If your cabinets are like mine and don’t extend all the way to your ceiling, the open surface is an invitation for dust. And we are not talking about your run-of-the-mill-everyday-dust, either. Instead, it’s dust that’s been infused with a bit of kitchen grease. Let’s talk about yuck!
Once you get that mess cleaned up—you’ll never want to do it again. And, with this tip (courtesy of my father-in-law Gerry) you won’t have to. Here is how to never scrub the tops of your kitchen cabinets again!
- Get those cabinet tops clean. Straight white vinegar can work well to cut through that gunk up there, but I don’t know of anything that doesn’t also require elbow grease!
Gather up some paper grocery bags. Open one up and cut the sides off so that you’re left with one long rectangular piece – front, bottom and back.- Lay the paper on top of the cabinet and make folds where you have excess paper. Cut along your folds, and lay the paper down on top of the cabinet. Hang on to the trimmings – they are handy for oddly shaped cabinet-tops and corner areas!
In a few months, instead of scrubbing and cleaning away the grime, you’ll simply recycle the old paper and put fresh paper down. Voila! A clean cabinet top in no time! (I know … you just want to hug Gerry, don’t you?)
Do you have a clever cleaning tip to share? Leave me a comment below!
Happy Organizing!
Love this idea! Just a tip for cleaning in the first place, I have always used a good dose of dish soap in the water for cleaning that kind of dust up. It seems to work well. I also had a friend who had a white tile backsplash behind her stove and she used to stick cling wrap to it to keep it clean. Brilliant! I did it too after that and it worked great. You couldn’t see it and you could even wipe it over multiple times before needing to replace it.
We don’t get paper grocery bags any more, but I think wax paper or any cheap paper on a roll should work too. Love the idea. That area gets very gross.
Such a great idea! Holy cow, can’t believe I’ve never thought of that…
My mom always used newpapers.
I also start to write little note so I can read
It next time(kids, weather, baby coming, school…)
What a good idea! I just cleaned the top of mine last month and wish I’d known this! Now I’ll have to clean them again first. 🙂
Thanks for your comments. I’ve been doing this for years…and it still makes me giddy each time that I don’t have to deal with all that yuck. 🙂
Excellent post Aby! I never thought of using grocery bags as liners before, but I will definitely give this a shot. Thanks!
Hope it works great for you Bailey!
Genius idea. I have these oil stains on my counter that take forever to get out. This will definitely help. Thanks!
I’m going to try reusing the plastic bags from inside the cereal boxes for this.
Mine go to the ceiling, but my mom always used contact paper. It wiped clean easier and she hardly ever had to change it.
That’s a great idea Kari besides paper only attracts roaches and silverfish yuck!!
I have found parchment or waxed paper on the top of cabinets works great and is much faster than cutting up plastic bags. Just rip and fold to cabinet depth. Also use it on top of refrigerator!
I use newspaper and love that I can throw it away and replace with. New.
What a great idea! Please give Gerry a hug for me, will you? My K cabinets go to the ceiling but I do have a huge entertainment unit that you need a 6 foot step ladder to get to the to of, and a couple of bookshelves. This idea is genius! Thank you!
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