Kitchen cabinets covered in years of grease transform with item hiding in your wallet

A renter who moved into a house with kitchen cabinets covered in years of grease has found an unlikely way to clean them.

In a Reddit post about their cleaning hack they described the state of the surface on top of the cupboards as having "that gross sticky orange layer that's basically years of grease mixed with dust".

While new tenants expect to move into clean rental properties, they noted the cabinets are so high the previous residents might never have noticed the grease.

They first attempted to tackle the thick greasy layer with dishwashing liquid, which helped a little bit, followed by a degreaser spray.

At this point the "really thick buildup wasn't budging" so they tried a paste made of baking soda (bicarb soda) and dishwashing liquid, but they didn't apply it in the usual way.

"What actually worked: baking soda mixed with a small amount of dish soap into a paste, applied with an old credit card to spread it around, left for about five to six minutes, then wiped off with a damp microfiber cloth. For the spots that were really caked on I did it twice," they said.

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"The credit card thing sounds weird, but it lets you apply pressure and spread the paste evenly without scratching the surface, worked way better than a sponge for that first pass.

"Total cost was basically nothing since I had everything at home already. Took me maybe 45 minutes for all the cabinets including wiping everything down twice."

Once the grease was removed, the kitchen cabinet's "nice wood finish" became visible and even though it's hard to see, the renter is still glad to know it's clean.

They then asked other members of the Reddit Cleaning Tips community for advice on keeping clean for as long as possible many shared a similar hack.

"I've just put a layer of newspaper up there myself," one said.

"I replace wax paper up there every six months. One less thing to worry about," a Redditor commented.

"I use aluminium foil because it also kept the cats off the cabinet tops," another wrote.

Other liner suggestions included newspaper, baking paper, shelf liners and stick-on floor tiles.

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The best kitchen cleaning hacks that actually work

Meanwhile, another person uses bed sheets, which means they don't have to throw any greasy paper or liner out as they can wash and reuse them.

"I cleaned [the kitchen cabinet top] in my house shortly after move in, bought some flat sheets for cheap and folded them up on top of the cabinets so they're not visible from below. Once a year during spring cleaning I take them down give them hot sudsy wash and put them back.

Asked to explain what the sheets look like on top of the cabinets they said, "It's a sheet. It looks like a rectangle on top of the cabinet. Leave it in place, and wash it 'every year'. This is my go-to, but I scrub the gunk off first, and the sheet keeps it from getting gunky again."

As for cleaning the grease, others recommended mineral oil or baby oil because "like dissolves like", laundry detergent, Krud Kutter spray and sugar soap.

And if you like the credit card idea but want something easier to use, you can purchase plastic scrapers from hardware stores from the paint and grout sections.

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