What Is The Best Way To Clean Wood Kitchen Cabinets
Last updated on January 12th, 2022 at 10:06 am
What is the best way to make clean kitchen cabinets? At first glance, it seems like a bones question with a basic answer. I certainly thought so. Just later reading what the experts had to say, I was surprised that there a lot was more to it.
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Why Clean Wooden Kitchen Cabinets?
Sure, cleaning your kitchen cabinets is part of a having a make clean dwelling. But did you lot know that if cleaned and kept properly, kitchen cabinets can terminal for a long fourth dimension – upward to 50 years? Impressive, correct? That'south a longer lifespan than well-nigh kitchen components, including appliances, countertops and kitchen sinks. Heck, l years is older than me, and I'm pretty old! 😉
But if you lot don't properly maintain your kitchen cabinets, they can prove wear and tear only later 20-30 years. Then you lot volition be looking at replacements…
And cabinet replacement can business relationship for sixty-70% of full kitchen renovation. Considering the boilerplate full kitchen remodel runs well-nigh $24,000, that means about $15,000 goes to kitchen cabinets.
That cost is cypher to sneeze at.
So for me, that'southward motivation enough to ensure I'm doing all I can to keep my kitchen cabinets cleaned and maintained.
Backstory
My kitchen is what sold me on this house. And I beloved my kitchen cabinets. They are beautiful, loftier-quality Thomasville kitchen cabinets. This kitchen is what sold me on this house. The moment I walked into information technology, I know this was going to exist my home.
But I'm difficult on my kitchen. First, I'm a really messy cooker. And I have three precious footling monsters (excuse me, I mean daughters 😉) who honey to help their mom make an even bigger mess in her kitchen. Grease, crud and sticky toddler fingerprints rapidly build upward to embarrassing proportions on my kitchen cabinets. And with a decorated lifestyle it's difficult to keep them constantly clean.
stuff I don't even recognize….
I don't know exactly how old my cabinets are. They clearly aren't original our 1916 house. The family nosotros bought the house indicated that they did no major renovations, so we know these are installed prior to 2003.
That ways they are getting close (or have reached) the 20 year mark where article of clothing and tear start to bear witness. I need to make sure I'm taking care of them properly to make sure they reach l! So I looked to the cleaning experts online to ensure I'm cleaning my kitchen cabinets the all-time way possible.
Who are the Cleaning Experts?
The online sources I plant were completely varied – from large major cable networks and national chiffonier manufacturers to smaller scale bloggers. In alphabetical order, they are (pulsate coil please…..)
- HGTV – major cable network website.
- Everyday Cheapskate – web log by award winning, bestselling author and syndicated columnist
- Grapes and Splendor – a weblog with a myriad of tips and tricks to manage and maintain a home
- The Spruce – peak 10 largest lifestyle online mag
- Thomasville – largest cabinet manufacturer in North America established over 100 years ago
After reading through the adept'due south posts, I was surprised at the variety of means recommended to best clean wooden kitchen cabinets.
Before we outset, I have ii recommendations for y'all the reader:
- While I've cutting and pasted directly from these websites (with slight edits), I recommend visiyingt the original source.
- When cleaning your cabinets with a new method or production, offset test out on a small discrete area of your cabinet. Wait at to the lowest degree a few hours to ensure no harm and avoid ruining your chiffonier's end.
How to All-time Make clean Wooden Kitchen Cabinets
ane. HGTV
HGTV's post "How to Clean Wood Cabinets" had two different strategies to handle general and deep cleaning kitchen cabinets.
General cleaning:
- Vinegar is the go-to natural cleaner when faced with how to clean greasy cabinets. Mix a 50/50 solution of vinegar and warm h2o and put into a spray bottle. Mist on cabinets, let sit for a infinitesimal or ii and so wipe clean with a soft cloth.
- This footstep is optional. Add a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent to the vinegar and water solution to clean extremely grimy cabinets.
Deep cleaning:
- Brand a paste of vinegar and salt. Dip a toothbrush into the paste and lightly scrub the stained area. Don't scrub besides hard or use steel wool, every bit it will scratch the forest. Rinse the paste off with clean h2o and dry out with a make clean towel.
- You tin can likewise put baking soda on a moisture sponge and scrub the stain. Use a soft toothbrush or nylon-bristle scrub castor and so you lot won't scratch the cabinet surface
One time cleaning is consummate, HGTV as well recommended protecting from future stains:
- Mix vegetable oil and vinegar in equal portions and apply it lightly on the cabinet surfaces. Rub it in with a make clean, soft cloth. Buff till information technology shines.
two. Everyday Cheapskate
Mary Hunt, the columnist backside Everyday Cheapskate, addressed a reader's questions about what kind of cleaner to use on the wood kitchen cabinets with this respond:
- If you are looking for a commercial product to make clean those cabinets, y'all'll never trounce the effectiveness of real orange oil smoothen to melt abroad grease, crud, polish, and wax buildup, leaving a fresh odor and dazzler in its place. Information technology's going to toll a bit to exercise your entire kitchen, should you decide to go the commercial road.
But she continued and recommended the following bootleg concoctions for cleaning those wooden kitchen cabinets. Once clean, nothing additional is required to smoothen or protect.
General Cleaning:
- In a spray bottle (I utilize these 16-oz. bottles for homemade cleaners) mix ii tablespoons olive oil, 4 tablespoons white vinegar and enough warm h2o to fill the canteen (about 2 cups). Shake to mix then spray on ane door or drawer front at a time. Scrub with a soft cloth to remove any dirt, then buff to a beautiful shine. Before each spray, give the bottle a shake to keep the oil mixed in.
Deep cleaning:
- In a minor bowl, measure out 1 function vegetable oil and 2 parts baking soda (for example 2 tablespoons oil and 4 tablespoons baking soda—or one loving cup oil to 2 cups baking soda depending on the size of your task).
- Using your fingers, mix this into a thick paste. Smoosh this a little scrap at a time into the surface of that grimy chiffonier, beingness particularly mindful of the areas shut to the handles that receive so much handling and human contact.
- Scrub with a soft cloth, sponge or your fingertips to get this paste into the grain. Apply an erstwhile toothbrush to go it into all of the nooks and crannies. This paste is very thick, and equally you begin to scrub and brush, it will fall off, forth with a lot of grime.
- Buff well with a soft textile then step back to adore your cute work.
3. Grapes and Splendor
Blogger Grapes and Splendor had a dissimilar homemade recipe to Best Way To Clean Your Kitchen Cabinets-Without Hurting Them!
Full general cleaning:
- Combine a solution of one cup of water, one teaspoon toothpaste and two tablespoons baking soda. Employ a sponge or material to dip into the solution and use information technology to scrub the dirty areas of the cabinet.
Deep cleaning:
- Place nigh 1/two teaspoon of dish soap or oil soap woods cleaner on the scouring sponge. Moisture the sponge slightly and gently scrub the chiffonier allowing it to form a soap. Wipe with a slightly wet cloth with fresh h2o in it. Then dry information technology with a microfiber cloth.
- Make a paste with baking soda and h2o, apply it to the greasy areas by rubbing information technology on in a circular move, slightly press it into the grease to use the abrasiveness of the baking soda to lift the grease and leave it to soak for ten 10 minutes. Using a damped piece of clean material, remove the baking soda paste by wiping information technology off.
4. The Spruce
In Tips for Cleaning Food Grease from Kitchen Cabinets, The Spruce handled it differently from other sites in that they looked more towards products than homemade solutions with ane exception (which I listed first).
- Hot water and dish soap: Dish soap is an element of group i-based production that finer cuts through grease, particularly when mixed in hot water. Mix a squirt or two of grease-cutting dish lather into a bucket of very hot water (as hot as you lot can stand up), and use a nylon scouring pad to assail cabinet grease. Proceed the h2o hot, and use calorie-free force per unit area on the nylon pad to avoid scratching the surface. Rinse and dry the cabinets when done
- Goo Gone: Brand certain to wear safety gloves, and then utilize commercial Goo Gone cleaner over the grease and allow it sit for a minute or two. Oestrus a clammy micro cloth in a microwave for 35 seconds, then use it to quickly wipe away the grease layer. Finally, clean the surface area with a mild wood lather and h2o, and so dry completely.
- All-purpose orange oil cleaner: If your cabinets are really grimy, let the cleaner sit down for up to 10 minutes later on spraying. Afterward, wipe the cleaner off using a warm, damp micro-cloth.
- A wood cleaner containing Brazilian carnauba wax: Carnauba wax is an ingredient that'southward typically found in high-quality forest cleaners and polishes. One excellent product, called Magic Cabinet and Forest Cleaner, is a spray pump application.
5. Thomasville
This nationwide manufacturer and distributor of kitchen cabinets provides the post-obit cleaning tips on their parent company's website from The Homeowner's Guide to Care and Cleaning.
- Commonly, a clean, soft cotton fiber cloth —or microfiber fabric for laminate and loftier gloss cabinetry — dampened with warm water will do the trick!
- For extra grime fighting, a mild solution of dishwashing liquid (not dishwasher products) mixed with fresh, clean, warm h2o volition take care of dirt and grease. 5% dishwashing liquid to 95% water is a good ratio.
- After cleaning your stained or painted cabinets, wipe them down with a clean, damp cloth and be certain to dry moisture/damp surfaces with another make clean soft cloth.
- Your cabinets don't require waxing and we don't recommend information technology. Over time, waxing and polishing compounds may build up on cabinet surfaces forming a hazy, streaked or yellowed advent. Wax build up is really difficult to remove — no 1 has time for that!
Vinegar and Olive Oil: Adept or Bad?
You'll notice that some of the bootleg solutions to clean wooden kitchen cabinets incorporate vinegar and/or olive oil. Before I started this blog, I bought all my cleaning products from the store. Only as I enquiry and larn more nigh cleaning my house, vinegar seems to be an amazing option for homemade cleaning products. Information technology'south usually already in the firm, inexpensive, natural, and tough on bacteria, mildew, and dirt.
Merely interestingly, there seems to exist an statement against using vinegar and olive oil to clean wooden kitchen cabinets. Co-ordinate to some cleaning experts, including Springtime Cottage, vinegar and oil is not a good selection for cleaning wooden kitchen cabinets. Why?
- Vinegar is a paint stripper and varnish remover and tin destroy the coatings on many other surfaces. Each time it is used, it creates a thinner surface by slowly melting away furniture finishes.
- Olive oil is a non-drying oil and so when it'due south applied to the forest, it stays liquid and spoils. Eventually information technology will create a stench and attract noxious bacteria.
Are vinegar and olive oil expert or bad for kitchen cabinets? Honestly, I'm not certain what to think.
So I tried all 5 cleaning methods on my kitchen cabinets
These 5 options are completely unlike from my go-to cleaner for wooden kitchen cabinets. For years I've automatically gone to one of my favorite products to clean my wooden kitchen cabinets- Murphy Oil Lather. I use diluted Murphy Oil Lather throughout my firm – clean my wood floors, and clean the wood trim and baseboards in my firm.
And then I was intrigued by the fact that no of the experts were directly brought up Murphy'south Oil Soap. I went direct to Colgate-Palmolive Company'due south website, the makers of Murphy Oil Soap. And it appears that I've been using the product wrong. Well, kinda wrong.
While I've been using Murphy Oil Lather solely to clean the grim and grease off my kitchen chiffonier, I should have been using information technology in a 2-step process. Murphy Oil Soap is meant to restore the wood's natural glimmer AFTER the initial layer of dirt and crud is gone.
Whoops.
I decided to experiment with each cleaning method on one of my kitchen cabinets to get my thoughts and find the best manner to make clean my wooden kitchen cabinets.
HGTV and Everyday Cheapskate
I tried both HGTV'south vinegar/ water mixture and Everyday Cheapskate's olive oil/ vinegar/ h2o mixture for General Cleaning. While both did an fantabulous job cleaning my cabinets, I struggled with the lingering vinegar smell. It reminded me of Easter when nosotros use vinegar to color eggs.
Grapes and Spendor
Next, I tried Grapes and Spendor baking soda/ toothpaste/ h2o mixture. While the smell was more palatable, the toothpaste smell reminded me that I needed to telephone call my dentist for a cheque up. I recall some folks will really like this method, but it just wasn't for me. And again, like HGTV and Everyday Cheapskate, it cleaned the grease and grime off my cabinets.
The Spruce and Thomasville
Onto The Spruce. If y'all recollect, The Bandbox recommended a few commercial cleaning products, similar Goo Gone, orange oil cleaner, and canruaba wax. Goo Gone I've used several times in DIY projects, including removing stubborn glue to restore an old wooden rocking chair. Information technology's an effective and powerful cleaner for spot cleaning.
But for general cleaning, I liked The Bandbox's idea backside but good onetime dish washing soap and h2o. (It's the same method recommended past Thomasville, who manufactured my kitchen cabinets). Why? After thinking about it, information technology makes sense. Dish washing liquid is an alkaline-based product that finer cuts through grease. Well-nigh of the grime on my cabinets comes from grease or food. And so if dish soap that tin can cut through those things on my pots and pans, it should also work on your cabinets.
Expect a infinitesimal….. Wasn't that Dawn'south tagline at one point? "Dawn takes grease out of your style" Insert cheezy 1990s Dawn dish washing lather commercial from YouTube here…..
(Side note for you folks who recollect the 1980s and 1990s – Information technology think the actress in the blue vest besides played Andrea Zuckerman from Beverly Hills 90210…..agree?)
What'south the Best Thing to Clean Kitchen Cabinets?
My favorite method to clean my kitchen cabinets was using a mixture of Dawn dish washing soap to cut through grease, followed past a last rinse with White potato Oil Soap. I'd phone call this the "Thomasville/Spruce Plus" method.
For general cleaning, I combined 1/2 teaspoon of Dawn dish soap to 8 cups of h2o into a bucket of hot water. I washed the cabinets with my favorite sponge (Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Scrub Sponge) dipped into the solution. For areas that needed actress attention due to grease or grime, or intricate cabinet details, I scrubbed with an one-time toothbrush.
If you try this and your cabinets are a bit too soapy, wipe them downwards with a fabric dipped in just hot water.
Just here's the change. I added a following quick step. I filled up a bucket with around 1 gallon of water and ane/iv cup of Murphy Oil Soap (per the canteen'due south directions) and did a final rinse to make the cabinets smooth and have that oil soap smell that I'm so nostalgic about.
What did I end up with? These fantastic cabinets, all make clean and with rich forest tones shining through!
What's Next? Tackling Other Parts of My Kitchen…
- 35+ Items to Declutter Kitchen Cabinets – At present that the exterior of the kitchen cabinets are clean, how near the inside?
- How to Clean Your Kitchen Cabinet Knobs and Pulls! (After experimenting, I found a secret ingredient to revive kitchen hardware and make them shine once more! Shhhh! 😉)
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Source: https://everydayoldhouse.com/5-ways-to-clean-wooden-kitchen-cabinets-from-the-experts/
Posted by: woolridgerentiold.blogspot.com
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