This Clever Hack Keeps a Hard-to-Reach Part of the Kitchen Clean

By Ally Childress

Published on Oct. 25, 2024

This tiny spot gets really gross, but you can keep it clean with a cheap and easy hack

What’s the dirtiest, grimiest place in your kitchen? It has to be the floor between the stove and cabinets. You know the spot. Food, grease and who-knows-what falls into the gap next to the stove, never to be seen again. “Cleaning the floor under the gap can be very tricky since it’s a very tight and hard-to-reach space,” says Alicia Sokolowski, a cleaning expert with 20 years of experience and the founder and co-CEO of AspenClean home cleaning services and natural cleaning products.

Why do we even have that spot, anyway? “A small gap between your stove and kitchen cabinets is quite common,” Sokolowski says, noting it’s usually caused by “uneven walls or floors, installation standards or adjustments that were made to fit your appliances.” Older homes tend to have bigger gaps. “In modern kitchens, people often try to minimize these gaps, but gaps can still occur due to variations in cabinet or appliance sizes,” she says.

Sure, you can pull out your stove from time to time, bracing yourself for the disgusting remnants of meals gone by. But what if there was an ingenious hack to make cleaning that spot so much easier? There is! All you need is aluminum foil. Ahead, Sokolowski explains how you can save your back (and your otherwise spotless kitchen) with this cheap, easy and oh, so clever hack.

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You name it, it gets down there. We’re talking crumbs, food spills, utensils, grease, dust, random household debris and even pests like ants and mice, according to Sokolowski. That’s why cleaning this area is so essential.

But cleaning the floor between your stove and cabinets is no easy feat. “If the gap is particularly small, reaching [under] there with any standard cleaning tools might be difficult,” she says. To really get this area spotless (without the hack, that is), you’re probably going to have to move your stove. “This can be very time-consuming and require extra effort—especially with a heavy stove.”

“The foil works very well because it creates a barrier that prevents food, crumbs or other small items from reaching the floor,” Sokolowski says. “It’s an affordable, quick and easy fix.”

Say what now? Where does the foil actually go? Well, it’s really clever. Just fold the foil into a long rectangular “boat,” and slide it in the gap. That’s right—it sits on the floor between your cabinets and stove and catches everything that falls down the gap. Genius!

Still unsure how this can work for you? Read on—we’ll walk you through it step-by-step.

Ready to catch some crumbs? It couldn’t be easier.

But “before creating and applying a ‘boat,’ clean the area thoroughly so you do not trap existing dirt or debris underneath it,” Sokolowski says. Move the stove or use a long-handled brush or vacuum attachment, depending on the size of your gap, for best results. Then, follow these steps.

Frequent cooks should swap out the foil every few weeks, Sokolowski says. If you’re more of a takeout diner than a home chef, you could probably go a few months. It really depends on how often you cook. Just don’t forget about it!

“You should also keep an eye on the condition of the foil, as it may degrade over time due to heat or moisture,” she says.

This is a great hack for a lot of people: It’s simple, quick, cheap and effective.

That said, if your stove is well-fitted between your cabinets, the gap may be so tiny that you don’t need a crumb collector on the floor. I fell into that camp. After tugging and shimmying my stove without getting it to budge, I gave up on trying to move it. The gap between my appliance and the counter is teensy.

kali9/Getty Images

Periodically pulling out the stove for a deep clean—say, if you’re cleaning your entire kitchen—is your first option, but who wants to do that every few weeks? Depending on the size of the gap, you may be able to fit a long-handled brush or a vacuum attachment back there.

But while we’re on the subject of hacks, Sokolowski has another one: “Another cleaning hack … is to use a microfiber cloth wrapped around a spatula to reach into tight spaces without the need to move the stove.”

For a permanent, gap-free life, Sokolowski recommends getting a stove-gap filler, a silicone or stainless-steel strip specifically designed to fill the space between the stove and the counter. “These are usually easy to install and provide a more long-term solution, if not a permanent fix,” she says.

At Reader’s Digest, we’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. For this piece, Ally Childress tapped her experience as a journalist who covers home and cleaning for Reader’s Digest. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.

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