Tips to Help Keep Your Kitchen Clean

This is a funny post coming from me. I love for my kitchen to be clean (who doesn't?) and I know how to keep my kitchen clean but I shamefully admit that I am not the best at keeping my kitchen clean. My kitchen is never nasty and when I say clean I am referring to daily use messes like stove splatter, a cluttered table, dirty dishes and the like.

If you, like me have a little bit of - lets call it lack of motivation to keep this area of your house clean let me give you a few ideas of things to do that will result in a beautifully clean and well kept kitchen.

Whether or not you like to cook (I personally do and spend A LOT of time in my kitchen) the kitchen is a room in your house that is used daily and requires constant upkeep to ensure it doesn't get out of hand.

*  When cooking, wash your dishes and clean your little messes as you go.

*  Clean out your refrigerator weekly. For me this happens (or is supposed to
    happen) on Monday because my garbage pick up is early Tuesday morning. 
    Anything I am throwing away doesn't have to hang around my house for very
    long this way.

*  Do not go to bed without washing those dishes.  As Fly Lady says - "Shine
    Your Sink".  Wash them by hand or run your dishwasher if you have one.

*  Wipe off your counters daily or multiple times a day.  Maybe after each meal.

*  Wipe off the stove and wipe out microwave each evening.  If the splatters,
    spills and gunk have time to sit and harden and then harden some more it
    takes a whole lot of elbow grease to get them cleaned up and this my friend  
    is NO fun.  My oldest son recently cleaned our microwave and
    now has a new appreciation for me because he never realized just
    how hard it was to clean. 

*  When using the microwave, try covering up whatever it is you are warming
    with a paper towel to help eliminate those splatters.  This will make cleaning
    it much less of a hassle.

*  Sweep the floor daily.  Even if it's just spot sweeping.

*  Mop weekly.

*  Lay out a clean dish cloth and towel nightly.

*  Light a candle.  It helps set a mood.  Hopefully one that says, I want to keep
    this room clean. 

*  Keep your table clear of clutter, dirty dishes and stuff that doesn't belong.

*  Create a center piece on your table. This is fairly new to me.  I just don't
    normally have a "center piece" but I have come to find out it helps me want
    to keep the rest of the room neat and tidy to match my table.  It can be as
    simple as a candle in a jar to any extreme you can imagine.

Do you keep your kitchen neat and tidy?  Do you have any other tips to add that might help someone who struggles with keeping up with this area of the house?