As daunting as the task may seem, deep cleaning your kitchen and laundry appliances with household disinfectants is critical to reducing the chances of contracting infection or sickness. Protect your loved ones, and let us help you diminish your spring cleaning checklist by looking to our appliance-cleaning guide!
Without further ado, here’s how to disinfect kitchen and laundry room appliances:
1. Refrigerator and Freezer
We recommend starting with the interior of your refrigerator.
Pull out each food item, inspecting for freshness and stuck-on muck on any containers and bottles—wipe down with a damp cloth as needed—and purge any food items that smell bad or are past their expiration dates.
After that, take out all removable shelving, racks, and drawers, and run them under hot water in the sink. Restore them to their initial gleam by scrubbing them with dish detergent and one tablespoon of bleach for every gallon of water used. Let these fridge parts air dry while you wipe down the appliance interior with another DIY kitchen cleaner...
It turns out that the A-Team squad equipped to wipe out food contaminants is a shortlist of rubbing alcohol, distilled white vinegar, warm water, and a cleaning rag. A common substitute for store-bought chemical cleaners, distilled white vinegar acts as a natural deodorizer. And in all cases, a cleaning solution with at least 70 percent alcohol is key for eradicating bacteria, as vinegar alone won’t be enough to combat COVID-19. We recommend using a toothbrush for hard-to-reach crevices and sprinkling a teaspoon of baking soda on stubborn blotches! Once the interior is wiped dry, you may replace the hand-washed shelves, racks, and drawers as well as the food.
Make sure you repeat these three steps for your top, bottom, or chest freezer.
And finally, don’t let your appliance finishes, well, finish last. For DIY kitchen cleaner recipes that are customized to stainless steel and slate appliance finishes, check out our blog!
2. Cooktop, Oven or Range
The first step is assessing the type of cooktop you use.
If you use a cast-iron electric stove, remove the burners to clean them separately with dish soap and a clean, damp cloth. If your drip pans are crusted with burnt food, soak them in a tub of water mixed with baking soda. For optimal results, an 8-hour soak period is encouraged.
Glass electric cooktops can be sanitized with—you guessed it—vinegar, alcohol, and baking soda! For step-by-step instructions, peruse our blog.
For cleaning gas cooktops, we (again) turn to our trusty friends, distilled white vinegar and rubbing alcohol. First step: Remove the covers off of the burners. Step 2 is washing the caps under the faucet with dish detergent. Step 3? Use a clean rag dipped in white vinegar and rubbing alcohol to wipe down the burners. Experts recommend not spraying household disinfectants directly on the appliance to avoid leaving any cleaner behind.
In all cases, be sure to take out and clean your range hood mesh filters. Leave them to soak in water mixed with dishwasher detergent for one hour, and then scrub them with a clean brush, adding more dishwasher detergent as needed.
As far as cleaning your oven goes, first, remove the interior racks. After soaking them in soapy water for an hour, use a clean sponge to scrub them clean. For the oven walls, vinegar, alcohol, and baking soda prove to be a winning combo once more—just swipe the bubbly solution generously with a clean cloth, and pat everything dry with a separate rag.
3. Dishwasher
Cleaning your dishwasher is more involved than you may think. We’d know—we dedicated an entire blog about it. Nevertheless, here’s a recap!
Hand-scrubbing the spinning wash arms inside your appliance is a must. Since these contraptions spray pressurized water to clean our dishes, we must ensure they aren’t clogged or bogged down by any stuck-on food particles. Wipe them down with your choice of cleaner (yes, including white vinegar), and use a clean piece of wire to scoop out any tiny gunks.
Unclog the drain by taking off the cover, and use a brush or cloth to clean out any deposits. Make sure to use a household disinfectant to wipe down the area around the drain, too.
Did you know that those offensive smells that come from your dishwasher are most likely to come from the outside of your appliance? So, be sure to disinfect the outer edges around the door that do not get washed during a regular cycle (and that can end up with weeks’ worth of germs, spills, and food debris).
Lastly, we suggest adding just a splash of bleach in a final wash cycle to remove mold or mildew from the interior.
4. Washer
At this point, you can cross “kitchen” off your spring-cleaning checklist. Onward to the laundry room! We’ve got the lowdown on how to disinfect laundry machines, too.
Blotches from residual detergent and fabric softener can trap body soil and bacteria that seep into your clothes and cause terrible odors—so it’s important to sanitize the appliance that cleans them. To disinfect your washer, add one cup of chlorine bleach to your empty top-load or front-load washer, and set the water temperature to the hottest setting. Allow it to run through the entire cycle.
When the cycle is complete, brush the interior components of your washer with a ¼-cup of chlorine bleach and one quart of water, taking special care to scrub out residue buildup or mold from the rubber seals, gaskets, and lid.
Run another rinse or spin cycle to get rid of any leftover bleach. And finally, take a damp washcloth to your preferred household disinfectant, and sanitize the exterior.
5. Dryer
When it comes to your spring cleaning, don’t leave this appliance high and dry.
Wearing gloves, remove any potentially contaminated lint from the lint screen, and dispose of it properly. If contaminated, lint can cause skin irritation if it gets caught in your clothes.
Using the same chlorine-bleach cleaner recipe we prescribed for the inside of your washer, wipe down the dryer drum, rubber seals, gaskets, and appliance lid. Afterward, use a damp cloth to rinse the interior, and toss in a few old rags in your appliance, running your dryer on high for 10 minutes to ensure that any residual cleaner is removed.
Then, wipe down the outside of the dryer with your favorite household disinfectant and rinse well with a clean, damp washcloth.
For more appliance-sanitization tips, call Spencer’s TV & Appliance. We know how much your family depends on the durability and dependability of your kitchen and laundry appliances. More than ever before, it’s important to make sure they perform at their best—check out our online catalog and see what we can do for you. Call us today!