Clean My Kitchen Day 3 – how to clean small appliances

Welcome Back to the Clean My Kitchen Challenge.  Today we are on Day 3- how to clean small appliances

Day 1 (today) will be getting ready and clearing/cleaning surfaces.
Day two will be cleaning large appliances
Day three (today) is all about cleaning small appliances
Day four will be cleaning your hardwood or tile floors.

First things first- If you feel like your small appliances are taking over, decide where you are going to keep your them that is not out on your countertops.  I do not keep ours out on our countertop, because I just can’t stand having the countertops filled.  This is a compelely personal preference, of course.
When I was growing up, I don’t remember anything being out, except for our microwave (and now most of them are hanging).  I just grew up with empty countertops.
My husband and I do the same thing.  We keep them empty, except for our mixer, because it is too heavy to move up and down every day.)   I put my other small appliances away and get them out when I need them.  I store them in the cabinets or in our storage bench that sits near the kitchen table, easily accessible when I need them.
Before moving on, if you missed my post on Organizing your kitchen cabinets and drawers in 5 steps– you may want to check it out.
Now onto the cleaning: Lets start with the appliance that our family uses the most:

TOASTER (This is not a toaster oven- I don’t have a toaster oven, so I don’t have any advice on how to clean them. Sorry!):

If you have it plugged in… UNPLUG IT.

Next you want to take out the tray that collets crumbs.  Empty it and then wash it.  Most of us empty it, but we don’t really think about washing it, even though we know that food has sat on it.   An easy way to wash it would be to just take an old toothbrush (the one that you used on day 1 to clean the sink)  and use it to scrub this tray.  You want to take off all of the food that has been burnt on… (& burnt on & burnt on…)
You can clean out the interior with the same toothbrush, as well, if you feel like the interior sides need cleaned.
Clean the exterior, as well.   (A friend of mine told me to use foil to take rust off of the outside- just make a ball of it and rub it on the rust spots on your stainless appliances.  Pretty smart!)

COFFEE MAKER:

We only use our coffee maker on the weekends, because my husband drinks his morning coffee at work and I normally drink Diet Coke (although I am going to try switching over to coffee when the weather gets a bit colder… we’ll see if it can match up to the Diet Coke that I love so much!)   When my in-laws visit or when my parents come over in the mornings, we will use it to brew coffee for them, as well.

For the filter- throw away the disposable filter & wash the filter with soap & water.
Wash the exterior with warm soapy water.

ONCE A MONTH (if you use it often):  “Brew” water with vinegar.   I saw this on either Good Morning America or the Today Show a while back and it works. We use 2 cups of water and 2 cups of vinegar to clean ours.  Put it where you would put the water & hit the START button.   Reminder: you will want to run a cycle (or two) of plain water in it afterwards to get rid of the taste. I do this every other month since I rarely use our coffee maker.

MIXER:
Wash any aluminum parts with warm soapy water, such as the paddles, the whisk, the bowel, etc…  I use a soapy, damp washcloth to wipe down the stand, as well.  The base of our mixer gets the most “mess” so sometimes I will have to use a harsher scrub brush to get the food off of it that has been “caked” on.

MICROWAVE- See Day 2 for tips on how to clean a microwave.

GARBAGE CAN:
Our garbage can gets A LOT of use with six of us in our house.  Every week (here is my list of daily and weekly tasks) I take the garbage can outside and soak it with bleach and water (a lot of water to a little bit of bleach- about 1/4 to 1/2 cup).  I let it sit for an hour or longer, and when I get a chance, I’ll go back to it and dump out the water and spray it out with the hose.   You could always just scrub it and rinse it out with a little more water, but I try to avoid scrubbing it because… well, I just don’t want to clean the inside of a garbage can with my hands.  My husband will do this for me every other month or so.
On an every-few-days basis, I spray the interior with a disinfectant spray and let it dry before replacing the bag.

BLENDERS:
Blenders are so easy to clean.  We use our blender a lot.  We use it to make smoothies for the kids at least four times a week.  As soon as I make a smoothie (here is our favorite smoothie recipe) I will rinse it out.  I then fill it up about 3/4 full of hot water and add a little bit of dishwashing soap (not much, definitly less than a teaspoon… my husband adds way more, but you don’t need to.)    Simply fill it with the soap and water mixture, turn it on and let it wash itself.  Run it for about 30 seconds to a minute.  This is a great little thing for the kids to help with because they love to watch it spin “like a tornado” (ours do, anyways!)   Pulse it for about 10 more seconds before you empty it.
Just empty the water/soap mixture & rinse it out.
(I also put ours into the dishwasher after every few uses because I like to make sure that it is really clean)
Wipe off the outside with a soapy washcloth after each use.

I hope that this information helped you today!
If you are looking for ways to organize your kitchen, here are some of my past posts about organizing the kitchen.
Organize the refrigerator
Organize your cabinets and drawers
Organize your pantry 
Make a home-command Center

Are you ready for day 4?  The best way to clean hardwood floors