Kitchen Cleaning Progress

When I left you last, I had made a rather hopeful list of all the kitchen cleaning tasks I planned to get done this week.  It’s been a few days, so I thought I’d check in with my progress.

Here’s my updated list:

Wipe down all cabinets [x]

Wipe down chairs and barstools [x]

Wipe down baseboards [x]

Clean windows [x]

Clean out fridge

Clean stainless steel appliances [x]

Organize pantry [x]

Wash curtains [x]

Clean out/organize upper cabinets

Clean oven

Seal backsplash grout

Wash light fixtures [x]

Try to get stains out of granite

Clean microwave (added) [x]

Clean stove top (added) [x]

Wow, that’s actually pretty good progress.  I hadn’t expected to look so accomplished!  In the name of full disclosure, I had already cleaned the windows and washed the light fixtures…

But! I did add one gigantic project that is making me sooo happy!  We have a gas stovetop with concave ceramic burner plates with large, heavy grates.  When we first moved in, I tried to keep the plates so clean.  (Well, all except for the one that was already fairly encrusted.)  But, over the past year or so, the encrusting got ahead of me and I never caught up and then I just stopped caring.

Except, I didn’t actually stop caring.  It just bothered me a little bit every day that there was junk on the burners that I couldn’t get off.  This is how I felt:

So, the other day, I decided to try an idea that had been in the back of my mind: oven cleaner.  I sprayed oven cleaner all over the top of my stove and let it sit.  The directions said to wait for 8 hours, but I am impatient and so I started wiping it up after 4 hours.  The difference was amazing!  I was so excited that I sprayed even more oven cleaner on and let it sit all last night and all day today.

When I got home from work tonight, I went to work with a toothbrush (don’t worry, it was my husband’s).  When I finished, the clouds parted and I’d swear I heard angels singing!  That thing is so shiny!  I keep walking through the kitchen just so I can look at it and pet it.

I was thinking about trying to get a picture of it, but I knew I could never do it justice, so you’ll just have to use your imagination…

(When I started this post, I was actually going to write about my pantry clean-up, but I got sidetracked and now I have to go stare at my shiny stovetop, so maybe I’ll share that some other time.)