LOG INAdvocates of a little and often approach to cleaning with gentle, natural ingredients, Purdy and Charlotte share their top tips and tricks for a fresh and sparkling kitchen this spring, using only natural ingredients you can find in your store cupboard.
If you don’t fancy making your own natural cleaning products, Counter Clean has been developed to tackle all your household cleaning tasks in one, refillable bottle. Find out more.
Sink
To clean stainless steel or ceramic sinks: take half a lemon and sprinkle with bicarbonate of soda. Rub all around the sink, squeezing the lemon as you go. Depending on how dirty it is, you may want to leave it a little while for the fruit acid to break down the dirt, before rinsing off with warm water.
For blocked, smelly drains, use 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup soda crystals, 1 cup coarse salt. Pour each of them down the drain and leave for 1hr before rinsing with boiling water.
Oven
Sprinkle bicarbonate of soda liberally all over your oven then, using a little water, scrub all the walls thoroughly. Leave the bicarb to break down the grease grime & dirt for at least 10 minutes (or overnight for deeply ingrained dirt). Next, either use the juice of fresh lemons or a diluted citric acid formula to rinse away the bicarbonate. You can follow a similar process with the oven racks, or leave them to soak in hot soapy water.
To clean the glass oven door, start by scraping off any food residue. Now remove all grease with hot water and dish soap or your Counter Clean. Wipe the glass door dry with a dry microfibre cloth, removing all cleaning product residue.
Fridge
We recommend making up a bicarb paste or solution with a small amount of water, then use wet cloth to wipe down the fridge interior. You can also use this on sinks and bins for a natural deodoriser and degreaser.
To freshen up and deodorise the fridge, place a small bowl of bicarb with a few drops of lemon essential oil at the back of the fridge (replace roughly every month - as Purdy explains below).
Counter Tops & Cupboard doors
Aside from using our favourite Counter Clean, you could also make your own surface cleaner using a mix of one part white vinegar to two parts water, combined with a few drops of your favourite essential oil to add a lovely scent.
Pots & Pans
It’s always a good idea to give your pots and pans the occasional deep clean as it’s easy for oil and food to build up over time. To clean a really encrusted pan, sprinkle coarse salt on the pan, add 1 tbsp olive oil and gently scrub the pan in circular motions with ½ lemon until it comes clean.
Dishwasher
To deep clean the dishwasher: take the filter out and clean in hot soapy water. Next, fill two 250ml bowls with vinegar, place one on the bottom rack and the other on the top, then run on the longest, hottest programme.
For a regular refresher, pop a (used) lemon half in the cutlery basket of the dishwasher - not only will it add a fresh citrus scent, it will leave your cutlery and glassware looking lovely and shiny.
