I have very good luck with Mr. Clean for cleaning greasy areas. Though I've had asthma & respiratory problems for quite a few years, Mr. Clean does not bother me. Another good cleaner for greasy areas is Simple Green, which is bio-degradable. Neither of these products have strong scents.

If you are getting a grease buildup on the hood, the first thing to do is to assess the actual ventilation. Your ductwork may be blocked, or too small, or the fan may not have enough CFM's, or even just your filter needs cleaning. Good quality ventilation doesn't really allow much grease to escape the capture area. Never use any type of oil soap or anything with ammonia on your cabinets. It can weaken the finish, and if you ever need to re-paint, you'll need to prime with a specialty primer rather than just recoating with the existing paint. The best thing to use on cabinets is a wrung out microfiber cloth with a bit of Dawn mixed into the water that you wetted it with. That will grab any grease and dirt. But don't forget to rinse.

We're planning to remodel our kitchen and will be tearing out the white kitchen cabinets that were "on-site" built and are now falling apart. I like the look of white cabinets, but I don't like trying to keep them looking nice and clean. We have oak kitchen floors, stained a light golden honey color. When we first built the house 25 years ago, I thought I had to have white cabinets as a contrast to the wooden floors and that's why we originally went with painted cabinets. Now with the remodeling before us, I've been considering switching to stained, but am concerned about choosing a stain color that will complement the flooring. 'Seems most people are building with white cabinets these days and if they do have stained finishes, their floors are tiled. Am I making a mistake to consider stained cabinets with my oak floors? Any advice, thoughts, etc. are welcome. WIth only hubby and myself now living in the house, white cabinets might not be so hard to keep clean... except there are all of the visiting grandchildren who we dearly love! I'd also considered a compromise of mixing stained with painted cabinets. Ours is a large u-shaped kitchen with 2 islands. The only natural light comes from a large window over the kitchen sink.

2. Protect Oven: The excessive debris building up on the bottom of appliance can be prevented by the oven liners and washed and reused time and again. This is begging for trouble when those liners melt. I don't know of a single oven manufacturer that doesn't say, "Don't use liners!". You can see some of the threads here for more on the problems they create. Also, for #4, randomly pouring drano et al is foolish, wasteful, and not good for the environment. Keeping a plunger available for if you have a problem and using common sense like not pouring hot fat down the sink are both better ways to avoid clogged drains. But working methodically to avoid going back over where you were is a good recommendation.