You Should Be Washing This Part Of Your Kitchen Regularly, But Hardly Anyone Does

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Even the tidiest home cooks have blind spots when it comes to cleaning their kitchens. Face it: your average kitchen, even one that isn't very big, is absolutely loaded with surfaces that get dirty. Almost everyone knows that they need to wipe down their countertops and oven burners, but do most people clean their spice jars, which are one of the dirtiest spots in the kitchen? Absolutely not. On that same note, the keypad of your microwave is probably teeming with germs. Not to gross you out, but think of how often you touch those buttons. Like your cell phone screen, which some sources claim can carry 10 times as much bacteria as a toilet seat, the keys on your microwave are forever being hit by grubby fingers without the reprieve of a little soap.

Like many of you, we love our microwaves. Chef Mike is not only a pro at heating up frozen dinners on busy nights, but he's also adept at finer cooking tasks like melting chocolate chips and cooking up steamed bread or homemade potato chips. Don't you owe him a good decontamination every now and then? It's as simple as can be to add the task of sanitizing buttons when scrubbing the whole appliance, which experts say you should be doing at least once a week ... perhaps using the hack of using lemon slices to clean your microwave? Once it's part of your kitchen cleaning routine, you'll never have to worry about dirty buttons again!

Cleaning the buttons of your microwave is absolutely painless and foolproof. All you need is to dampen a soft cloth with mild soap and warm water, then wipe down the keypad. If your controls are made of glass, you can substitute a gentle glass cleaner. Just make sure you spray it on the cloth and not directly on the microwave! After you have washed the buttons, use a microfiber cloth to dry and polish the keypad. Prepare to be astounded by how great it looks! The best time to clean the keypad is after you have cleaned the interior of the microwave and are letting the inside dry. If you need to sanitize the keypad — like, for example, if you accidentally touched it directly after handling raw meat — you could use a Lysol wipe or similar product to make sure no pathogens remain on the surface.

Whatever you do, don't use anything caustic or scratchy to clean the keypad, as this can cause visual damage to your microwave and even possibly harm the delicate electronic controls. If there is caked-on grime on your keypad, just scrub at it persistently with a soft cloth. Don't be tempted to use a coarse sponge or powdered scrubbing solution! Make a mental note to clean those buttons when you are cleaning your microwave, and you will already be ahead of many homeowners and renters.