Deep Cleaning My Kitchen

This post is sponsored by Summit Brands. Thank you for supporting brands that make Zen and Spice possible! All opinions are my own.

I cook a lot. And by a lot, I mean probably more than you could imagine. As a recipe developer and food photographer, I test new recipes every week. Most weeks I’ll do 2-3 new recipes, but while I was recently shooting my cookbook, I was doing 8-10 a week. Can you imagine all the dishes? It was nuts! 

My manuscript deadline was on Monday and boy, do I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders. It’s been five months of writing, editing, photos, cooking, and cleaning massive messes in the kitchen. Now that the book is done, I can return to my normal workload. 

My kitchen really needed some TLC after five months of intense recipe testing. I was cleaning surfaces daily but didn’t have the time or energy to do any deep cleaning. Now that I have the mental bandwidth and physical energy to do so, I spent some time with a few new cleaning products to get the job done. 

Today’s post is sponsored by Summit Brands, which include Glisten and Plink products. They make a whole line of products specifically for cleaning stovetops, dishwashers, and disposals. These are the places we often forget to clean! And since we’re all stuck at home quarantined, there’s no better time to pause binging Netflix and get a few chores done around the house. I feel a little better about my day if I do at least one thing productive, haha! 

The first place I started was my cooktop. We’ve only lived in our house for a little over a year, but the range was already getting hard-to-clean grease stains. I’ve always cooked with an electric or coil stovetop, so when we moved into this house I had to get used to cooking with gas. While I LOVE a gas stove, it does tend to stain easily and burn if bits of food get stuck around the outlet. 

I tried the Glisten Cooktop & Kitchen Cleaning Pads to get the gunk off my stovetop. They have an abrasive side to cut through grease and a soft side for polishing. With some ‘elbow grease’ and these cleaning pads, I was able to remove the brown rings around my gas burners! Cleaning the stovetop is something I think we all put off for as long as possible (or is it just me?). These pads make this chore much easier.

Next up, making sure my dishwasher is doing the best job it can. I love these hanging Plink dishwasher deodorizer and rinse aids. You simply hang them from a rack and it helps keep your glasses shiny and smelling like lemons!

Abbey likes to come over and “help” me empty the dishwasher. I just know she will see this cute hanging lemon and try to play with it! 

Another area we don’t often think about cleaning: the disposal! Over time, grime and food can get stuck down there, so it’s nice to deep clean it. These packets are biodegradable, so you just stick the whole thing into the drain and run the disposal with running water. It foams up and smells really clean, so you know it’s working! 

I also love these Plink disposal drops for quick use. The scrubbing packets (above) are something you’d probably use every couple of weeks or so, but these little yellow beads are great for everyday use. Just pop one in, run the water and disposal, and it smells great! Keeping the disposal clean and free of buildup helps keep it in top shape, especially if you use it multiple times per day like me.

One last new cleaning product I’ve been loving are these Plink descaling drops. I use a stainless steel water bottle and coffee mug every single day, refilling them both multiple times and running them through the dishwasher. They definitely get water scale buildup and stains from coffee. These drops are great at removing those and making my favorite drinking vessels look like new! 

Be sure to give these products a try the next time you are deep cleaning your kitchen! They did a wonderful job on my kitchen appliances, and I know now that everything is super clean and in great shape. Summit Brands is giving away $500 in Spring cleaning products! Simply go to www.summitbrands.com/giveaway to enter.

I hope you are all doing well despite the current circumstances, and staying healthy. This is an unprecedented time in our lives and it’s hard on everyone! We’ve been staying at home for eight weeks now, only leaving to get groceries. We’ve seen our families a couple of times, doing “garage talks” where we set up our lawn chairs and chat six feet away. I will be so glad when all of this is over and we can return to our normal lives! Stay happy and sane at home. If you do end up cleaning your kitchen and try any of these products, let me know what you think! They’re my new favorites!