We broke down the costs to DIY it or if you want to hire a pro.

Think on this: There’s probably more bacteria (fecal and regular!) in your kitchen sink than in your recently flushed toilet bowl. “Sinks tend to stay moist, there’s food and scraps in there, you defrost meat in there, and you rarely clean it,” says Dr. Chuck Gerba, a professor of microbiology at University of Arizona. Because of that, bacteria can flourish. Not to mention, the garbage disposal spews out water and bacteria every time you run it.

In my household, the “right” way to use aluminum foil — shiny side-up or shiny side-down — is the subject of much debate. (My vote is shiny side-up.) As it turns out, we’re not the only ones who have spent time thinking about this. There’s a lot of speculation on the internet, where different theories abound.

We all know that aluminum foil is great for preventing a mess. It can catch spillage in the oven or grill, or save you a step of cleaning your baking sheets. But did you know it can clean up, too? When you crumple aluminum foil, it’s abrasive enough to tackle tough stains (on very strong surfaces, of course), and because it’s made from aluminum, it has some pretty cool properties that help out other metals. Here are five ways to use aluminum foil to clean.

We all know that aluminum foil is great for preventing a mess. It can catch spillage in the oven or grill, or save you a step of cleaning your baking sheets. But did you know it can clean up, too? When you crumple aluminum foil, it’s abrasive enough to tackle tough stains (on very strong surfaces, of course), and because it’s made from aluminum, it has some pretty cool properties that help out other metals. Here are five ways to use aluminum foil to clean.

Now that my oldest is in school, we have discovered the joys of packing her lunch. Beyond the list of banned foods we need to be careful about (last year it included peanut butter, strawberries, and shellfish — as if I would ever send her to school with shrimp cocktail!), there are her ever-evolving and contradictory preferences we had to remember and adjust to. But you know, you do it. Five days a week.

Kitchen linens get a special kind of dirty, because most people don’t just use them for drying dishes — they also use them to wipe up crumbs off the countertop, dry their hands, swab spills off the floor, and dab jelly off their kids’ faces. Often, all in one day, several times a day. And some of us (okay, me!) don’t wash our kitchen linens nearly as often as we should.

It’s amazing to me how quickly my kitchen gets cluttered. Even though I tend to use the same things every day — the same pots and pans, same dishes, same glasses — my cabinets are totally full. Part of it is that we love to entertain, so in addition to the everyday stuff, we need the party stuff, like the big salad bowl, and the serving tray, and the cool brass-plated silverware I found on eBay that lives in its own special, enormous box. Part of it is the kids’ stuff.

There’s nothing better on a hot summer day than filling a tall glass totally full of ice cubes, then splashing a little something on top — be it water, LaCroix, or something stronger — for a super-chilly refreshment. But if that ice has an odor, or leaves little scaly bits in your beverage? That certainly ruins the moment.

My kids love cherries! But because my girls are young, I remove the pits before serving them, which leaves my cutting boards, laminate countertops, and fingers covered in cherry stains. Also because my girls are young, I inevitably end up with cherry-stained clothing, mouths, dish towels, and more. Cherry stains everywhere!

My nights (like yours, probably) are jam-packed — home from work, cook dinner, get the kids to bed, and try to go to bed myself by 9:45 in order to get my full eight hours before the next day begins again. But nothing makes me sleep better than feeling like my home is clean and that I accomplished what I wanted to that day — which might explain why I love to organize my kitchen before I go to bed.

Our super-cold office got us thinking: Office supplies would probably be very useful in the freezer.

Good morning! It’s a beautiful, sunny day — and it’s been sunny since about 5 a.m. While you’re feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, let’s tackle your kitchen! “Time is short, but your clarity is high first thing in the morning, so it’s the perfect time for laser organizing,” says Kate Varness of Green Light Organizing. “You can knock off a task in about three minutes — then start your day with a sense of accomplishment!

Good morning! It’s a beautiful, sunny day — and it’s been sunny since about 5 a.m. While you’re feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, let’s tackle your kitchen! “Time is short, but your clarity is high first thing in the morning, so it’s the perfect time for laser organizing,” says Kate Varness of Green Light Organizing. “You can knock off a task in about three minutes — then start your day with a sense of accomplishment!

My mother-in-law is an excellent cook. She bakes, she makes soup from scratch, she gathers herbs from the garden to blend into pestos and more, and, luckily for me, she usually makes more than she and my father-in-law can eat. Many a time we’ve gone to visit for the weekend and come home with a tote bag full of delectables and end up eating like kings for the week. Beyond her skills and years of experience, my mother-in-law has one secret weapon for her freezer: masking tape.

Does everything in your kitchen spark joy? No? Well, you know what? Who cares! Your kitchen is an everyday workhorse filled with gadgets big and small that make your life easier (thank you, garlic press, for existing). Yes, you want it to be functional — and it can be annoying when your cabinets are overflowing or you have to walk halfway across the room to grab a knife mid-recipe — but even if your kitchen needs some organizing help, Marie Kondo doesn’t have a place here.

Some cooks have amazing flow. They can quickly find every gadget in their kitchen, seamlessly move from prep to cook without shuffling everything on their countertop, and make dinner in an instant. That flow comes from knowing their kitchen well — and also from organizing their kitchen and cooking process in a way that’s intuitive for them. Luckily, the actual steps to getting there aren’t too complicated!

Summer is the best time to eat on your patio — it’s also peak season for bees. “Late summer and early fall is when stinging insect colonies reach their peak population levels,” says Dr. Jim Fredericks, chief entomologist for the National Pest Management Association. Across the United States, we get many different species of bees, including carpenter bees, bumble bees, and honey bees, and we tend to think of yellow jackets as bees, even though they are actually wasps.

For many reasons, I love to sweep my floors. It’s a nightly ritual that’s not too hard, makes my kitchen look super-clean, and helps keep pests out. But in my years of sweeping, there’s one step I haven’t managed to perfect: picking up the last little pile. I don’t know about you, but I have yet to find a combination of dust pan and broom that doesn’t leave a trail of grit in its wake. Could I be doing it wrong?

I’ve long heard that keeping baking soda in your fridge eliminates odors, and I’ve pretty much always had a box open in the fridge — not exactly switching it out every 30 days, like you’re apparently supposed to, but just leaving it in there with the lid open. And it’s seemed to have worked: My fridge has never been particularly stinky. Recently, though, I tossed my old box of baking soda I took to the internet.

A dirty sponge is just … foul. You know what I’m talking about — those flat, gray, flakey cleaning pads you find in office kitchens and bachelor apartments. And that smell! There is nothing grosser than washing a dish with a stinky sponge — aside from then having your hands smell like stinky sponge afterwards. Yuck. Here’s the deal, though: That filthy-looking sponge was dirty long before it started showing its age.

From the mundane ketchup and mustard to an array of salad dressings to the toppings that give your cooking regional flare, those jars and squeeze bottles on the shelves of your refrigerator door seem to multiply on their own. “Most people have at least 15 to 20 condiments in their fridge,” says Toni Hammersley, author of The Complete Book of Clean. To boot: Some of those things are duplicates!

When I picture my dream spice cabinet, it’s an orderly space with identical, labeled spice canisters lined up neatly in rows. It’s the picture of Type-A organization, whether those canisters are clear cylinders with little metal lids, square plastic bins with shaker tops, or country-inspired mini Mason jars. The point is, they all match and line up perfectly.

We hate to be the ones to tell you this, but the kitchen is a prime location for flies. “Flies are attracted to rotting fruit and vegetables, rotting meat, and any other material they can find around your kitchen sink or trash can,” says Chelle Hartzer, an entomologist for Orkin. While most houseflies don’t bite, they can carry bacteria like E. coli and salmonella from one spot to another, contaminating healthy foods and potentially making you sick.

Like many families I know, mine is addicted to LaCroix, or, as it’s called in my apartment, “bubbles water.” Lime, peach-pear, cran-raspberry, pamplemousse — we love them all! One time I posted an Instagram shot of the cases and cases of LaCroix stacked in the window of my local Key Food and the official LaCroix account actually liked my photo! I just about peed my pants, I was so excited. True story!

Freshly grated mozzarella (or any cheese!) is an amazing addition to all kinds of foods, but the process of grating it can be a pain. And we’re not just talking about the actual work of running it across the grater over and over again — without, hopefully, cutting your fingers! — but also the actual cleanup. That soft, fatty cheese can get stuck inside the grater’s holes and you can tear up your sponge (or really injure yourself!) trying to get it clean.

I’m always surprised by how finicky knives are. You’d think that a blade that can slice right through meat or cleave a squash in two would be pretty much impervious to any kind of wear! But if you — like me — have a habit of neglecting your knives, they can dull and rust pretty quickly. And sadly, rust is a frequent visitor in my kitchen. That is not OK, considering a good knife can cost more than $100!

You spring cleaned! You soaked and scrubbed your oven racks, washed the shelves in your fridge, went through your pantry, and gave everything the deepest clean ever. Yay, you! Hopefully you saved this one thing for last: the floors. “When you’re cleaning, everything gets dumped on the floors — from crumbs on the counters to dust flying around — so there’s just no point in cleaning them any earlier in the process,” says Melissa Maker, author of Clean My Space.

You’re not going to like this, but the air in your kitchen is full of gunk. “Anytime you’re cooking and the food creates steam or smoke, that can carry grease that will stick onto your backsplash, countertop, stovetop, and more,” says to Melissa Maker, star of the Clean My Space YouTube Channel and author of Clean My Space. “It’s sticky, it’s gross, and it’s hard to clean — and breathing that air isn’t great, either!