Cooking adds even more grime in the form of food splatters and oil-laden steam. Even if you have a vent hood or use a splatter guard when cooking, oils leave a residue on cabinets. Dust and dirt in the air get stuck in that residue, coating your cabinets with a sticky mess.

The first step to keeping your kitchen cabinets clean? “It’s essential to promptly clean up any spills,” says Dan Deonarain, owner of Galaxy Maids, a residential and commercial cleaning company servicing the New York City and Boston metro areas.

Quickly jumping on spills is important everywhere in your home, but particularly in the kitchen. You’ll save yourself a lot of time cleaning if you don’t let things go.

So what’s the best way to clean sticky grease off kitchen cabinets? Deonarain lays it out below.

How to Clean Sticky Grease Off Kitchen Cabinets

Tools and Supplies

• Heavy-duty degreaser: Our preferred product for cleaning sticky grease off kitchen cabinets is the Ecolab Heavy-Duty Citrus Degreaser. Family Handyman product tester and former maintenance worker, Anthony O’Reilly, used Ecolab products to clean his entire house and was impressed by the citrus degreaser’s ability to dissolve grease even before any wiping. Plus, the citrus scent deodorizes lingering kitchen smells. The solution is ready to use out of the bottle and safe on wooden cabinets, painted surfaces, concrete, vinyl, stainless steel, glass, metal and more. The best part? It’s wallet friendly: This Ecolab degreaser retails for less than $6 a bottle.
• Soft cloth or sponge: Be sure to use a soft cloth to wipe off the degreaser solution without damaging surfaces.
• Dish soap: When in doubt, dish soap also removes grease and grime from kitchen cabinets. It contains surfactants that break apart the grease and surround it.
• Vinegar and baking soda: For the insides of your cabinets, we recommend these pantry staples over a degreaser as they could come into contact with food.

Cabinet Exteriors

If using a degreaser, all you need to do is spray the solution onto your sticky cabinets and let it sit for one minute, then wipe clean with a soft cloth. (Yes, it really is that easy, which is why we so highly recommend the Ecolab Heavy-Duty Citrus Degreaser.) Repeat as needed for particularly stubborn grease.

If you’re going the DIY route, however, you’ll need a bit more elbow grease (pun intended). “For the outside, you want to start with warm water and dish soap,” says Deonarain. Dishwashing liquid has incredible grease-cutting ability, but it’s gentle and non-abrasive. That’s why Dawn is the go-to cleaner for oil-laden birds and other wildlife after a spill. It works and it’s safe.

To clean your cabinet exteriors, get a bucket of warm water and add a squirt of dishwashing liquid. (If you don’t have a lot of cabinets, just use a bowl and a few drops of soap.) Use a soft cloth or sponge — non-scrubby side only — and work the solution over the surface of the cabinets. Rinse off any soapy residue with a clean damp cloth and let dry.

Cabinet Interiors

“Inside cabinets can be an area where you don’t always see trouble spots immediately,” says Deonarain. Even if you’re diligent about wiping up food on the outside, sometimes you just don’t notice that drip of honey or spaghetti sauce that managed to sneak inside.