How to Clean Your Cabinets, Fixtures & Handles

In addition to keeping your granite countertops clean, your stovetop de-greased, and your sink free of grime, it’s important to take care of the other most-trafficked area of your kitchen: the cabinets. A high-contact surface that requires regular cleaning, your kitchen cabinets—as well as your pulls, knobs, and handles—can become a hub of grime and bacteria, especially if you’re someone who cooks more than a few meals per week at home. Little droplets of cooking grease, food splatters and even steam can settle on them, attracting dust or possibly staining them permanently.

Avoid Harsh Chemicals

Because harsh, commercial abrasives can corrode many kitchen cabinet surfaces including wood, paint, and laminate, we recommend keeping it gentle. Here’s how to clean your kitchen cabinets, as well as their fixtures and hinges without ruining them in the long term.

Can Your Use Dish Soap to Clean Your Cabinets?

Start by mixing one part Dish Soap with two parts warm water, a solution that can soften grime that’s built up over time. Then, pour it into a reusable Glass Amber bottle, and spray it onto a microfiber cloth, rather than directly on the cabinets. (Soaking them in water or any other liquid can ruin the finish on most cabinets.) Starting at the top row of cabinets, wipe each one from top to bottom with the solution. Don’t worry too much about the hinges, knobs, or other fixtures, as we’ll get to those later.

Can I Use APC On Wood Finish?

Once you’ve worked your way through all the cabinets with this solution, it’s time to break out the All-Purpose Cleaner. While you can go over the cabinets again with warm water, we like to seal the deal with APC, which gets rid of any soapy residue while also cleaning any leftover grime. If your cabinets are wood-finish, you can sub in Leather Cleaner, which not only conditions natural materials but can break down the type of extra-stuck-on grime that often plagues wooden cabinets. (If you’re worried about them getting too oily, follow the Leather Cleaner rubdown with APC, which will get rid of any extra residue.) A second time around will release any additional grossness, which is hopefully enough to get them completely clean.

How to Clean Your Cabinet Fixtures

Then, move onto the handles, pulls, and other fixtures: APC won’t just get rid of the grime that comes from cooking, but it’ll get rid of fingerprint smudges, as well as dust and dirt that may have built up on these fixtures over time. If there are any hard-to-reach spots or nooks, you can finish the job with a toothbrush or small, soft-bristled brush.

Don't Forget to Dry Off

Lastly, grab a fresh, dry cloth and go back over each cabinet and fixture, drying them completely before marking the job as done. You can finish off any wooden cabinets with a quick buff with Leather Cleaner, too. Et voila—you’ve crossed something else off the to-do list for another couple of months.