How to Deep Clean a Kitchen From Top to Bottom

That Cleaning Girl · Deep Cleaning

The kitchen is the room that takes us the longest on almost every deep clean. Cooking puts a light film of grease on every surface near the stove, and that film catches dust like glue. The fix is a plan. If you want the whole-house version first, see The Room-by-Room Deep Cleaning Checklist.

Step 1: Clear and prep

Start by clearing the counters. Put small appliances, the knife block and the fruit bowl on the table so you can clean the whole surface instead of around things. Empty the trash and the dish rack. Fill the sink with hot water and a good squirt of degreasing dish soap; you'll use it for soaking.

Pull out the range hood filter and drop it in the hot water along with the stove burner grates and knobs if they come off. Let them soak while you work on everything else.

Step 2: Start high

Grab a step stool and dust the tops of the upper cabinets, the top of the fridge and the light fixtures. The top of the fridge is almost always the dustiest place in the kitchen, often with a sticky layer under the dust. Wipe it with a damp soapy cloth after dusting.

• Tops of cabinets and the fridge.
• Ceiling light fixtures and under-cabinet lights.
• The range hood exterior and its underside.

Step 3: Degrease cabinets and walls

Cabinet fronts near the stove get the worst of the grease. Use warm water with dish soap first; it handles most kitchens. For stubborn spots, a paste of baking soda and a little water lifts grease without stripping finish. Always test on a hidden spot first, and wring your cloth well. Too much water swells wood and painted cabinets.

Pay attention to the handles and the edges where hands grab. That's where the grime is thickest. Wipe the backsplash and the wall behind the stove while you're there.

Step 4: Appliances

Work around the room, appliance by appliance.

• Microwave: heat a bowl of water with a splash of vinegar for a few minutes, then wipe. The steam loosens everything.
• Stovetop: for glass tops, use a cooktop cleaner and a razor scraper held flat; for coil and gas tops, scrub around the burners with a soapy brush.
• Fridge exterior: wipe the handles, doors and the gasket folds where crumbs hide.
• Dishwasher: wipe the front, the edge of the door and the filter at the bottom.
• Small appliances: toaster, coffee maker and air fryer, outsides and crumb trays.

Inside the oven and inside the fridge are bigger jobs. We treat them as add-ons on our deep cleans because they each take real time.

Step 5: The sink and faucet

By now your soaking items are ready. Scrub the range hood filter and grates, rinse them, and set them on a towel to dry. Then clean the sink itself: scrub the basin, the drain and the disposal flange, and use a toothbrush around the base of the faucet. Hard water around here leaves a white crust at the faucet base; a cloth soaked in white vinegar and wrapped around it for fifteen minutes softens it right up.

Step 6: Counters and floors last

Wipe counters after everything above them is clean, so you aren't cleaning crumbs twice. Use a cleaner made for your counter material; granite and marble don't like vinegar or harsh acids. Put your small appliances back.

Floors are the finish. Sweep or vacuum, getting into the toe-kicks under the cabinets, then mop. The spot in front of the stove and the sink always needs a second pass.

How long it takes

A neglected kitchen can take a few hours on its own. A kitchen that gets cleaned regularly goes much faster. The biggest variables are grease level, how much is on the counters and whether you're doing the oven and fridge inside. Homes with big families or lots of home cooking, which describes most kitchens we see across the south DFW area, simply build up faster.

If you only have an hour, don't try to do it all. Pick the stove zone: hood, cabinets beside the stove, stovetop and the wall behind it. That's where the grease concentrates, and cleaning it makes the biggest visible difference. Save the rest of the room for another day. A partial deep clean done well beats a whole one abandoned at the fridge.

Before you put everything back, take a minute to decide what really needs to live on the counter. Fewer items out means less to wipe around every day, and the kitchen will look cleaner for longer with no extra work at all.

Keeping it up

After a deep clean, a few small habits keep the grease from coming back: wipe the stovetop after cooking, run the range hood fan every time you cook, and wipe cabinet handles once a week. A regular clean plus a kitchen deep clean every few months keeps it under control. To see everything we cover, visit our deep cleaning services page.