Never, because I put soffits above my cabinets.

I have the same as palimpset. I'd not have that space on top of my cabinets. Always looks odd to me.

Zorros, I'm glad you survived! ;-)

I think if you are cooking mostly fried foods, don't have an outside vent, never clean up there and live in the house for 20 years, then yes, the poor person that buys that house will have some major cleaning to do.

Otherwise I think it is a non issue. My cabinets do not go to the ceiling because my kitchen ceiling is sloped, from 9ft to 14 ft.

I purchased two condo units (one after the other) that had metal cabinets where there was a small gap between the ceiling and the tops of the cabinets or the soffit. (Like 1/4" or something).

That actually was pretty disgusting because there was not really a working vent in either kitchen and they had been rentals for decades.

In the one apartment in general I "shaved" layers of dust laden grease off horizontal surfaces with Xacto blades. So it does happen. But both of those kitchens smelled like someone had been frying with bacon grease daily for years.

So I think it depends upon what and how you cook. We don't fry anything really. Maybe a couple times a year. Bacon gets cooked on parchment in the oven.

I heard that some folks line the top of the cabs with paper towels and simply periodically fold them up and replace! I get up there and vacuum a couple of times a year.

When we moved into our rental we spent literally 2 days cleaning the grease from on top of the cabinets. It was disgusting. And that is why even with my 10' ceilings, my cabinets are going to the top.

If there are pets, there will be hair there. And it may come wafting down onto food that is being repaired.

We had open top cabinets for many years. As mentioned above, I put up newspaper and switched it out every spring cleaning. Not a big deal.

That's why I would do cabinets to the ceiling or use a soffit. On the other hand, it's up there and invisible unless the house unfortunately has stairs from the second floor that provide some visibility to the tops of cabinets. What I've seen that's much worse is putting decorative items up there (baskets, chargers, etc.) that are draped with cobwebs and dust.

Such an easy solution - put wax paper up there, and once or twice a year, take it down, and put down fresh. I have 9' ceilings, and one wall of cabinets to the ceiling, and one wall with a space above the cabinets. Whenever I take down the wax paper, there is little on there (I do have pets), certainly not the degree to cause the chest-heaving from that other thread. People get over the top with their hygiene fears IMO. No one is eating up at the ceiling. And if you don't want to spend time wiping anything up there, put down the wax paper.

I have a sloped ceiling in my new build, so cabs do not go to ceiling. As soon as GC is DONE, i am cleaning up there and covering the surfaces.

Are you supposed to?

I can't say - I've only had my new cabinets for 4 years.

Like Chipsa, I have a sloped ceiling, so I can't go all the way up. In my old kitchen, I could stand on the counter and see the tops of the cabinets; this time, the cabs are a foot taller. I would need a ladder to see the tops of the cabs. In the old kitchen, the only time I cleaned the cabinet tops was when I was up there anyway to paint the walls. They did get kind of gunky, because we didn't have an outside venting hood. We do now, and based on the fact that my cabinets next to the range no longer get a film of grease, I'm confident that the cabinet tops are only dusty. Not unlike other parts of the house!

Current kitchen we have an odd combination: Cabinets don't go to the ceiling on 2 sides, the 3rd side has an open soffit, if that makes sense (space above the soffit). I clean mine once a year and it's disgusting. After this reno... never again except the vent hood. Cabinets will go to ceiling. Wish I'd thought of waxed paper last year!

Our cleaner dusts the tops of the cabinets every two weeks. There has been no grease on top at all. We don't cook a lot of fried/greasy food, and we have a strong vent hood. There is no pet hair there either.

When my cabinets were exposed that way, I cleaned them two to three times a year (early fall, pre-Christmas and pre-Easter). I didn't have a good hood at all at the time and things were not horrible up there. But there was plenty of dust to be sure.

This is the one thing that will really bug me in the new house we are building. Vaulted ceilings so cabinets will not go to ceiling. My previous house had cabinets to the ceiling so never had to clean above cabinets. I'm definitely going to put wax paper or something up there that I can change out. I'll probably vacuum up there every so often.

In my own kitchen, I have cabinets to the ceiling -- I would never choose anything else.

In my classroom I have about 4' above my cabinets, and I HATE IT. I clean it about twice a year, and the amount of dust is astounding. I lay newspaper up there to make it less a chore, but I hate climbing up on the cabinets and walking on that narrow ridge. I have about 20' of cabinets, so it's a lot to clean.

I have a little space at the top of mine on top of which I've been running paper towels for years. They're just the right width. I replace them about twice a year, and find them surprisingly ungross.

Your dirt = just dirt

Someone else's dirt = GROSS

;-)

^^ LOL! How true!

Once every 4-5 years. The tops I have take a serious ladder to get to them.

There really isn't that much up there.

Very rarely - tried to clean the tops of the house I moved into a couple years ago. Very dusty and gummy and very hard to clean - 42 inch uppers that are hard to reach even with a ladder and you're not close enough to scrub to the extent needed to clean effectively.

The cabinet tops in our previous kitchen that was a full remodel by us were nicely finished so easy to just dust. I splurged on that knowing how much I hate the gummy, dusty tops when I do occasionally want to clean them.

Love chispa’s comment! So true! Similar to the conversation I was having with my BIL last week. He’s a medical director in a large hospital, bemoaning why, as flu season approaches, people entering won’t use the blasted hand foamers. I said it was because you are asking them to remove THEIR germs to help others. It is OTHER people’s germs we perceive as dangerous. So I said he should put out tubs of germ wipes instead, with a big sign that says, “Protect yourself during flu season! Wipe all knobs, chairs, and surfaces you touch!” He says compliance is going through the roof. LOL.

Re cleaning, just to unhijack here, I clean mine every 6 months. But there’s never much dust, because, I’m guessing, we run HEPA cleaners 24/7 for my allergies to everything in the universe. Gonna try the newspaper thing, though, for sure.

I have about 10 inches from cab crown moulding to ceiling. Just out of curiosity I decided to see just how disgusting it was up there. no much going on. hardly any dust, no grease and mostly really difficult to get there. what was very dusty though was the top edge of the door frame.

You CAN have a sloped ceiling with cabinets all the way up. Of course they have to all be hinged on the same side...

If I can't see dust/dirt, I don't touch it. So, never.

I do not clean them often enough but I would say once every 4-6 months.