I spent Sunday spring cleaning the kitchen. For the most part, my kitchen is clean, or so I thought. There is always that tiny little space between the stove and the counter top where everything falls and the floor in there is a mess. The crumbs are easy but scrubbing up the greasy buildup in such a small area is really hard, I finally had to pull the stove out, then I found an even bigger mess. I was tempted to push it back!
I used to use ammonia on grease, it worked like a charm with minimal scrubbing, but the smell! Finally, I stopped using ammonia and I use lemon juice and water for things like wiping down the kitchen cabinets. I had never used it to tackle such a yucky job and I have to say, I was impressed.
I sprayed the area on the floor with lemon juice and water and let it sit for a couple minutes. Then I got our my trusty scrub brush and it cleaned right up. When I rinsed it and ran my hand over the floor it was squeaky clean, and the kitchen smelled nice too. Lemon juice and water works great on the top of the refrigerator as well.
I wound up rearranging some cabinets and as always, found some things that were past their expiration dates. I know some people say that those dates are just a best guess, but I say, better safe than sorry. For canned items I will generally use them a month or two past the expiration, any longer than that and I toss them.
Items in the refrigerator are gone as soon as they expire, except eggs. I’ve never paid attention to the date on eggs and I’ve never had a bad experience, but you might not want to do that yourself. Anything else in the fridge is tossed when it expires, milk, mayonnaise and salad dressings especially.
Anything you will be feeding to babies or small children I would toss immediately as it expires. Their little systems are not as strong as ours and they could get very sick.
It feels good to have the kitchen done, that is always the worst room in the house for me. I also took the plastic off the kitchen window, hopefully our warm temperatures will continue and I can open the windows and let the fresh air in.