How to Clean Kitchen Oil Spills

In this article, you would learn how to properly clean oil spills on your kitchen floor, to leave it looking neat and germ-free.

Your kitchen is inevitably the most important place in your home. You prepare your food there, and without food, you would have the baggage of weakness and bad health to deal with.

As one of the most important places in your household, your kitchen should be kept sparkling clean at all times.

Kitchen Oil Cleaning Procedures

We know you love a clean kitchen, but now, you’ve spilled oil on your kitchen floor. Oil can’t just be wiped away like water, it leaves sticky residues which can serve as a breeding ground for germs. This isn’t good for your kitchen.

Cleaning Oil Spills From Floors

You probably might have dropped a bottle containing oil by mistake, and the impact of this drop is likely to leave broken bits of glass everywhere.

Before you can begin getting an oil spill off your floor, you would have to take care of these broken bits of glass to prevent injuries in the course of cleaning.

To get these bits of glass away, you would need an ice cube thong to pick them up. Make sure to wear a shoe with a rubber some or one that is washable, so that you can avoid stepping on the oil and spreading it to other areas of your kitchen floor, and also so that you can be able to get the oil away from your shoes sole easily.

When you are done picking up the large bits of glass, little bits which cannot be picked with the ice cube thong might still be on the floor, these should be ignored for the moment. Now, base your mind on disposing of these bits of glass which you must have picked into a bowl.

To properly dispose of them, wrap them in a piece/pieces of old newspaper and dispose of it in the trashcan. The essence of wrapping them in a newspaper is to prevent the waste bag from being torn by their sharp edges.

With the area clear of dangerous material, you can begin the cleaning process, proper. To proceed, you have to pour an absorbent material over the spill. You can use salt, cornstarch, sand, oatmeal, kitty litter, etc. to pour over the spill, to help it dry quickly. Allow the material to sit on the spill for 15 minutes.

When the absorbent material most have dried up the area of the spill, then you scoop it out with a spatula or a paper towel. Don’t attempt to use a vacuum cleaner, although this might seem at the easiest and most stress-free way it isn’t advisable at this point. Don’t try using a mop either to clean off the absorbent material for the area, just scoop it up.

After you are done scooping up the absorbent material, wipe the area of the oil spill with a paper towel or slices of bread. This is to remove any residue that stayed behind after the absorbent material is scooped up. After this, the floor might appear sticky, but don’t worry about this.

Now, you can proceed to get your mop to work. Soak your mop in grease-fighting dish detergent and proceed to run it over the area of the oil spill. Do this until the floor is free from oil residues.

Cleaning an oil spill differs from floor to floor, this is just the basic steps required in cleaning them off floors. You might choose to apply methods specific to the kind of floor your kitchen has, be it either concrete or tiled.

How To Remove Oil Spills From Concrete Floors

To remove an oil spill from a concrete floor:

1. Sprinkle powder over the area of the oil spill and leave it overnight. You can use cat litter if the oil spill is large.
2. Use an alkaline concrete cleaner or a degreaser as an alternative to powder or cat litter.
3. Sweep up the residue with a broom and a paper towel.
4. Then proceed to scrub it with a detergent. Grease-fighting dish detergent is highly recommended. The detergent has to be mixed in hot water and should be left to sit on the oil spill area for about one hour, then use a mop to wipe up the area.
5. Lastly, rinse the oil spill area with hot water. And your concrete floor is as oil-free as ever.

How To Remove Oil Spills From Tiled Floors

The removal of an oil spill from a tiled floor is a different procedure altogether. These are the steps required to remove grease from your tiled floors.

1. Sweep the area of the oil spill with a broom to remove loose dirt from the floor. This is advisable before beginning the cleaning process to allow the washing solution to last longer.
2. Pour two gallons of water to a bucket and add a quarter cup of vinegar and a capful of mild dishwashing liquid to the water. With this solution, you can cut through any type of grease easily.
3. Run a damp mop dipped in the solution you made earlier over the area of the oil spill.
4. You should also have a bucket of clean water handy, where you can rinse the mop after each wipe. You should repeat the procedure of dipping the mop into the solution, wiping, and then rinsing.
5. After you are satisfied, wipe the area with a dry white cloth and inspect of dirt or grease. If there is any procedure to clean the area over again until all the grease is gone.

You are highly advised to clean up grease spills from your tiles as soon as they occur to prevent hazards that can result from slipping. Never leave the cleaning of an oil spill on your tiles for later.

There are different types of oils apart from your normal cooking oil which can spill on your kitchen floor. Maybe, you are the artistic type or you have a child who is into the arts, oil paint can spill on the floor of your kitchen. Although you might want to apply any of the procedures listed above, what next after you have gotten away the oil?

What about the coloring on your kitchen floor?

How To Remove Oil Paint Spills From Your Kitchen Floor

Now, follow these steps to ensure the proper removal of oil paint from your kitchen floor.

1. Blot out excess oil paint from the spill using paper towels. This is essential for easy cleaning.
2. Pour dish-washing liquid over the spill. Apply enough.
3. Pour some water on the area and begin to scrub with a scrubbing brush to remove any coloring that might have occurred.
4. You might want to continue applying dish-washing liquid over the spill until all the oil paint is gone and your floor is sparkling clean.

Ways To Prevent Oil Spills On Your Kitchen Floor

You can save yourself the stress of cleaning off oil spills from your floor by applying some preventive measures which would be listed below.

1. Keep your kitchen goods in their proper location especially your oils. If you have the habit of leaving cooking ingredients and materials anywhere in your kitchen, then be ready to go through the stress of cleaning an oil spill.
2. Close the containers of your cooking oil and other oils present in your kitchen properly to save you the stress associated with an oil spill.
3. Be careful when dealing with oil while cooking. Hot oil can harm your skin and they can spill on your kitchen floor too, so be careful.
4. If an oil spill should occur despite your observation of these precautionary measures then attend to it immediately!

Conclusion

With this article, we are sure that you’ve learned one or two about cleaning oil spills from your kitchen floor.

Now, you won’t be among the ignorant lot who would go ahead to rub their mop over the spill and spread it over to other areas of their kitchen. Apart from oil spills, water spills too should be attended to with prompt attention especially if they are large.

You risk the same danger of slipping over in your kitchen from a water spill as from an oil spill.

Be conscious about the cleanliness of your kitchen and your utensils and cooking ingredients. Treat your kitchen like the sacred groove that it is, and enjoy a healthy life.

Keeping your kitchen tidy can also prevent an invasion from rodents. You don’t want an agog rodent to be the cause of the oil spill in your kitchen, because they have teeth sharp enough to tear through your plastic bottles of oil and the right weight to knock it over, if you are the type that leaves your oil containers unclosed or not properly closed.

We hope you know how to clean kitchen oil spills, now.