You just got a finished kitchen of brand new solid wood cabinets and you realized you don’t know how to properly clean or maintain them! Understanding how to properly care for your cabinets is very valuable for the look and lifespan of your cabinet. When you purchase our cabinets we want to make sure you have a good understanding of how to properly care for them and some tricks you can use to make your cabinets last your whole life.
Why do I need to maintain my cabinets?
If you properly care for your wood cabinets you will increase significantly increase their lifespan. Typically uncared for cabinets last 20-30 years, but when properly treated they can last to over 50 years! Another benefit of maintaining your cabinets is that they will look stunning with limited stains or scratches.
Basic Cabinet cleaning and Daily Care and Maintenance
To make sure no unwanted residue, like grease, stains, or damages your kitchen cabinets you will want to take a damp rag and wipe them down once a month or bi-weekly. Whatever is needed. If you get grease or another tough material you will want to add a little dish soap to your damp rag to remove the material. Water spills left untouched will create stains and depending on the amount of water will warp the wood. To prevent this from happening you will want to wipe it up as soon as possible after the spill occurs! You will also want to make sure to remove and food spills on the cabinets to prevent any scratches or damage to the cabinet finish.
Taking care of scratches
No one wants to have a scratch on their kitchen cabinets, but accidents do happen. To help prevent any scratching acquiring on your cabinet make sure to use a soft fiber material to wipe down cabinets. If scratching does occur there are a few options to restore your cabinet.
- If the cabinet has a very deep ding or scratch the best way to have it prepared is to bring in a professional to fix it. They will either sand it down and refinished it or they may need to replace the door. This is the worst-case scenario, but worth fixing for the future quality of your cabinets.
- For medium dent scratches, you can purchase a repair kit that will provide you with the tools to fix them yourself.
- For smaller scratches, you can get a stain pen and fill in the crack to make it look normal.
Best practices and things to avoid when taking care of your kitchen cabinets
Moister and temperature changes
- Wood cabinets are not waterproof so you always want to be careful to avoid getting them wet. To prevent warping and any water damage clean up all liquid spills as soon as they take place. Also, realize that humanity and temperature change can cause the cabinets to warp or get damaged. You will want to keep them in the most temperature-controlled room you can.
Direct or harsh light
Direct light or harsh lighting on cabinets can cause coloring issues and will wash out the coloring of the wood. You will want to use curtains to cover windows if possible to avoid this kind of damage.
Additional areas to watch for
When food or other materials get on your cabinet make sure to clean it up as soon as possible with a soft fiber rag using warm water and if needed soap. If you do not catch it when the food hardens it can mess up the cabinet finish or scratch the cabinet when you
are trying to remove it.
When it comes to caring for your new kitchen cabinets don’t overthink it! Just remember if in doubt wipe it up and make pay attention to how you are treating them. This will help them last for up to 50 years while keeping the same quality look.
