Minimalist Kitchen - Fire Safety

More about fire safety in the minimalist kitchen :

Cleaning Products: A kitchen can be kept sparking with just a few cleaning products:
1. spray bottle of vinegar and water for floors
2. spray bottle with a cap full of bleach, dish washing liquid and the rest water
3. Dish washing liquid
4. Dishwasher powder
5. Baking soda to use as a cleanser

Try to store more flammable and harsh chemicals away from the kitchen. For example, if you need to clean an oven just buy one oven cleaning pad use it and then dispose of it.

Grease is no fun to deal with. Don’t leave it on the counter in a juice can for days as I’ve seen people do and don’t try to reuse it ( I know, are you kidding me?) Green Tip: It should not go down the sink drain as this is terrible for our rivers. It should be cooled, put into a disposable container and put into the trash can right away. If you have a greasy fry pan on the stove and a fire happens it’s going to make it much worse.

How do kitchen fires happen? You might ask. Are people just careless? Well I’ve set two so I’ll tell you how they happened. The first time I was about ten. We had a wall mounted oven that I couldn’t reach very well. I simply dropped a cloth pot holder onto the hot filament and it went up in flames. I grabbed two spoons and threw it into the sink where it landed in a greasy fry pan and set the grease on fire. Being home alone, and not knowing what to do, (and we didn’t have a fire extinguisher in our kitchen even if I did,) I ran across the street to get my adult neighbor who brought his extinguisher over and put it out.

What is learned from this story? Don’t let your kids cook when you’re not home, keep a fire extinguisher ready under your kitchen sink, and teach kids that are old enough how to use it. And what did I say about grease?

The second fire I set was when I was a 24 year old brand new mother. I wanted to make fried shrimp tempura. I knew how to cook, but had never really fried before. So I set the oil on the stove to high heat and it soon set on fire. Panicking, I moved it to the sink and turned on the water. Then it flamed up and set the curtains above the sink on fire! (What did I say about grease?) Luckily, my husband was home because I just screamed, grabbed the baby, and ran outside. He simply put the lid on the pot, and sprayed the curtains with a fire extinguisher. Oh well. Fried food isn’t good for you anyway.

Minimalist Kitchen - Safety

Kitchens are one of the most dangerous rooms in the house. They have all the elements for starting a fire: heat, electricity, and water and they contain all kinds of highly flammable items like: paper, cleaning products, grease, wow! There are plenty of poisonous items in a kitchen, sharp objects, and germs, microorganisms, and perhaps even vermin! The best way to keep a kitchen safe is to keep it clean and clear of clutter.

Let’s talk about paper:

Paper: If you use paper towels these should be stored far away from the stove preferably near the sink. I hope you don’t use paper napkins as they are a waste of money and trees, but if you do, they should be stored in a drawer, not on the table, above the refrigerator, and certainly not near the stove! Your grocery list should be stored in a drawer as well. If you have a desk area built into your cupboards, keep the paper in the drawers and don’t have a bulletin board cluttered with papers tacked to the wall and keep your fridge front clear of papers. (Find another place for your kids art gallery.)

Two of the worst fire safety offenders found in a kitchen are junk mail and newspapers. If you read the paper at the kitchen table, don’t leave it there. Put it into your recycling center. The same with junk mail. Most organizers will tell you to open and sort it right when you bring it in and deal with it. I’ll talk more about the horrors of junk mail in future blogs about recycling. (Along with those empty Northwest Micro brew beer bottles.)

One more thing about paper. I was a teacher and school media specialist and have had many dealings with the local Fire Marshall. Classrooms are filled with paper and we were always being told to take down the fabulous 3-d paper trees we had on the wall or the 3-d painted paper fish we had hanging from our ceilings!