Category : Kitchen Renovations

How to Freshen Up the Kitchen Scent – Part 2

On top of Part 1’s immediate and short-term cleaning in the kitchen, keep the long run in mind as well. Fighting lingering scents is much easier after you’ve scheduled cleaning for the major food stops in the kitchen.

Every three months

The range hood filter is your first line of defence to combat kitchen smells. Its efficiency decreases over time though and should be cleaned or changed after three months of use.

The larger the household, the more crucial it is to have a good fridge management system in place. Even so, certain foods can get missed and transform into the new offending smell in the kitchen. Spills happen in the fridge, too, that add to the unpleasantness. You can keep on top of that by cleaning the fridge every three months. Soak the drawers in warm soapy water and wipe down the fridge interior with a baking soda solution. Always keep an open box of baking soda inside the fridge to absorb additional smells.

This is also the time to clean other appliances, both large ones like the oven and countertop-sized like the microwave. For the oven, scrape off all the crusted food bits and sweep them out. Use warm soapy water to soak the oven racks. After scrubbing the stubborn stains in the oven with a mixture of baking soda and vinegar, turn on the oven’s self-cleaning function.

Extra fresh boost

Regardless of how religiously you follow this cleaning schedule, you sometimes need to give an extra fresh boost to the kitchen. It may be that you just stepped into the kitchen and still smell yesterday’s cooking extravaganza. Perhaps you have guests coming over or you’re showing the house to potential buyers today. Whatever the reason may be, there are a bunch of DIY tricks you can try. Remember that all these tricks depend on what the ideal kitchen fresh scent means to you.

Airing it out

The first thing you’ll want to do is point a running fan in the direction of an open window. This works very well in pushing the indoor kitchen air – along with all its scents – outside.

Breakfast food to the rescue

If you need a cup of coffee to start your day anyway, brewing a fresh pot is usually enough to get rid of yesterday’s cooking smells. Same thing if you like to have toast in the morning. Freshly brewed coffee and bread toasted dark brown are very effective air scrubbers. What’s great about these two ideas is that they can fit right into your morning routine.

Steam-powered air fresheners

Another way to clean the air is to simmer a few slices of lemon or oranges. The acidity of the citrus fruit will then spread through the air carried by steam. You can also try simmering your favourite herbs or spices if you’re not a fan of the citrus scent.

Good ol’ apple pie

A classic idea to make your kitchen smell welcoming is to heat up an apple pie in the oven. Real estate agents use this trick all the time for open houses because the scent brings up feelings of warm coziness. It’s especially potent if visitors grew up with never-ending baked goods in the house.

Scent swaps

You can also put scent replacements around the kitchen. This could mean vanilla-soaked cotton balls, bowls of water with drops of essential oils, or even mild scented candles.

You’ve already gone out of your way to avoid mistakes while renovating your kitchen – don’t let bad smells ruin all your hard work! Stay fresh.

How to Freshen Up the Kitchen Scent – Part 1

You know that feeling: no matter how delicious last night’s meal was, the kitchen just doesn’t smell as nice in the morning. There are quick fixes you can try in Part 2, but the best way is to first develop good cleaning habits and schedules in the kitchen.

While cooking

Rather than waiting till the very end to get rid of the cooking smell, why not minimize it as it happens? Turn on the range hood while you’re cooking. It may mean a noisier cooking session, but there won’t be as much lingering smells to deal with afterward.

Remember to wipe up spills right away, too – it only takes a second. Letting them crust over will not only make cleanup harder later, but it’ll also contribute to bad smells the next day.

Immediately after cooking

Leave the range hood running. You can always turn it off on your next trip back to the kitchen. This will take care of as much residual smells as possible.

Also, rinse away the food bits and sauces from your cooking utensils as soon as you’re done with them. Don’t forget about the cutting board! It doesn’t take long for it to absorb strong ingredient smells like garlic and onions. Use a cutting board scraper to clear off chopped ingredients and juices from its surface. Give it a quick rinse and dry it afterward. Proactive rinsing lessens the risk of smells clinging on to your cookware.

After meals

If you make a habit of washing dishes after every meal, you’ll eliminate most of the scents that come with the mess. Whether it’s by hand or by loading up the dishwasher, do it regularly every day. The moment they’re dried and put away is when that new kitchen feeling comes back in all its uncluttered glory.

A meal with lots of fried dishes or strong spices calls for a bowl of baking soda or vinegar to be set out for the night. They’ll absorb the cooking scents overnight so that you can step into a fresh-smelling kitchen the next morning.

Every few days

Another culprit of funky smells is often the kitchen trash can. Make sure to rinse the inside of the can with hot water every time you throw out the garbage. Give the can a more thorough cleaning with detergent once every few days, too.

Weekly

Grease accumulates very quickly on kitchen surfaces so it’s good to wash them every week. Focus on the exterior of the stove, range hoods, kitchen cabinets, and countertops.

Both the garburator and the sink drain needs to be cleaned weekly as well. For the garburator, make sure to scrub the two sides of the top rubber flap. Afterward, drop in a few ice cubes and lemon peels. You can also pre-freeze cubes of lemon peels in vinegar to pack an extra cleaning punch. When you turn on the garburator, all these ingredients will help clean the blades and keep them sharp. For the sink drain, sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda and then pour in vinegar or lemon juice. This will neutralize some of the gunk that builds up inside the drainpipes.

Monthly

When the dishwasher does all the heavy-duty cleaning work, it needs its own cleaning as well every month. Follow the instruction manual on how to remove and clean the dishwasher filter. Then run the cleaning cycle on the machine. If the manual doesn’t discourage it, you can also add vinegar to the dispenser during the cleaning cycle. Sprinkle baking soda inside the machine and leave it overnight for good measure. In the morning, run an empty cycle to rinse the baking soda away.

In Part 2, we’ll look at longer-term cleaning tasks as well as what you can do if you need to get rid of a smelly kitchen right away.

Can Kitchen Colour Choices Affect Your Appetite?

“I can’t cook in this kitchen!” That’s a classic reason we often hear from customers on why they want to renovate their kitchen.

The best part about kitchen renovations is designing the colour scheme. And that’s more important than we may realize. There have been many studies done on how colour affects people’s perception of food. This particular one published in BioMed Central on how plate colour influences restaurant food is especially enlightening.

There definitely are certain colours that suppress appetite and others that stimulate appetite. So how can you bring that to play in the kitchen? And what if you’re also interested in using colour psychology to help in dieting?

A healthy balance to strike is to go with appetizing colours on the kitchen surroundings and unappetizing colours on the dinner table. You want the kitchen itself to inspire you to cook delicious and healthy food. The dinner table is where you want to control the risk of overserving yourself.

Colours that suppress appetite

Let’s get the unappetizing colours out of the way first. Some of these descriptions may be a little too descriptive, but it helps to understand the psychology behind why these colours are appetite suppressants.

You can use any combination of these colours at the dinner table to discourage yourself from overeating. Choose these colours when you’re buying dishware, eating utensils, napkins, and tablecloths. Having said that, it doesn’t mean you should pick the most disgusting shade possible. You can select these colours as the starting base and let your inner designer put them together stylishly:

Black

Black turns off the appetite because it’s associated with toxins, poison, and burnt food. Coincidentally, it’s also a slimming colour in fashion. That makes it a good reminder to have at the table if you’re on a diet.

Blue

Except for blueberries, you don’t see blue very often in the food world. So, right away, that colour is a turn-off for your brain.

There’s also a positive reason though why blue isn’t appetizing. Blue has always been a calming colour due to its associations with peace and stability. It probably has a lot to do with the blue sky as a constant in everyone’s lives. The colour is so soothing that your entire body – including your appetite – can actually slow down to the point of lethargy.

Brown

When you link brown with food, you usually think of waste and decay. Or overcooked food. All of which doesn’t sound delicious at all.

Grey

Grey brings to mind a dry and bitter taste – kind of like ashes. Mmm-mm.

Pink

With perhaps the exception of medium steak, pink is an unnatural food colour. It’s reminiscent of raw meat. And thousands of years of cooking in our DNA have taught us to avoid that.

Purple

Other than eggplant, this is another uncommon food colour and therefore less trustworthy.

Colours that stimulate appetite

Time to regain your appetite! Mix and match these colours for your kitchen walls, cabinets, countertop, and even cookware. These colours will inspire you to cook more gourmet but healthy meals:

Green

Green is a colour of health and abundance in nature. Besides our parents repeating the benefits of eating greens, our healthy view of the colour is probably also a throwback to our primitive days of being mostly herbivores.

Orange

Orange is always welcoming because of the warmth and comfort associated with it. It’s also an autumn colour, when the last harvests of the year are reaped before the cold sets in.

Red

Red is the undoubted colour of passion and energy. Just the mere sight of it is enough to make your heart beat faster, which primes the rest of your body functions like appetite for action.

Turquoise

Turquoise whets your appetite mainly because of the imagery it evokes. It gives you that tropical feeling of crystal-clear waves smoothing over a sun-kissed beach. Then you start thinking about tropical drinks, tropical food, and what Caribbean recipes to try.

White

White is an odd one on this list because it’s attached to the taste of blandness. It leaves you feeling dissatisfied and wanting more of something else. While it doesn’t open up your appetite per se, it’s a good base to pair with other appetizing colours so that you’ll want more of those. Just don’t use white dishes to serve food.

Yellow

You can trust the colour of the sun to make you happy. Yellow is also a colour of optimism. And when you’re in a good mood, your appetite is naturally stimulated.

Here’s to happy cooking and healthy eating!