Keeping your kitchen clean

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of GE . The opinions and text are all mine.

Most of you know that I really love keeping our house clean. Cleaning your kitchen appliances is one of the important parts of that. I can not STAND to have a messy kitchen. It drives me crazy. If Mickey and I are up until midnight and are exhausted, I just cannot go to bed without cleaning our kitchen. I love to walk downstairs to a clutter-free kitchen in the morning, free of dishes, chaos, and mess. Today, I’m excited to partner with GE to share some tips to have a beautiful kitchen filled with wonderfully (well-working) appliances.

Here is what I do to each appliance to keep it clean and organized:

• DISHWASHER: This is probably one of the most important parts of our kitchen because it can make your day run smoothly or make it stop in its tracks.
  Let me explain: When the dishwasher is empty: Everyone eats, puts their dishes away and moves on. Smooth sailing.

When the dishwasher is full: They put their dirty dishes in the sink.
The sink is full, so they start to put them on the counter.
This is a mess. We can’t unload our clean dishes onto the counter like we normally would, so we move everything to one side of the island or countertop and unload the clean dishes on the other side.
Now things are getting wet (papers that are out, lunch boxes that are ready to go, etc…) and it is just a mess.

To keep the inside of your dishwasher clean, use baking soda to scrub stains. I just use a washcloth that I dip in a paste made of baking soda and water (just a few tablespoons of baking soda with a little bit of water to make a paste the consistency of toothpaste or a just a little thinner).

ONCE A MONTH: After you empty your dishwasher, run a “rinse” load with just bleach. Dump about 1/3 cup of bleach into the bottom of the dishwasher, before running to load. This will get rid of any odors. If you have strong odors, run a full cycle. If you don’t want to use bleach, you could always use vinegar in place of bleach. You could follow up by sprinkling about two to three Tablespoons of baking soda in the bottom. Just let it sit there and the next time that you run a load of dishes, it will wash away and clean your dishwasher at the same time. (No need to rinse it out before you load your dishwasher).

If you have GE branded appliances and your dishwasher isn’t working properly, call GE service repair. They offer fast & reliable appliance repair. They will only use genuine GE appliance parts, so you know that you can trust it. Plus, they offer the industry leading warranty applies to ALL GE appliances, regardless of their age (and since they have repair professionals in more than 300 cities nationwide, you know you’ll be able to find one.)

• STOVE: The worst part about a stove is that the spills can become harder to remove the longer that they sit on your stove, especially with the heat setting them in place (“baking them in”). If you can clean them after each use, you will really eliminate having to work hard to get them off.

  If you have a flat cook-top, just use a razor blade (I used to use my husband’s razor knife blades because he always had extra. Use the flat, sharp part.) to scrape away the food. Use soapy water to clean the rest.

  We now have a gas stove and I have to wash the grates in the sink every week or two. I just use soap and water and a washcloth (dishwasher soap, not hand soap). I have to use a scrubbing pad to clean the part where the food spills. I use a soapy washcloth to wash the top part.

TIP: REMOVE KNOBS and clean below them. We have child-proof safety protectors on our knobs, to keep them kid-proof, but we take those off and remove the knobs to clean them. Food can spill and end up underneath these knobs and just sit there until you ‘discover it’. I leave them off overnight to dry.

If they aren’t working well, call GE Factory Service team GE Appliance Repair will repair any year or model of GE appliance The techs specialize in GE Hotpoint, GE Adora, GE Profile and GE Café appliances. We love the NewFiTM technology for newer appliances, allowing diagnoses to be quickly downloaded and resolved. With a 93% National Quality of Service (QOS) Rating, GE Appliances Factory Service is pleased to offer their customers an industry leading warranty on all household GE Appliances, no matter their age. It’s no wonder that 74% of their customers choose GE Appliances Factory Service for fast, reliable service at an affordable price.

• OVEN: I run our self-cleaning oven mode on days where I can be home with the windows open (I really dislike the smell!) It cleans the oven and while it takes a long time, it is worth it. When it is finished and cool, I just scrape the bottom part off with a spatula. It is easy and comes clean. I can then use an oven-cleaner to finish the job.

I clean the inside door with warm soapy water and a washcloth. I like it to look clean and if the glass looks messy or smudgy, it makes the whole oven look messy and unkept. Clean the handle and keep it looking nice. If you have a towel or pot-holder hanging on the handle, be sure that it is clean and freshly-pressed.
If your GE oven needs to be repaired, you can learn more here.

My quick tips for this is to clean it out weekly or bi-weekly. Get rid of old food, wipe up spills, use a cleaner to clean the inside. You may want to stick with 3 T. baking soda mixed in with 5 cups of water. Use this to clean the shelves, doors, drawers with a washcloth or sponge. I do this because I don’t want the kids to have a chance of having a cleaner on their food.

My Mom takes the shelves out and washes them (she did this at our house with our extra refrigerator that we keep in the garage) and it really makes a difference.

I also take out the drawers and fill them with hot soapy water. I soak them and then clean them. (Remember to let them go back to room temperature before putting them back into the refrigerator- to avoid cracks.) To deodorize, remember the age-old tip of keeping an open box of baking soda in your refrigerator.
If your GE refrigerator isn’t working as well as you need it to be, you can learn more about having it repaired here. They will give you a 30-minute courtesy call ahead of the appointment.   Keeping your appliances clean & working well will save you a lot of money and aggravation in the future. Learn more about servicing your GE appliance here.

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