4 kitchen cleaning hacks to simplify your life

The kitchen is one of the busiest rooms in the house and it definitely takes a beating over the years. The good news? These kitchen hacks will help keep your kitchen clean.

• Buying bottle after bottle of kitchen cleaning wipes can add up, and they're not always readily available when you need them.
• You can make your own cleaning wipes to disinfect your kitchen from just a few household items.
• Cut an old t-shirt into squares and mix a jar full of vinegar and filtered water.
• Add a few drops of scented oil to enhance the smell, and there you have natural, reusable disinfecting wipes.

• Wood cutting boards and chopping blocks can get pretty grimy over time. Not only do they look bad, but they can also harbour bacteria.
• In order to freshen your cutting board, cut a lemon in half and pour a handful of salt onto the board.
• Use the lemon to scrape the salt back and forth over the wood. This will loosen any food particles and debris stuck in the wood. Then rinse it and let dry.

• Microwaves can easily get dirty when food heats up and explodes inside of them.
• If you don't have time to do a deep clean, just take a spray bottle filled with water and essential oils and spray its inside walls until they're coated in a light mist.
• Then set a wet sponge inside and microwave for a couple minutes. The heated water will help loosen all the particles of food inside.

• Cast iron can be hard to clean since it's important to refrain from using soap or steel wool on it.
• However, there are alternate methods to keeping your skillet rust-free. Scrub the pan with a stiff brush and a little coarse kosher salt in order to break up debris.
• Rinse the salt off with water and dry the skillet, then apply a light coat of vegetable oil with a paper towel all over the surface to keep it from rusting.

Getting a kitchen clean can be difficult, but with these four cleaning hacks, you'll have an easier time keeping your cooking area tidy.