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How to Clean Wood Cabinets and Make Them Shine

When did you last wait at your kitchen cabinets? Not a passing glance, but an up-close visual report—paying detail attention to the areas around the knobs and handles that get touched thousands of times throughout the weeks and months? Yes, that's what I'm talking about and what I'one thousand pretty sure my dear reader Sandy is talking about, likewise.

before and after proper cleaning of filthy kitchen cabinet

Dear Mary: We're moving into a new (to u.s.) business firm and would like to know what kind of cleaner to apply on the wood kitchen cabinets? They're pretty skanky and feel gummy to the touch!

I detest to think how many years of dirt have built up on them. But I don't want to remove any finish that is on them. How tin can we clean the years of clay without damanging the finish? Sandy

Dear Sandy: It sounds to me every bit if your challenge is greater than simple maintenance of kitchen cabinets to keep ahead of viscid build-up, the effect of cooking. Anyone who has a kitchen and actually cooks in it knows this just happens!

Your state of affairs may call for a good commercial product for the simple reason that y'all don't know how erstwhile this clay is, or what kind of finish is hiding beneath it. It's quite possible the cabinets are in great shape and can exist restored to their original beauty. You actually can remove years of grit and grime from any wood surface. And you have options—use a commercial product or brand your own forest cleaner.

Natural Orange Oil

Should you prefer a commercial product, y'all won't find anything more constructive thanHoward Real Orange Oil products. You can depend on the effectiveness of real orangish oil polish to cook away grease, grime, polish, and wax buildup, leaving a fresh odor and beauty in its place. Information technology'south going to cost a chip to do your unabridged kitchen, should you lot determine to go the commercial route.

Your other choice is to brand your ain highly effective cleaner, for just pennies.

I have ii recipes for you and any readers with wood cabinets, regardless if those cabinets take a natural cease or are painted.

The start is for cabinets that just need some sprucing up to bring dorsum the dazzler and shine; the 2nd is more powerful if you're looking at years of built-up gunk and crud.

General Wood Chiffonier Cleaner

In a spray bottle (these sixteen-oz. bottles are perfect for homemade cleaners) mix:

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons white vinegar
8 dropsBlueish Dawn
Warm water to fill the bottle (nearly 2 cups)

Shake to mix then spray on i door or drawer front end at a time. Scrub with a soft cloth to remove any clay, then buff to a beautiful shine. Before each spray, requite the bottle a milkshake to continue the oil mixed in.

Pro Tip

While I have cautioned readers in the past to avert using white vinegar on hardwood floors regularly and routinely because over fourth dimension the acid in the vinegar is going to permanently dull the terminate. Using vinegar in the recipe above is not going to create a problem. Offset, because you are using oil along with the vinegar to protect and retain the cease, and secondly because this is a cleaner yous would use only occasionally, not routinely in the way you would clean hardwood floors.

Heavy-Duty Wood Cabinet Cleaner

In a small-scale bowl, measure out out:

1 function* vegetable oil
2 parts baking soda

Using your fingers, mix this into a thick paste. Smoosh this a little bit at a time into the surface of that grimy cabinet, beingness particularly mindful of the areas close to the handles that receive then much handling and human contact.

Scrub with a soft cloth, sponge, or your fingertips to go this paste into the grain. Apply an old toothbrush to go it into all of the nooks and crannies. This paste is very thick, and as yous begin to scrub and brush, it volition fall off, along with a lot of grime.

Save yourself a mess by placing an old towel beneath the areas y'all are cleaning to take hold of it equally it falls off. It could get icky and that's what you desire because that signals that you are getting rid of the gunk and grime. Vitrify well with a soft material then step dorsum to admire your beautiful piece of work.

You can always add a few drops of essential oil to your homemade cleaners— orange or lemon would be a peachy choice, and that will leave a wonderful make clean olfactory property.

*Measuring in "parts" example: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and 2 tablespoons baking soda. Or 2 tablespoons oil and 4 tablespoons baking soda—or 1 cup oil to 2 cups baking soda depending on the size of your job.

Showtime published in Everyday Cheapskate: 5-29-xx; Updated 1-29-22.

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