The crack between your stove and kitchen counter is one of the most notoriously hard spots to clean in the entire house. The fact that this gap isn’t easy to clean is further compounded by the fact that it gets dirtier and dirtier every day through sheer use.
The more you use your kitchen, the dirtier the space between the stove and the counter will get.
Thankfully, with a few tips and tricks, you will be able to get every last bit of gunk and food debris from this nefarious dirt magnet, lest you end up with a stinky, bacteria-infected kitchen.
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How Do You Clean The Crack Between The Stove And The Kitchen Counter?
To clean the spaces between your stove and counter simply take a long and thin object, such as a thin spatula or scraper, and work it into the gap. Using this thin object, proceed to wiggle and scrape the build-up of gunk and food debris out from the gap and into the kitchen countertop or floor, from where it can be more easily cleaned.
Take a soft cloth or paper towel and spray it with your preferred cleaner, such as Lysol or Windex Multi-Purpose Cleaner, before wrapping it around your knife/spatula and working it into the gap yet again to decontaminate any bacterial growth that may be present.
The ease with which you will be able to clean the space, gap, or cracks between your stove and counter, will depend on how wide that space is; however, the basic process to do so remains the same. And, if you get used to doing this every often, you will soon build a cleanliness habit that will prevent dirt from accumulating in the first place.
There are tons of thin devices that you can find to squeeze into the gap, but you need to be mindful not to damage the counter or stove. For that reason, I would recommend a plastic scraper like this one from Amazon. It is rigid enough to remove the gunk and grease, but soft enough that it will not scratch your counter or metal stove.
- Large: 2 x 8 inch, Junior: 1 x 4 inch
- Manufactured from a patented resin
- Use for those tough clean-up tasks
If you have a particularly active kitchen and tons of food debris has worked its way down into the deepest crevices between your stove and countertops, the tips above might not be enough to allow you to properly clean the space.
In these cases, a deeper cleaning may be necessary, and this will involve moving your oven out of its regular location to gain access to the entire area beside and behind it.
How To Prevent Gunk Build-Up In The Space Between Your Stove And Counter
You should make a habit of cleaning the space between your stove and counter. Doing so will drastically reduce the potential for bacterial growth and the appearance of pests such as mice and cockroaches.
This will also reduce the amount of food that drips down beside the cabinets to the floor.
However, if cleaning this natural dirt trap on a daily basis feels like too much of a chore, you can do a couple of things to prevent the dirt and gunk from building up in the first place.
If you take the time and make the effort to properly cover the gap between your stove and kitchen counter, you can stop the dirt and gunk build-up in its tracks.
So how do you do that?
3 Ways To Fill The Gap Between Your Stove And Counter
Gap Covers
The quickest and easiest way is to purchase gap covers. These are pre-fabricated rubber, silicone, plastic, or steel strips that have been designed specifically to seal the gap between your stove and counter. Installation is very straightforward and the cost is relatively low.
Tubing or Caulk Backer Rods
Another option to seal the crack between your kitchen counter and the stove is to use rubber tubing or a caulk backer rod, which are plastic tubes used to fill gaps prior to applying caulking in various places.
To do this, measure the length of the space between your stove and countertop and cut a piece of the rubber material of the same size. Then carefully wedge the strip into the space between the stove and the counter. The tubing will seal the gap and prevent debris from falling in just as effectively as using a pre-fabricated gap sealer; however, it will not be as pretty.
Silicone Sealers
The final option is to use some form of clear silicone gel to fill in the gap and seal it. Keep in mind that this will only work as long as you don’t move your stove from its place. If for whatever reason you have to move the stove, the seal will break and will have to be reapplied each time.
While all of these options work great. Our recommendation is to go for the gap covers. They are cheap and easy to work with, can fill any kind of hole, and are easily replaced when needed.
Last update on 2024-04-23 at 21:03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
