During my Clutter Countdown Challenge, I’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen. My counters are clean, my sink is empty and polished” most nights, my pantry is organized (for the most part) and I’ve slowly pared down items in my cabinets to make room to breathe.
Now, that the kitchen is in order, it needs to stay that way, and the wonderful thing is that with these simple, easy steps, I can pretty much keep my kitchen looking spotless with a weekly 15 minute clean up, as long as I do my “nightly nudge” reminders.
Since I view the kitchen as the hub of our home, this main area takes priority when it comes to de-cluttering and cleaning. Unfortunately, it’s often the dirtiest part of the house, so it’s critical that we are cleaning it regularly.
I broke down an easy routine to help keep the kitchen looking amazing.
I encourage you to print the Kitchen Checklist off and walk through these steps with your kids. (Did you have a family meeting yet?)
For me, it’s so much easier to have a set routine that I get to know and I hope you find this an easy one to follow. Set your timer again for 15 minutes. While it may look like there’s a lot to do on the list, you will be shocked at how you can get through this all in 15 minutes (unless you have just hosted a large crew for dinner, then the dishes may take a bit longer.) 🙂
The Nightly Nudge is a separate set of items to do each night before I go to bed. I want our children to get to know this list as well, so that it becomes routine. Soon enough, they can mentally check off each item and make sure that we leave the kitchen picked up at night.
Since I’m not a morning person, coming down to this clean kitchen each morning has rocked my little world. It starts my day off right, rather than waking to a sink full of dishes and left over dinner mess from the night before. Now, full disclosure, that still happens, but if’s a rare occasion now.
We want our home to be a place we want to come back to, don’t we? We have tackled the kitchen, so now let’s make this area shine.
Head here to print your free, full size 15 Minute Kitchen Cleanup Checklist.
If you end up adding a few other tasks to tweak it to fit your needs, I’d love to hear it.
I’m onto the bathroom now and it could be brutal.
What have you been working on? Remember, just 15 minutes per day and we’ll have our homes ready for the holidays.
To see all the other Clutter Countdown Challenges, click on over and catch up where ever you can.
Clean Kitchen Checklist
Love the nightly nudge list! I’m all about spending a few minutes at the end of each day cleaning up the kitchen so that I don’t have to spend much time cleaning the whole room every weekend!
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Jen Reply:
October 14th, 2014 at 10:50 pm
That’s exactly why I added that. I need the discipline to just remember to take those few minutes. It makes such a difference!1 🙂
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Oh, how I dream of a spotless kitchen! Great tips!
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I am following the 15 minute clean kitchen checklist and love waking up in the morning to a tidy kitchen. I also discovered the hoard lurking in the cabinet under my kitchen sink. I added a stick-up light so I can see what’s happening in this dark and mysterious place to avoid future problems.
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I think the 15 minutes applies only when you have got your kitchen into a reasonable state. Mine was really getting on my nerves! Followed your list and finished everything in 45 minutes. however ,future clean up’s should not take as long. I am really going to try the Nightly Nudge.I should imagine this is well worth it for the pleasure you get in the mornings!
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Jen Reply:
January 28th, 2015 at 11:48 am
Yes, you are completely right. The very first time, mine was a disaster and it took longer, but after that, even if it was slightly messy, I could get it all done in 15.
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