Your kitchen cabinets provide you with attractive storage for appliances, utensils, and dishes to keep your kitchen organized and functional, and they also make up a large part of your kitchen's physical appearance and add to its decor. For these reasons, you want your wood kitchen cabinets to remain clean and well-maintained and to look beautiful at all times. Whether your kitchen cabinets are brand new, relatively new, or old and in need of rehabbing, here are some tips to help you keep them looking great.

Clean Daily

A set of kitchen cabinets needs to be kept clean from the constant splattering and build-up of food and grease residues. As you use your kitchen to cook and prepare foods, the cabinets are likely to be on the receiving end of spills and spots.

For a daily kitchen clean-up process, get in a habit of wiping down your cabinets below and next to your food preparation areas. This will remove any freshly spilled spots before they dry and become difficult to remove. This also prevents any residue from damaging or staining the wood on your cabinets. To do this, use a warm, damp wash cloth to wipe up any fresh spills and residue. If any of the residue contains grease, add a squirt of liquid dish soap to your warm water to more easily de-grease the area.

On a weekly basis, you can do a more deep cleaning to surfaces next to and above your stove top to remove the grease build-up from cooking and frying foods. This cleans off any residue you may have missed during your daily cleaning. Don't use any harsh cleaners, as they can do more harm than good to your wood cabinets. Mix up equal parts of vinegar and water, spray it onto the cabinets, then wipe it off with a clean cloth.

To add a natural scent and shine to your cabinets, you may choose to add essential oils to your vinegar-and-water cleaning mixture. In a spray bottle, mix two cups of water and two cups of vinegar with one teaspoon of natural liquid dish soap. Then, add 30 drops of lemon essential oil and 20 drops of tea tree (melaleuca) essential oil. Shake the bottle, then spray it onto your kitchen cabinets before wiping it off.

Remove Stains

When encountering any dried spills that are stuck onto your cabinets, you can combine a mixture of salt and vinegar to make a thick paste. Use a sponge or soft brush and the paste to scrub and remove the dried residue.

To remove any food residue that has left a stain on your wood, mix baking soda and water into a paste and rub it onto the stain. Press it onto the wood and let it sit for several hours, then use a wet cloth to wipe up the paste.

Refinish Old Cabinets

If your cabinets are at the end of their life and are looking pretty old and damaged, you can choose to replace them with new kitchen cabinets, or you can repaint them to restore their appearance. But first, it is essential that you clean their surface with a strong cleaning solution to remove any residue and buildup before you can paint them with new paint.

A cleaner containing trisodium phosphate (TSP) will easily remove all greases and oils. Be sure to wear protective gloves and safety glasses to keep the cleaner from hurting your skin or damaging your vision while using this cleaner.

When you are ready to paint your cabinets, it is best to select a latex satin finish interior paint in your color choice for your cabinets. This paint holds up well when you need to use a wet cloth to remove foods and spills and won't peel, wear off, or dissolve.

To learn more about caring for wood kitchen cabinets, contact a company like DL Cabinetry Jacksonville.

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