Your kitchen is where all the magic happens.

Breakfast, lunch, and family dinners; it all happens in the kitchen. But, with everything going on, a mess can quickly make itself at home in your kitchen giving the room a dirty and unwelcoming feeling. Your kitchen should be a welcoming place, not something that is neglected, especially because you make food in this space.

Let’s cover where these messes commonly arise and what you can do about them.

1) Clean As You Go

This is one of the easiest things you can do to keep your kitchen clean, plus it keeps you from feeling stressed out with all the dishes you need to clean up later. As soon as you finish making your food, clean up after yourself. Then, when you’re finished eating, clean your dishes and put them in the dishwasher; it’s as easy as that!

2) Regularly Wipe Down Household Items

Whether it’s refrigerator handles or condiment bottles, everything in your kitchen will need to be wiped down at some point. You’re making breakfast, lunch, and dinner in this room, so things will get messy (especially if you have young kids).

Starting with condiment bottles, over time, they will develop a congealed mess from the overflow. Not only is this gross, but it can quickly create a sticky mess if it gets out of hand. To keep your condiment bottles fresh, and less of a gunky mess, wipe them down after each use. By doing this, you prevent the overflow from hardening and getting out of hand.

Aside from bottles, we also recommend wiping down handles and countertops. Your kitchen is used for cooking, so things will inevitably get dirty. Simply using a damp microfiber towel or paper towel to break up any gunk is a great way to keep your kitchen looking and feeling clean.

3) Organize Your Fridge, Cabinets, and Pantry

With everything that is kept in the kitchen, it can quickly become a cluttered mess if you’re big into cooking. To keep things simple for you and your family, try organizing things with bins, labels, and dividers so you don’t go on a scavenger hunt anytime you need something specific.

For example, to avoid the day when you accidentally put salt in your tea when you were actually wanting sugar, try labeling things that look similar. This along with the general organization of your pantry and fridge can make your life so much easier as you’re working in the kitchen.

4) Clean The Dishes Before Bed

No one likes waking up in the morning to the sight of a dirty kitchen. To keep things easy in the morning, start cleaning the dishes before you go to bed. If you do it by hand, this should only take 10 or 15 minutes; not to mention, if you have kids, get them involved as well to get things moving even quicker. Then, when you wake up, you don’t have to worry about it.

In fact, you’re actually making the job more difficult if you leave the dishes dirty overnight. While those dishes sit there, the food on them hardens making it more difficult to get them clean. Plus, depending on what you ate the night before, it may get a bit stinky, which isn’t the best thing to wake up to.