Your kitchen cabinets are exposed to grease, dirt, fingerprints, sticky stuff, and the occasional projectile meatball. Ouch. That kind of stinks, because you paid a lot for them, right? I mean even if your kitchen doesn't look like this one...

...you still don't want to see this stuff on your cabinets. Amiright?

Your kitchen cabinets don't like being scrubbed with harsh abrasives and solvents.

What they do like is to be gently cleaned with a nice, grease-cutting dish soap and water solution, and a sponge. If you need more abrasive power to cut through sticky grease, a coarse dishcloth is a good option, which won't strip the finish off of your cabinets. Your painting contractor will thank you.

If dish soap and water can clean crude oil off of birds after oil spills, it can definitely handle your cabinets. Denver remodeling expert BrightNest says so, too.

Chaya Kurtz writes for Networx.com.

Updated November 21, 2018.