Kitchen lighting

Sometimes spending time in the kitchen calls for lots of natural light. Make sure that you dress your windows with blinds that flood the room with bright light. Blinds are better than curtains in the kitchen as they don’t take on the smells from the kitchen.

In terms of actual light fittings, it is a good idea to have a variety of options. Practical lighting is essential for jobs you need to carry out, but to make the kitchen feel warm and welcoming consider installing some softer, dimmer kitchen lighting as well.

Kitchen heating

You should treat kitchen heating the same way as you treat the heating in other living areas of your home. There is no reason why the kitchen should remain cold whilst dining areas and living rooms are warm and inviting. Consider installing underfloor heating if your kitchen floor is tiled and take advantage of designer radiators.

Since cooking is the main activity that takes place in the kitchen, there are likely to be cooking smells hanging around in there a lot of the time. Sometimes cooking smells can be really nice, but on other occasions they are unpleasant. They cling to your clothes and hair and sometimes just generally disagree with you.

Cooker hoods are a great way of helping to make the kitchen atmosphere fresher. These are designed vent the room when you are cooking, stopping the room from becoming stuffy and overly warm and removing food smells. They slot attractively between your upper kitchen cabinets.

It’s a good idea to also invest in some pleasant air fresheners or scented candles that you can put on right after you use the kitchen.

Prevention

Try to avoid using a cloth when you carry out your daily surface clean. Use paper towels as these can be disposed of and won’t spread germs around the kitchen. Identify areas that are particularly dirty when you do a deep clean and make sure you prevent them getting out of hand by giving them a wipe at the end of each day.

Make sure you clean the grill or oven as soon as it has been allowed to cool down. This stops it from becoming too difficult to clean when you eventually get round to it.

It’s a good idea to empty your cabinets and refrigerators every week or so. You can then throw out any items that have gone past their use by dates and you can give the insides of the kitchen cabinets and fridges a wipe down. This only takes a few minutes and can save you a massive job in the long run. It also helps you keep track of the items you have in your kitchen and those you need to put on your shopping list.

Kitchen hygiene, then, exists in two categories: cleaning and prevention. These articles will focus on both sides of the issue.

Cleaning

If your kitchen is in something of a state then you need to get some disinfectant for a deep cleaning job. It’s best not to use disinfectant too regularly, but for major jobs it is something of a necessity. Choose a clean cloth in order to wipe down all of your kitchen worktops and cabinets.

It’s okay to use bleach to clean your sink as long as you don’t let it mix with any ammonia you may be using. The fumes this creates are toxic.

Baking soda is a brilliant way of cleaning out drains, so pour some down the plug hole of your sink, perhaps with some white vinegar to clear blockages. If you have garbage disposal units, it’s a good idea to put bits of lime through them to freshen it up a little.

Consider the peripheral items that your kitchen may need to accommodate. This may include the following things.

Coffee machines

If you are a coffee lover then it’s not unreasonable to expect you have a coffee machine. Coffee machines come in a variety of sizes and you need to account for them when drawing up plans for your kitchen worktops. Save some space for these items.

Wine coolers

If wine is a passion of your then you should consider squeezing a wine cooler in amongst your kitchen cabinets. This will keep your wine in great condition and remove cumbersome bottles from the refrigerator.

Food processors, sandwich makers and slow cookers

All these items take up room. If you intend to use these items regularly then consider making space for them on your work surfaces. Otherwise, be sure that your kitchen cabinets have enough room store them until you need them.

Some of the decisions you make when designing your kitchen will ultimately prove crucial to how hygienic your kitchen remains. These decisions will also have an impact on the general convenience of your kitchen.

Dealing with waste is paramount to the hygiene and looks of your kitchen. Although you can simply put a bin in the corner of the room, this is not necessarily the best option. Hiding the bin away is a much more appealing thing to do.

You can install a bin into the area beneath your kitchen sinks, which isn’t necessarily suitable for storage. These bins are unseen and so make your kitchen look a little nicer. You can also get waste systems to separate recyclable material from general waste.

Waste disposal units are also a good idea. These can be installed into your kitchen sinks as a way of keeping food waste separate from the waste you are putting into your waste bins.

Wine bottles are really difficult to store because of their shape. This is not too much of a problem with red wine as it needs to be kept warm, but white wine and rosé must be kept in the fridge if they are to be at their best. Most refrigerators are poorly designed to hold wine bottles and you may find that your struggle to store them alongside food items and other drinks.

The solution to this problem is to invest in a wine cooler or two for your kitchen. Some coolers are designed just for white wine and rosé because they are independent refrigeration units, but others have separate compartments for different wines. Each compartment can be set to a different temperature so you can enjoy wine that has been kept in the ideal conditions for taste.

Coolers generally slot neatly in between the cabinets beneath the surface of your kitchen worktops. Your wine will always be readily accessible and your fridge will be free to store more day-to-day items.

Some kitchen taps will provide you with cold filtered water. If you prefer filtered water to ordinary tap water when it comes to drinking water then this is really beneficial. What it generally means is that you can get rid of other water filtration solutions you have that often take up space in your fridge and provide limited cold water at a time.

Other kitchen taps provide boiling water directly. This is really handy as it removes the need for a kettle which, like a water filter system, only gives you limited access to a certain volume of boiling water at a time. It also takes up needless space on your kitchen worktops which can now be used for something else.

Don’t forget to consider today’s modern taps when you approach a kitchen modification project.

When you install a pantry arrangement into your kitchen, you will find that you can use the rest of your kitchen cabinets for things you need quick and easy access to. A pantry is best for storing things like foods with long shelf lives that you need in the kitchen, but that you don’t really need close to hand. Things like tins of food, unopened bottles of drinks, and so on, come to mind.

Since your pantry is in a position to deal with all these items, you can arrange your kitchen cabinets more neatly. Cutlery, crockery, pots and pans, perishable foods, utensils, and so on, will benefit from being stored neatly and systematically as your cabinets won’t be under pressure to accommodate them alongside the things now in your pantry.

You may also be able to clear room so that your kitchen waste bin will fit out of sight inside a cabinet, giving the room a more pleasant and hygienic appearance.

Cutlery, crockery and glassware

Things like plates, bowls, cups and glasses can be tricky to store. Due to their shapes and sizes they don’t always make best use of space in your kitchen cabinets so you have think carefully about how much room you will need to devote to them. Cutlery is much easier to manage and most people opt to have one drawer dedicated to its storage.

Kitchen utensils

Utensils should be close to hand. It’s a good idea to hang items like spatulas, fish slices, ladles, scissors, and so on, on utensil rails above your kitchen worktops for ready access.

Specialist items

Things like Tupperware boxes, pots and pans, food processors, toasters, kettles, and so on, can take up lots of room, so again you should plan with them in mind. Decide which items it would make sense to have sitting on your kitchen worktops at all times and which ought to have cupboard space set aside for them according to how regularly you use them.