The kitchen is the busiest room for both cleaning and cost, and the two overlap: most of what is expensive to run lives in here.
Descaling, which is the big one
"How to descale a kettle" is one of the most searched household questions in Britain, and the answer is short. Fill with equal parts water and white vinegar, boil, leave an hour, boil again with clean water twice to rinse. Citric acid works the same way with less smell. In a hard water area do it monthly, because scale on the element makes the kettle slower and more expensive every time.
The same chemistry handles the coffee machine, the iron and the dishwasher.
Food storage, where the money actually goes
- Fridge at or below 5C. Most home fridges run warmer than people think. A cheap
thermometer settles it.
- Potatoes and onions apart, both somewhere dark, and neither in the fridge. Cold turns
potato starch to sugar.
- Bread freezes well and refrigerates badly. The fridge is the fastest way to stale
bread.
- Bananas apart from everything else, because the ethylene ripens its neighbours.
Appliances
- Oven. Alkali, not acid. A bicarbonate paste left overnight
does most of the work.
- Microwave. Boil a bowl of water with lemon in it for a few minutes, then wipe. The
steam does the lifting.
- Fridge. Bicarb in an open tub for smells, and check the door seal: a failing seal is a
running cost as well as a food safety problem.
Boards and knives. Separate for raw meat, or washed thoroughly in between. This is the one kitchen rule where the consequence is not an inconvenience.