The Vine: January 8, 2010
Hi, Sars —
In light of “Keeping It Clean,” I direct this question not to you, but to the readers.
My kitchen is kind of a nightmare from a cleaning perspective — it has matte paint, virtually no closed storage, and no range hood, so that a layer of nasty sticky greasy food dust adheres to almost everything in the room. Thank goodness I’ve got a couple of steel-topped carts that serve as my food-prep area, because those I can keep clean (along with my most commonly-used dishes), but I cannot figure out how to remove the sticky dust from the rest of the kitchen.
The affected surfaces include lots of wooden shelves, some painted and some just polyurethaned, the top of the fridge (plastic? enamel? something white and textured, anyway), the back of the stove, the covers of cookbooks, chrome kitchen items, painted knick-knacks, and the linoleum floor tiles.
Hot water on a rag plus elbow grease doesn’t cut it. Simple Green cleaner doesn’t cut it.Windex doesn’t cut it.Despite my mom’s insistence that it would work, vinegar has no effect on the dust.Hot soapy water works a little bit, Goo-Gone works a little bit, but I do not have the endless arm strength, twenty zillion hours, and (in the case of Goo-Gone) enough money to afford all the bottles of cleaner I think it would take to rely just on those.
If anyone who has conquered his or her own nasty sticky kitchen dust can recommend any product(s), technique(s), or combination thereof that would increase my chances of reclaiming my kitchen, I would be most grateful!
Dirty girl
Dear Dirty,
I know just the substance you mean, and I’ve had some luck with a cheap, scrapey paper towel barely dampened with either Windex or hot water. For the non-book surfaces, upgrade to a Brillo pad (test it on a hidden corner of the fridge first to make sure it doesn’t take the surface off).You might also try the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.
And if you own your home, it’s probably time to invest in a range hood (or, if you’re renting, make the landlord do it) and save yourself the time and effort on the front end.
Readers?
Tags: Ask The Readers
I second the Dawn recommendation having had similar issues with prewar kitchens / kitchens in foyers back when I lived in NYC. Also the orange based spray cleaners have worked well for me.
I second the plain ol’ baking soda. Buy a big bag at Sam’s or Costco, and it works great with just hot water. I use it on my sinks, tub, everything..sprinkle it on and scrub it off.
409 is the best for that sort of thing. Example: when my grandfather passed away and we were cleaning his house to prepare to put it on the market, we used 409 to remove the tobacco stains from the walls (he was a lifelong and inveterate indoor smoker). It was disgusting, but we could actually watch the 409 drip down the wall, carrying nasty brown tobacco stains with it. It took three or four passes to get all of it, but that was 40 years of smoking we were removing. Very little elbow grease required, just lots of sponges, paper towels, and rinsing.
Anyway, I also have the same problem and use 409 to clean the outside of my formica cupboards, the (unfinished wood) top of the cupboards, and all of the other stuff that can’t be thrown in the dishwasher.
If the kitchen has a window, get one of those twin window fans where you can set one fan on intake and one on exhaust to circulate the air. It’s not as effective as a hood, but will get some of the greasy smoke out of there for around $20.
Beyond that, I think frequent cleaning is your best bet. In all areas of my apartment, I’ve found that doing a decent clean every couple of weeks doesn’t take a ton of time, but leaving things to become giant projects does. Of course, this assumes that one of the solutions above gets rid of your current layer of greasy dust. Once it does, a weekly wipe-down with some Clorox Wipes will probably be enough to maintain.
Word of warning–while trying out cleaners, be extra careful what you’re combining. Ammonia and bleach, for instance, while both good at what they do, will dissolve your lung tissue if combined. So read the labels, ventilate, ventilate, ventilate, and WEAR GLOVES! If you try one thing and it doesn’t work, scrub the surface down with tons of hot water and ideally wait at least a day before trying something else.
I just moved into a new place and the tops of the kitchen cabinets were covered in gunky black grease-dust. I tried a few products but kept getting gunky grease/dust mud, even worse to get up from the unfinished parts of the wood up there on the top of the cabinets. Then I used a lint “brush”, the disposable kind where you peel off layers of the sticky tape stuff as it gets dirty. I went through a ton of layers but it was a great first step. Finished off with greased lightning.
Microfiber cloths work better than Magic Eraser and, bonus, are washable and endlessly reusable. A package of thirty cloths at Costco for $15 has eliminated my use of paper towels, sponges, dusters, etc. (They’re yellow and in the auto aisle, marketed for car cleaning. Bloodbath and Beyond will sell you three for $10.) And they will help with maintaining your grease problem.
I agree with the TSP Substitute. Because we are heavy smokers, my family uses that on every surface before painting. There is also my mother’s super-wonderful recipe for the cleanest windows you’ve ever seen!
One part (1/4 cup) lemon-scented ammonia
One part (same amount as ammonia) distilled white vinegar
1-2 gallons (depending on desired strength) hot water
1 tablespoon corn starch
Fill the bucket with water before combining ammonia and vinegar, stir in corn starch. Wipe on with a clean rag, dry off with a clean, DRY rag (as lint free as possible) while still wet.
It works miracles on windows and leaves the surface really, REALLY, squeaky clean! I use it on the stove and refrigerator and counter tops as well.
409.
it takes off kitchen steam grease dust (this is what we call it at my house), it takes off tobacco stains from windows and picture glass and paint without either dissolving the glass or the paint or the walls and! it will also dissolve dog lick and dog snot from car windows and front windows and dog bowls, no matter how old and thick the dog lick/snot is.
you do not even have to scrub at all. just spray and wipe and rinse. sometimes you have spray again, but that’s not the end of the world, considering everything.
@shawn – Bloodbath & Beyond! Priceless!
Bon Ami. It is 99 cents for a can, environmentally friendly, and cleans my very disgusting stove (I hate cleaning the stove and we cook every day) with merely a sponge and almost no elbow grease.
Is this the stuff people refer to as the dreaded “waxy yellow build-up”? Or is waxy yellow build-up something else?
I like the orange-based cleaner that Marie suggested as well. However, I would exercise caution when using it on white enamel surfaces; I have experienced some discoloration of my white stove top with the orange cleaner so now I just use a bleach and water solution (always remember to wear gloves when cleaning with bleach, even diluted bleach!). 1 part bleach to 4 parts water has worked well for me on hard-to-remove kitchen grease but I wouldn’t suggest it for wood. Good luck! :-)
Washing powder– the gritty stuff, not soft soap flakes or liquid. It’s amazingly effective and I’ve used it in the kitchen before. Sprinkle it on the surface, then just scrub over with a damp cloth or tea towel. The detergent aspect lifts the grease, the gritty texture helps physically removed the grime and and it’s easy to lift off.
The most obvious remedy for kitchen grease (and the one I employ most often) is just to avoid cooking at all costs.
I gotta pipe up for baking soda also. It’s cheap, non-toxic and extremely effective.
http://www.methodhome.com/
I cleaned the greasy exhaust from an unvented stovetop fan off a ceiling using Method Multi-surface Cleaner. I have cleaned many horrible things in my many years and couldn’t believe how well it worked. The ceiling was due for a painting and the painter had no complaints. I haven’t seen anyone else mention Method products and am amazed. I think you can find them at Safeway.
Waxy build-up is something else.
It’s not a “green” solution, but Dirtex, either dry or aerosol is the best thing for getting rid of old grease. It’s basically ammonia in a slightly more user-friendly form.
White vinegar will also help, but for years of baked on grease, Dirtex.
I get this buildup on my range hood (sorry, not to gloat about having a range hood – heh) and find that any greasecutting solvent will work, but works best when applied with a non-scratching scrubber. The scrubber breaks down the surface of the buildup, exposing more surface area to the solvent which then breaks it down the rest of the way. You could get the job done with a non-scrubby sponge or cloth, but it will take a lot longer. Solvents include: Dawn, citrus cleaner, Simple Green, laundry powder, etc. – pretty much anything that has the ability to cut grease.
FYI, according to the Environmental Working Group, Simple Green is not really so green – it contains butyl cellosolve, a substance considered toxic by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Probably not concentrated enough in the consumer product to hurt you, but it chaps me that they sell themselves a green product.
And for the love of trees, I wish everyone would get themselves some microfiber cloths, cloth towels, cloth dishrags and cloth napkins. Cloth works so much better than paper and can just be tossed in the wash and used again. The only thing I use paper for (besides next to the toilet of course) is for cat hork and poop … I’m green, but I’m not green enough to wash and reuse a horky or poopy rag.
Oh, and PS – when I bought my house it came complete with an ancient range and fridge, which both wore, literally, a 1/4″ coating of greasy buildup. Eeeuuuwwwww! For that I used a knife, followed by the scrubber/solvent method.
I had the same problem in a kitchen once. I swear by Gumption – it’s a paste manufactured by Clorox, and available here in Australia. There must be a US equivalent. http://www.masteraustralia.com.au/product_list/pages/Product.php?Operation=SetSessionVariable&Variable%5BProductCodeID%5D=GUMPTION It’s my favourite cleaning product EVER! (My Google search even revealed a Facebook fan page – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=8358274788)
I can’t recommend orange cleaner fast enough, with the following observations:
1) Get the good stuff — make sure it’s not just orange-tinted ammonia spray. Actual orange oil will take anything off of anything! I worked for a sign shop back in the day, and occasionally had to remove sun-baked vinyl letters from vehicles or signs. 3M made an ass-kicking petroleum product for glue removal, but one day a guy gave me sample of his orange oil product, and the old glues just melted away. Beat petro products all to pieces, smelled a lot better, and being made from a food product, should be just fine for kitchen work.
2) Beware that real orange oil does attract bees… make sure your screens are in good order if you do not want visitors. I had to sit out a bee attack in my truck after that same orange oil sample attracted a half-dozen bees that were *pissed* that I was not an orange tree. They were even dive-bombing the orange-smeared door handle after my hasty retreat.
3) Let me emphasize: “Actual orange oil will take anything off of anything” … I accidently stripped cupboard varnish using it full strength. Dilute as needed.
Hopefully you won’t do what I did… cleaned a handprint off my grandma’s almond-colored fridge, and found out she had a *white* fridge and 40 years of nicotine buildup going on there. She was blind, so she didn’t care… I still cleaned the whole fridge though. Live and learn.
Are you doing a lot of frying with oil or animal fats?You may want to try lowering the heat when you cook or using different oils. Olive oil smokes a lot on high heat, but corn/safflower/sunflower oil can withstand higher temperatures. Check the bottle for references to the oils “smoke point” or recommendations for how the oil is best used. Also, if you’re doing a lot of pan frying, you could experiment with different cooking methods. At the very least, using pan lids and screens should help. For the stove top itself you can line it with tinfoil, making holes for the burners, and then instead of scrubbing the grease off you can just replace the foil.
I know exactly what you’re talking about too, and I also had it in my pre-war NYC apartment! I found that for day to day stuff, just dish soap and the scrubby side of a sponge worked ok, but for major jobs, my husband got Easy Off Bam, which foams, you leave it on, and then it wipes off easily (again, with the scrubby side of a sponge). It’s nasty, nasty stuff. Gloves required. But it worked like a charm. We kept it to a minimum because it has got to be really toxic.
Turpenoid. Or any mineral spirits; Gamsol might work. Your dust is greasy; mineral spirits and turpentine (or Turpenoid, which smells better) are grease-cutters. Test it first on the painted or finished surfaces– it can take off paint. I work as a picture framer, so I often have to remove gross kitchen schmutz off of frames. Turpenoid is what we swear by in the shop. (It’s also good for streak-free shine on nonglare glass, incidentally.)
There’s also a product called Un-Du, which is a universal solvent. It may have been recalled in the US and Canada as a carcinogen, but it’s another excellent solution for unknown greasy gross spots, if you can get it. For sure wear gloves with Un-Du.
Open the window when you use it, even if it is odorless. Use a cloth rag, and then check with the county about how to throw out the rag (okay, you could just throw it out, but solvents and such are hazardous to groundwater, like batteries and paint, so be responsible.) You may want to wear gloves. And consider getting a version that is particulate-free if you are especially sensitive (as in, serious asthma) because “odorless” doesn’t mean “free of irritating particles.” It just means non-stinky.
One of the magazines we get (either “Popular Mechanics” or “Family Handyman”) recommends Lysol Orange Breeze cleaner not only for kitchen gloodge, but for removing mildew and mold from drywall as well. It apparently works better than Clorox (which, even when diluted, bricks up my sinuses for DAYS) and doesn’t smell like deep-fried hell either. As someone mentioned above, though, you’ve gotta watch what the orange stuff touches; I’d keep it off wooden surfaces (e.g., Natalie Portman, cupboard doors) if I were you.
Ammonia all the way. Yes, it stinks, and it can’t be good for you to smell (open windows!!!) but a little on a sponge and you can wipe the top of your nasty fridge right off. (Yes, I know this from experience.) It’s the only thing I’ve found that will cut anything. I’ve also had luck with the orange oil stuff, but ammonia is CHEAP and I like that… Also with the reminder not to mix it with ANYTHING, that everyone else has noted! Mixing cleaning chemicals is BAD!
I love love love Dawn Power Dissolver. I got a 3 year old white fridge for $50.00 from this guy I know and his kids had spray painted it all sorts of colors.
I sprayed Dawn Power Dissolver on it (it did take several spray and soaks) and it is just like new.
I use it for everything I want to clean as in it took the black sharpie out of my teens sateen bedspread.
Best stuff ever.
I second Davey’s recommendation of storing the cook books elsewhere. As for the gunk already on the covers, if they’re cloth you’re probably shit out of luck beyond scraping off what you can and maybe covering up what’s left with a brown paper bag cover a la textbooks. If they’ve got a shiny, laminated sort of paper on them you can try a damp cloth.
If you get to the point where you’re thinking about chucking the books because they’re too gross, then you might as well try some heavier duty (though still diluted if possible) and/or wetter stuff. You can put a sheet of wax paper or saran wrap in between the cover and the text block to prevent the pages from getting hit.
I second the Gumption or its equivalent if you can find it – it works brilliantly for that first round of thorough cleaning, even on months of built-up grease (years of skanky sharehouses have taught me well). And it won’t damage any of the surfaces. After that, you can move on to a lighter cleaner like baking soda for your regular clean. Keep the Gumption in the cupboard for your annual or semi-annual clean.
Can’t help you with the cleaning, but once you’ve removed the stuff one clever trick I picked up somewhere was to put down a layer of cling film (plastic wrap) on the hard surfaces (exposed cupboard shelves, tops of fridges in particular) which makes for easy future cleaning – just peel it off and replace it!
I know some people have recommended it – but I definitely second baking soda. Mix in just enough water to make a paste and I’d throw in healthy dash of salt, too. I use that mixture to rub (with my hands!) the nasty, black, greasy, baked-on gunk inside my oven. Works like a charm. You wouldn’t believe how easy it is.
@emily: Do you preheat the oven first (to 200F, for example), then turn it off? (I ask b/c that’s what you do w/oven cleaners, presumably b/c it loosens the Pompeiian buildup.) Or do you just go at it cold?
That sounds SO wrong. But you know what I mean.
I just spray some Mr. Clean on the gunk, then walk away for 10-20 minutes. Wipes right off when you come back around to it. follow up with a Mr. Clean eraser and you’re golden.
I can’t stand the dustygrease combo nor the odors from bleach, Lysol, and other harsh cleaning fluids. My mother pointed me in the direction of Seventh Generation; they make an all purpose kitchen cleaner. This stuff is amazing. It cuts through the grease like you would not believe – no scrubbing either. And it works on all types of surfaces: our wood cabinets, the inside of the microwave, the tile counter tops, the stainless steel sink, etc. Love it. Cannot recommend it highly enough.
I can’t really add to the suggestions of cleansers, but I can make a suggestion to help prevent at least part of this from happening again. About 5 years ago my mother redecorated the kitchen, including putting wallpaper on the wall over the stove. After a couple of weeks of her having to wash this off almost daily, my father went to either Lowe’s or Home Depot and bought a piece of plexiglass that attached with 4 screws into the wall over the stove. It actually extends about an inch below the top of the stove and up 16 inches or so to the bottom of the built-in microwave. The plexiglass protects the wallpaper and since that area over the stove gets the bulk of splashed grease, etc., it’s a major time-saver. Just a quick spray of any household cleaner will do it. I would also invest in the stove hood, if possible, and replace the matte paint with a different finish. Your local home improvement store should be able to suggest a paint that will work better, or adding a finish to your existing paint.
Warm Simple Green, the straight stuff that comes in the big gallon jugs (about $20-ish @ Home Depot), in the micro for a small time (DO NOT BOIL!!!) in small doses. Sponge on, leave for 10 or so mintues. Use MORE warmed Green, to remooisturize, and scrub with the scrubby side of a non-scratching ScothBrite sponge (probably safe for anything but wall paper).
When we bought our house, the kitchen was covered in that stuff – ceiling included. You can add baking soda to make a paste for vertical or other difficult surfaces. Use an old hard toothbrush to get in corners.
To prevent more buildup, you can buy opaque or semi-opaque pull-down window blinds to serve as ‘doors’ – they come in many nice colors now & are easy to install, and less expensive to replace than getting your kitchen redone.
For the paint, a gloss or semi-gloss repainting once it’s degreased will make it easier.
:)
Bon chance!
Cheap-ass washing up detergent – it cuts grease like no one’s business.
And a life-long drycleaner friend told me that this is also a secret weapon for removing killer stains from badly stained clothing.
If you use the Fantastik with OxyClean, it doesn’t stink as bad as the regular, also the antibacterial Windex smells nicer, kinda lemony. Your best friend for cleaning that grime is Crest SpinBrush Pro. $5 investment = lots less elbow grease. I keep an old one in my cleaning box and use it for everything, even polishing my bath fixtures (with car chrome polish).
I second the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers – holy hell, are they ever. I use them with Lysol spray (the orange, all-purpose kind) and have yet to meet a stain, spill, or bit of stuck-on gunk that won’t succumb. I don’t have a proper range hood either, just a fan that makes a lot of noise and blows the air around, and the grease that gathers under said fan is pretty epic after a while.
The Magic Erasers are great for waterstains on paint, too (my bathroom has a lousy fan – no ventilation). Just “erase” them, no potentially paint-stripping cleaner needed.