The Art Of Cleaning: The Essential Habit People With A Clean Kitchen Do Every Night

As a common gathering place, the kitchen is often the heart of a home. At the same time, kitchens can be notoriously difficult to keep clean from all the cooking and eating that goes on in these spaces. You may try different tips on how to best clean your kitchen only to face an onslaught of dirty dishes every morning. If it seems like everyone's kitchen is cleaner than yours, it could all boil down to differences in dishwasher routines. To wake up to a clean kitchen each morning, consider getting in the habit of running your dishwasher at the end of the day, every day.

How many times have you walked into your kitchen in the morning and been greeted with a dishwasher full of dirty items? While it's a seemingly obvious task, not everyone runs their dishwasher at regular intervals. Getting in the habit of running it at the end of the night ensures there are plenty of clean dishes on hand. It also reduces the chances of your sink getting backed up with a bunch of dirty dishes. Aside from aesthetics, keeping your kitchen clean in this way reduces the risk of germs and foodborne illnesses from gunky dishes that sit out overnight.

If you're ready to start every day with clean dishes, set a reminder for yourself to run the dishwasher daily. Ideally, this ought to be after dinner but before everyone is asleep. Not only can the noise of older models of dishwashers keep some people awake at night, but there's also some concerns about running it overnight due to possible fire hazards. WIBW News reported such an incident in 2024, where a dishwasher ignited a residential home fire after being run overnight. It's best to only run the appliance when you're awake and at home in case of this hidden kitchen fire risk.

Also, load your dishwasher with just the right number of dirty dishes whenever possible. Running the appliance at least halfway full is a good rule of thumb. It may not be worth running your dishwasher if there are only a couple of items inside because this will end up wasting water and energy. On the other hand, too many dirty dishes in the appliance will make the cleaning process less effective. When you're faced with a mountain of dirty dishes in the sink throughout the day due to a gathering or special occasion, you might need to hand-wash some items or run the dishwasher more than once. Do not try to wait until the end of the day and overload the dishwasher.

After you run the dishwasher at the end of the night, be sure to clean commonly touched surfaces in your kitchen to keep germs at bay. These other things in your kitchen you should be cleaning everyday include your countertops, sink, and refrigerator handles.