12 Surprising Ways to Use a Steam Cleaner in Your Kitchen

Cleaning and disinfecting are hot topics these days, so you might be delighted to learn a dirty little secret: Steam can do both, and more easily than most tools in your household arsenal. Although handheld steam cleaners are usually reserved for treating fabric or carpet stains or getting wrinkles out of clothes, they come in handy for a lot of other grimy jobs around the house, and particularly in the kitchen.

“The great thing about steam is that it acts as a disinfectant,” says cleaning guru Melissa Maker, founder of Clean My Space. The temperature at which water turns to vapor, 212 degrees F/100 degrees C, will kill bacteria, including the kind that cause odors, so look for a quality machine that reaches that temperature at the nozzle tip, Maker advises.