How to Clean an Extremely Dirty Kitchen

A few weeks ago, my friends had a problem; they had let their kitchen go until it was declared "uncleanable." They had argued back and forth for a few weeks over who was responsible for cleaning the kitchen. Each week that passed allowed the dirty dishes to pile up, the trash to rise and the seemingly hopelessness of the situation to grow. No one wanted to clean by that point and it was just left to be a mess.

When I visited these friends I was disgusted by their kitchen. I had no idea how they could let it get to that state of disarray. Clean is my middle name but the word did not appear to be in their vocabulary. After two days of staying with in an apartment with the dirtiest kitchen I had ever seen I decided to clean it myself. It was impossible for me to fathom staying there any longer without being able to use the kitchen or even walk through it.

After a few hours of cleaning I succeeded in making the kitchen usable again. It wasn't spotless, but it was not disgusting either. So how did I do it? How did I conquer the mountain of mess?

Step 1 in Cleaning an Extremely Dirty Kitchen: Get Rid of Trash

Taking out the trash is the first necessary step. You will want to get rid of as much dirt and mess as quickly as possible and taking the trash out is a good first step. Throw every piece of trash you see laying in the trash and then take it out. It might just be psychological but the kitchen will immediately feel cleaner. If you are like my friends and had been eating out a lot with lots of trash piling up then it will definitely be cleaner immediately. Plus you will need the trash to be empty so you can throw away all of the things you come across that are trash or can not be saved.

Step 2 in Cleaning an Extremely Dirty Kitchen: Assess the Damage

Once the trash is gone you can step back for a few minutes and assess the kitchen. This is a good chance to see what all is there and what will need to be done to create a clean kitchen once again. This step is important because you will need to know what materials you will need for cleaning. You might have everything you need already in the kitchen but it is good to check during this step so once you start cleaning you won't have to start until you are done. Make sure once you assess the situation you do have all needed cleaning materials at hand for the job.

Step 3 in Cleaning an Extremely Dirty Kitchen: Start Small

Most likely in an extremely dirty kitchen there are dirty dishes piled up in the sink... and probably on the counters and other locations as well. The best thing to do is to start small. Put all the silverware you can find in the dishwasher (or the sink if you have to wash by hand). Next move on the cups and then plates. Save the big dishes for last. If you have several big pots of pans to clean do them last so if you are running dishes through the dishwasher you can do multiple things at once. Plus you can get more little items clean earlier when you are more excited about cleaning the dirty kitchen than two hours later when you are tired. At that point its nice to just have two large dishes left to clean.

Step 4 in Cleaning an Extremely Dirty Kitchen: Destroy the Dirt

Extremely dirty kitchens contain items that make you say, "huh?" You might wonder how certain materials managed to cling to dishes or why they are in certain places, but none of this matters. When cleaning your mission to be destroy all dirt. If it doesn't come off with a wipe then soak it for a while. If you know a dishwasher can't handle it, soak it and wash it before loading it. If nothing is working or it seems like a lost cause before you even begin - throw it away. Dishes are usually easily replace. Destroying the dirt is your mission and sometimes cleaning can only go so far to that goal.

Step 5 in Cleaning an Extremely Dirty Kitchen: Wipe Down Everything

Once you have cleaned the dishes and destroyed most of the dirt and mess don't forget about the counters and other surface areas in the kitchen. These areas need to be wiped down and cleaned for all the bacteria they contain. This is step might be one of the easiest or the hardest depending on the type of dirty kitchen you are cleaning. Once it is completed the kitchen will not only be cleaner, but look cleaner.

Step 6 in Cleaning an Extremely Dirty Kitchen: Celebrate

Cleaning a dirty kitchen is hard work, especially if the mess has had time to grow. Once you have accomplished the task make sure you celebrate it.