How To Clean Painted Cabinets: Instructions and Tips To Keep Your Painted Cabinets in Pristine Condition
Your painted cabinets are haunting you each time you step into your kitchen.
You paid good money and worked hard to make them perfect, but the dust build-up and grime from food residue and dirty fingers are staring back at you every time you open them.
Is cleaning painted cabinets as daunting of a task as it seems?
Learning how to clean painted cabinets the right way can save you time and energy on this unwanted task in the future, so much so that it might become a simple step in your regular cleaning schedule.
Here you’ll learn how to successfully clean your painted cabinets without causing damage and tips to keep them staying clean as long as possible.
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How Often Should You Clean Your Painted Cabinets?
If you’ve worked hard on painting your cabinets or have spent money hiring professionals to do the job, you want to ensure you keep them as clean as possible so they continue to look fresh and beautiful.
Knowing how to clean painted cabinets is important, but first, how often should you clean your painted cabinets?
The professionals at Tidy Up Portland! recommend cleaning your painted cabinets regularly — each time you clean your kitchen, clean your cabinets.
Is that necessary for every home? Maybe not. How often you clean your painted cabinets might depend on a few things:
How often is your kitchen used?
What kinds of foods are cooked in your kitchen?
How many people live in your home?
How busy are you as a homeowner?
Ideally, you should wipe down your painted kitchen cabinets once a week during your regular kitchen cleaning. The more often you clean them, the less difficult the process will be as you prevent unwanted dirt, grime, bacteria, stains, and grease from building up.
How To Clean Painted Cabinets in 6 Steps
Cleaning your painted kitchen cabinets might seem overwhelming, which is why you’ve been putting off the task. Maybe to your surprise, cleaning painted cabinets isn’t as difficult as it sounds. And the more often you do it, the easier the process will be.
Follow these six simple steps for success:
Mix your cleaning solution of warm water and dish soap.
Dip a microfiber cloth into your solution and wring it out.
Use the microfiber cloth to scrub your cabinets, dipping back into the mixture as needed.
Wet a second microfiber cloth with water.
Use the second wet cloth to wipe the soapy residue from the cabinets.
Using a third dry microfiber cloth, dry the cabinets.
7 Tips for Cleaning Painted Cabinets
#1: Use the Right Tools
Using the right tools is important for cleaning your painted cabinets. You want to ensure a thorough cleaning but also avoid causing damage to your cabinets.
To remove stuck-on debris, you can use a paint scraper or your fingernail before going in with a microfiber cloth for cleaning. For grooved cabinets, soft brushes are helpful to get into the crevices and pull out dirt, grease, and grime.
Avoid coarse and abrasive material to minimize your chance of dulling or damaging the finish on your kitchen cabinets.
Stay away from:
Soap pads
Scouring pads
Tough brushes
#2: Stick With Natural Products
Harsh chemicals can damage the varnish that protects the underlying wood of your cabinets, so working with natural products is the best option and easy to do.
It is best to avoid:
Ammonia and products that contain ammonia
Mineral spirits
Strong solvent cleaners
Paint thinner
Dust sprays
Instead, try mixtures of warm water and vinegar or dish soap and baking soda.
When combined, these natural cleaners have the necessary acidity and ability to absorb odor to leave you with a successful kitchen cabinet cleaning.
#3: Steer Away From Harsh Chemicals
Harsh chemicals like bleach and ammonia can cause more damage than good for your cabinets. Not only can they damage the paint and dull the finish, but they’ll leave behind harmful odors in the air that are bad for your family to breathe in.
#4: Avoid Abrasive Brushes and Scouring Pads
The ultimate goal is to clean your kitchen cabinets and leave them in great condition — not make them worse. And that’s the direction you’re likely heading when reaching for abrasive brushes and scouring pads to clean your painted cabinets.
Instead, use microfiber cloths and soft brushes to ensure a successful cleaning while keeping your painted cabinets intact.
#5: Start Gently and Get More Aggressive as Necessary
If you’re regularly cleaning your painted cabinets, a gentle approach will likely suffice for a good cleaning. However, if it’s been months since you’ve brought a cloth to their surface, it may prove more difficult to get your painted cabinets clean again.
At Tidy Up Portland!, we recommend starting with a gentle scrub while becoming more aggressive when necessary.
Do you have stubborn grease stains that just won’t budge? Although it might seem impossible to rid your painted cabinets of grease — and in some cases, it might be — you can still approach these with a more gentle scrubbing using the right products.
With a mixture of vinegar, dish soap, and baking soda — plus a little bit of elbow grease — ridding your painted cabinets of tough stains could be possible.
However, if you’ve been skipping cabinet cleanings during your kitchen deep cleans and those stubborn grease stains have been sitting on your cabinets for months on end, you might run into problems.
In some cases, using a Magic Eraser might help, but be careful — Magic Erasers can easily dull a glossy cabinet finish. Before taking a Magic Eraser to your kitchen cabinets, test it out on a small, inconspicuous spot to see the results, or simply avoid using them on glossy finishes altogether.
If you find it impossible to completely remove tough grease stains, re-sanding and re-painting your kitchen cabinets might be your only solution for a clean slate.
#6: Practice Preventative Care
Taking preventative measures is one of the best ways to help keep your painted cabinets clean and make the process of cleaning them easier.
To avoid the build-up of grease, grime, and debris, clean up spills, food, and messes as soon as they happen with regular, gentle cleaning.
You can further maintain your painted cabinets by:
Regularly wiping them down as a part of your cleaning schedule.
Cleaning them after using the kitchen.
Immediately cleaning up spills and messes.
Avoiding hanging damp towels over cabinet doors and drawers.
Deep cleaning the exterior and interior one to two times a year.
Refinishing the paint as needed.
#7: Get Some Help From the Experts
If you’re not keen on cleaning or don’t have the knowledge behind thorough and deep cleanings or items that may require special care, don’t stress. Professionals who work for cleaning services do these types of cleanings all of the time and know exactly how to clean painted cabinets and rid them of the toughest stains.
At Tidy Up Portland!, we have the experience, tools, and methods to get the job done right.
We know that hiring a professional cleaning service might be intimidating, too. It may be embarrassing to let strangers into your home to see your dirt and grime. It’s our goal to help lighten your load and offer a cleaning experience you’ll want to have again and again.
With Tidy Up Portland!, you can guarantee a team of professionals who:
Offer rates that fit your space and budget
Have phenomenal reviews
Make booking simple
Are trustworthy
Offer customizable options so we can help with exactly what you need
Are transparent with our services and pricing
Value your time and work in a timely fashion while providing quality service
Want to help take a task off of your hands
Care about the environment and use natural, green cleaning supplies and methods
Enjoy the Benefits of Hiring a Cleaning Service
Are you a busy mom, injured, elderly, or simply stressed out by life’s demands? Hiring a professional cleaning service can take one small burden off your back and leave you feeling less stressed and more free.
Are you considering hiring a professional house cleaner? By doing so, you can reap these benefits:
You have more free time to take care of other necessities or spend more time with friends and family.
You don’t have to worry about a task you loathe doing or aren’t very good at.
You have more time to plan for the event you’re hosting in your home rather than spending time cleaning it.
You get to live in a healthy, comfortable, and enjoyable environment.
You can be thankful you did something for you.
But don’t just hire any professional cleaning service. Ensure the cleaning company you choose shares similar values, is trustworthy, and has wonderful reviews to back up their work.
Tidy Up Portland! Offering Weekly, Bi-weekly, and Monthly Service To Keep Your Kitchen Cabinets Looking Good as New
Cleaning your kitchen can be a daunting task. Appliances are always being used, floors are always walked on, and your painted cabinets collect all of the dust, grime, and grease from a day’s worth of activity.
The professionals at Tidy Up Portland! are ready to face the toughest of kitchens and homes and leave you satisfied with our work.
Tidy Up Portland! is a woman-owned business made up of mostly professional mothers ready to work. We take care of all types of cleanings, including:
One-off cleanings
Regular cleanings
Additional cleanings
Antiviral disinfectant services
Office cleanings; and
Customized cleanings
No matter what your home (or business) might need, we can help. Our varied services are backed by a commitment to clean using natural products whenever possible. We value the importance of green cleaning and strive to incorporate it whenever we can.
Is your home in need of a professional cleaning service? Look no further than Tidy Up Portland! Contact us today for help.
