The Simple Mistake You Might Be Making When Cleaning Your Kitchen

Cleaning your kitchen is tough enough. Don't make it harder on yourself by cleaning it in the wrong order. Wipe, scrub, and sweep in a stepwise design, rather than going from the bottom up.

When you clean your counters, gravity sends the grime downward — whether or not you've already cleaned your kitchen tile. "The last thing you want to do is spend an hour mopping your floor only to have dust from the top of your light fixture or cabinet dot the floor," cleaning expert Sarah Karakaian told Reader's Digest.

There's another reason cleaning from the top down is a good idea: It helps you stay focused. Cleaning a kitchen can be overwhelming. Do you start with the pile of dishes or the greasy hood vent? The splattered baseboards or the moldy grout? The stained countertop or the dirty dishwasher? With this simple tip, you don't have to think too hard about what to do first. Just look up.

When you're short on time, start at eye level and give your cabinets a quick wipe-down. The best way to clean that nasty grease off of your kitchen cabinets is dish soap or baking soda. If it's been a while since you gave them attention, some pretty gnarly liquid might drip onto your counter. Good thing you're tackling counters next, huh? A solution of dish soap and water works just as well for counters as it does for cabinets. Don't use anything else without checking that your counters can handle it first — vinegar damages marble and stone.

This is the perfect time to do your dirty dishes. Pop them in the dishwasher or wash them by hand. Bonus points for polishing the sink when you're done. 

Once you've cleaned every dusty, grimy, greasy thing that could mess up your floor, you can sweep and then mop. Be extra careful if you take out the trash afterward! 

Are you ready to spend a weekend getting your kitchen really, seriously sparkling? Clean your hood vent. A greasy extractor fan is a fast track to a smelly, sticky kitchen. Make sure your filters are squeaky clean by soaking them in soapy water. Don't forget to check your lights, too. They aren't immune to grease.

Another oft-neglected kitchen cleaning category is appliances. Start with the ones on your counter (yep — it's time to decrumb your toaster), then move on to the big appliances. If you don't know how old that cheese is, you should probably clear out your fridge. If there's smoke every time you bake, you really need to clean your oven.

Once you've tackled every other kitchen chore, you can give your floor some TLC. Now is the time to scrub your baseboards. Since they, too, can get greasy, it's a good idea to go at them with the same dish soap solution you used for your cabinets and counters. Once your baseboards are spotless, you know you've truly cleaned your kitchen from top to bottom.