning the cabinets today while has was at work.
I have news for him. I won’t be the one cleaning the cabinets come spring time.* Well, I’ll probably be overseeing the cleaning, but that’s neither here nor there.
*I’m trying to forget that deep clean 1-2 times per week bit I read. Do you think that’s accurate?
UPDATE: He just walked by me on his way to bed and said, “Cabinets look great, honey!” Oh, Cam. I am so on to you.
New here? For the next 31 days Im living according to the famous William Morris quote. You can learn more about the project here.
The thought of a cleaning schedule kind of always made me want to run away, far away. Lately I have been re-thinking the idea. Maybe I need to partake? Wiping down the kitchen cabinets 1-2 per week did sound a little excessive and so I checked Martha’s Homekeeping Handbook. I just remembered I have it (the spine has barely been cracked). She lists wiping down surfaces in the kitchen under weekly homekeeping. :O Still sounds excessive.
I have that book! And the fact I completely forgot about it until you said something supports the reasoning behind this series! O_o
I have white cabinets too, with that little edge and in makes me insane when they’re dirty. I’ve been known to clean those with a toothbrush – which gives the impression that I’m THAT kind of housekeeper. I assure you, I am not. I do find that if I give them a quick once over with the broom when I’m sweeping the kitchen, it cuts down on the need for the toothbrush.
Why do I sweep my kitchen daily? Two words: THREE DOGS.
Loving this series!!
Two dogs for me. I need to sweep every day or it looks like I haven’t swept in months. I don’t sweep every day. I should.
1-2 times a week … or after each time you cook? Ha … haha … AHAHAHA! Certainly a joke–because that one’s funny!
When I clean the kitchen each week I do try to give a cursory lookover–but there are times when I notice juice or jam that has dribbled down… and I don’t recall when the last time was I had those things. So I’m either a huge failure in The Great Cabinet Absterge … or someone’s sneaking into my kitchen and helping themself to a PB&J … oh, the intrigue …
Hah!
if we did everything every time some professional told us to, our entire life would be consumed with maintenance and upkeep for things. Let the people with no life clean their cabs once a week. We mere mortals can spread it out a little. You did good. And also, I want to marry your kitchen.
My kitchen is teeny-tiny! But she is cute. I just need to spruce her up a little bit.
I am new here, but I am really enjoying your 31 days series. That’s a lot of work to tackle in one month, but you are doing a fantastic job! I’m sure you will enjoy the fruit of your efforts for much time to come.
I also wanted to chime in about cleaning…I don’t really like to clean, so I end up putting off tasks and then they are bigger. I finally came up with a daily (different for each day of the week), monthly, and semi-annual cleaning list to help me stay on track. Now I actually do wipe down my cupboards every week. I do clean the ceiling fan and vacuum under the bed every month. I do scrub the grout in my bathtub so it isn’t overrun with soap scum. It has helped a lot – breaking down the big jobs into doable pieces on a regular basis!
Keep up the good work…I’m looking forward to the rest of the month!
I need a schedule like that.
While I’m quite sure that there ARE people out there who clean their cabinets 1-2 times a week, I am NOT one of them. I like your Christmas and summer schedule, but I tend to be more of a panic cleaner – oh crud, someone’s coming over and I just noticed that I have a whole meal on my cabinet doors. That kind of cleaner. If I see it, then I clean it (sometimes), or at least I make a mental note to clean it at a later date…and then forget about it. I have the same style cabinet doors that you do, but mine are in a dark wood color, so the dirt and grime isn’t as easily seen – I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. At any rate, I’m LOVING this series that you are doing and have been inspired (yet again) to purge our home of everything that I don’t absolutely love (which means the husband is safe – thankfully). :-)
Thank you!
So your husband is the Stanley want-to-be in this scenario? hahahahaha….
And I will be channeling your strength from the cleaning man experience. I am pricing replacement windows and the salesmen are coming soon!
Super impressed!! I have white cabinets too. They are a pain to keep clean. And to try to keep up is just too hard, so I also break down once or twice a year and give them a once over. But three days later, one can hardly tell. At least at our house.
Yes, my husband is the overweight gay man with a flair for drama.
Last night I Was writing this post when he came in from working in our backyard office/studio. I heard him rustling around in the kitchen and said, “Hey, can you make Mikey’s lunch for tomorrow.”
Silence.
Then he says, “I’m kind of busy right now.”
“Okay, what are you busy doing?”
“Well, I’m shutting my laptop.”
“Right. I can see you’re swamped. You keep shutting that laptop, Cam.”
He laughed. Then he made Mikey’s lunch.
I live in an apartment so my square footage is smaller, but I clean all my walls, doors, cupboards — inside & out, 3 times a year. I’m a student so it usually goes with holidays too. Christmas break, “Spring break” (ours is in February), and then at some point during the summer.
I like the addition of a third cleaning during Spring. Sadly, now I can’t get that weekly comment out of my head. Sigh.
I only deep clean my cabinets once a year. So I’m going to assume that 1-2 a week thing is for tweekers on meth. ;)
Funny story: I never got up close and personal with the cabinets in my current house until move in. At which time, I realized that they were disgusting and had been neglected for YEARS! This caused a freak out and then even a depression as I spent two weeks with orange oil, rags, no scratch sponges and Q-tips trying to undo the damage. Yet another reason that white kitchens are superior – I would have noticed immediately upon viewing the house. So happy that I declined to hire their maid. It still floors me three years later that a house with weekly maid service had cabinets in that condition.
Love this series!
That is why I love white cabinets, pale floors, etc. I would rather see it and clean it that miss it and be surprised like I was at our first house.
I’m picturing The Mister yelling, “Stella” every time he walks in the kitchen surrounded by sparkling cabinets. :)
Once he reads this post, he will. He’ll Stella me for a month, easy.
I am LOVING your 31 days of William Morris. So inspiring! I have to admit, I am not a great cleaner, but I do wipe down my cupboards a couple of times a week. Don’t get the impression that I am Martha Stewart. Quite the opposite: I am lazy. The way I figure it is this: I can either take five minutes twice a week to wipe down all the grooves of my (white!) kitchen cupboards, or I can spend two hours on it every few months. The first option saves me time AND it means they are always pretty clean. I’m selfish about my time, and I want a nice house, so I am all about maintenence. I used to wash them twice annually like normal people do, but at some point I figured out that for all the energy and time I spent, they were still dirty most of the year.
I am loving this series. I look forward to reading your william morris post each day. These kinds of post are why I love your blog – a little bit of home care, a little bit of introspection, and a lot of rueful humor. Thanks for brightening my days.
You make me feel better about my own lack of cleaning (dark woodgrain cupboards that look great at a distance and a similar kitchen disaster to your yoghurt spill forced me to look from floor level to see they are loaded with calories) and then you give me an optimistic resolve to ‘do something.’ I have not yet ‘done something’ but I can feel it coming on with each one of your posts. In the southern hemisphere it’s the perfect time for a good old spring clean. thanks for the series, you make cleaning appealing AND humorous. Unfortunately the Modern Family clip is not available in my area…sigh!
I realized something yesterday: I deep clean as a form of stress relief. The crazier things get, the more detailed my cleaning is. So, you can imagine how bad yesterday was that I not only deep cleaned the cabinet faces, I scrubbed out the dishwasher, scrubbed and sanitized the in-sink-erator, and took down and scrubbed (and used hypo allergenic dust repelling endust on) all of my fan blades.
So, it made me smile that I wasn’t the only one scrubbing cabinets yesterday!
You are a brave women for posting the “dirty” photo. I don’t know if I could have. (and yeah mine look the same)
Thanks everyone! :)
And Katie J–I agree. I gave myself a pat on the back for that one.
Looking at all those lovely white cabinets makes it very obvious that I need to clean my monitor! :-)
1 – 2x per week CANNOT be accurate, right? Maybe that’s the counter tops? I generally do those every time I cook, so that would make sense to me.
The cabinets? Those get cleaned whenever I can’t stand looking at them anymore, which is usually at some terribly inconvenient moment.
It’s accurate. I checked multiple sources and they all said the same thing. Insert embarrassed/sad/disbelieving face.
I clean my cabinets once a year – right before Thanksgiving. The impending onslaught of family for the holidays makes me think of one thing: Murphy’s Oil Soap. Love that stuff. I use it to clean my cabinets every year just before Turkey Day. :-)
Jules, what do you clean your cabinets with and how do you get scuff marks off the baseboards? FYI. . .Murphys can leave wood cabinets sticky and gooey after usage over time. An aside, I live in Cleveland where Murphys was invented –great stuff, but not for all cabinets. Traveled this week, so just catching up on your week of postings. Love the series!
I used an all purpose cleanser for the cabinets that really weren’t dirty. For the cabinet above the stove, I used a bucket of hot water with Dawn once I realized the all purpose spray wasn’t working. Then I scrubbed with a soft sponge and good ol’ fahsioned elbow grease. It sucked, but worked.
I also am dying to know what you used to clean those puppies. Mine are in much worse shape, and not because I haven’t tried. I can’t seem to get rid of the stuck-on food. I am slowly coming to the realization that it may be time to re-paint them. . . a much more daunting task. Please save me by sharing your cleaning secret!
I used an all purpose spray cleanser. I’ve tried orange oil, but that just made everything really greasy. Have you tried the magic erasers? What you use on your cabinets also depends on your finish. On the really greasy cabinet door above the stove/microwave, I used a bucket of hot water and some Dawn. Then I scrubbed with a sponge. That will be your best best.
I am really loving this series. The William Morris quote has been a favorite of mine for a couple years now, and the biggest thing I have noticed is one I really let it sink in it completely changed my buying habits.
Thanks, Katie! :)
I think the recommendation to clean 1-2 per week refers to picking a couple of cabinets in the kitchen to wipe down each week, instead of doing the whole kitchen in one day. That would probably work out to 2-3 times per year for each cabinet.