The Best Way to Clean Common Kitchen Appliances

Despite the fact that many appliances are used for the preparation of food or for cleaning dishes and clothing—applications which demand a high standard of cleanliness—they’re often kept in a rather dirty and neglected state owing to how laborious it can feel to clean them. Likewise, many people don’t realise how to thoroughly clean them, leaving pockets of bacteria lurking in hidden spaces even when cleaning is attempted.

The best way to avoid this, and to save time when cleaning these important pieces of machinery, is to know beforehand which cleaning methods are best for each appliance. To that end, the following guide is being provided:

Coffee Maker:

Many people stick with periodically cleaning out their coffee pots (a straightforward enough process), but the entire machine should actually be cleaned out at least once a month, lest scale from hard water and rancid coffee oils build up, affecting both the taste of the coffee and the longevity of the machine.

Fortunately, cleaning a coffee maker’s internal components is much less complicated than many assume; just make a solution of 3 cups white vinegar to 6 cups water (make the solution stronger if the machine has gone a long time without being cleaned), place a filter into the machine as you would when making a new pot of coffee, add the vinegar mix to the water area, and turn the coffee maker on. Once the vinegar has run through, let the coffee maker sit for at least 15 minutes, then run plain water through it so as to remove any remnants of the vinegar. That’s all there is to it—generally there’s no need to get in there and scrub as long as you do this regularly.

Toaster:

Toasters that aren’t cleaning regularly start to smoke ominously, and may even catch on fire, so it’s important to keep them tidy. Remember to always unplug a toaster prior to cleaning it, and never use water or chemicals to clean the inside of a toaster. Instead, remove and empty the crumb tray (if your model of toaster has one), then take the main body of the toaster and shake it out forcefully over a trash bin. If there is carbon built up inside the toaster (it can sometimes cake onto the coils) very gently scrub them with a dry toothbrush.