Friends and colleagues often ask me which room of the house I consider the hardest to clean. I always reply there is no such thing, especially when you take into account the peculiarities of each home. There is, however, one room that I would always put at the very top of my priority list, the one that requires the most attention to detail and concentration – and it is the kitchen.

Wait, the kitchen?! Isn’t the bathroom more difficult to clean? Let me explain. Yes, you can say the bathroom is messier, and the higher humidity levels create the perfect environment for mould, bacteria and germs.

There are a few things you should consider, though. First, you spend significantly less time in the bathroom than in the kitchen. I mean – fifteen minutes for the daily shower and another ten for the calls of nature, that is less than half an hour per day. Compare this to the time you spend cooking and eating, which in some cases (Christmas, for example) may stretch to a few hours.

Second – the type of interior design and vanities. Bathrooms are almost by definition more minimalistic and simplistic in interior design. You might have the tub, a few shelves, probably a cabinet and a mirror to polish, and you are all done. Compare this to the kitchen, where you have to clean the counter tops and cupboards, the microwave, the oven, the stove, the fridge… OK, you get the picture.

Third, and arguably most important – what you do in the kitchen. You prepare your food there; in my opinion, what you put in your body is what you are in the long run. Call me a germophobe, but I cannot imagine preparing a salad on a dirty counter top or cooking breakfast for my kids on a greasy stove. So whenever I have a home cleaning visit, I treat my customer’s kitchen as if it were my own – with the utmost care and attention