Wooden worktop in kitchen

[todaywasfun]

We've just moved to a house with a newish wooden worktop (ikea). In the previous house, we had a laminate one that we could spray liberally with kitchen spray and wipe down every day so it was all shiny and clean. I am assuming that this is not a good idea with a wooden one. My question is: how do I keep the wooden one hygenic? It gets grubby, covered in crumbs etc, even though we have put cork mats all over it to protect it. Plus we are getting through masses of kitchen roll wiping off all the splashes of water, especially around the sink (and the oil seems to come off when we do this). Frankly me and DH are despairing of ever being able to live with it. Please help!
PS - we have bought the oil from ikea for it and I will applying it v.soon and v.often!

We have wooden worksurface, no probs. I spray it liberally etc, but wood is a natural antiseptic so it's probably more hygenic anyway. Do oil it to make sure water doesn't get in the grain, other than that it's great

Thanks skibump. Do you have to dry it off after cleaning?

I just wipe mine (good solid sepo wood) with a damp cloth usually, or occasionally dettox. It does get a bit wet and horrid around the sink, but is otherwise fab. Dh used to oil it every 3 months or so, but it's def less often than that these days.

I marked ours very badly just before we put our house on the market (I put some clothes cleaning chemical on it and it removed the vanish and in the same week I put a pan on it and burned the wood). However, a quick sand with a sander and it was gone (Dh points out it was infact 2 days of several hours)! Good as new!

So don't panic about water marks - yes it doesn't look so good but you get used to it and you can always sand them off if you can be bothered!

oh, and fwiw, we think the ikea oil is crap - takes AGES to sink in - use normal teak oil (B&Q)

Have to say, we also inherited a wooden work surface, and I bloody hate it - damp got in round the sink when we were on hols (taps leaked), red wine stains, raspberry stains, you name it ... we'll be replacing ours before we sell!!

Thanks all. Will try ikea oil - may have to try something else by the sounds of it.
Situation not really helped by a really useless tap that splashes everywhere.

Aack, don't use teak oil -- it's potentially toxic. Use Danish oil or boiled linseed oil, you get these from quality kitchen places.

Thanks for the link, lljkk - very useful

I love my wooden (ikea) worktop. Was a bit chary about it before I got it but totally converted.

You don't need to wipe off water religiously - just make sure you wipe it off before you go to work/bed ie don't leave water standing on it for hours and hours. If you oil it regularly (every 6 months or so) it should repel the water fairly well.

Personally I don't use cork mats...? They're quite hard-wearing.

Don't use harsh cleaners, just a dab of washing up liquid on a sponge is fine.

One tip: don't let persil non-bio washing liquid come into contact with it - god knows what's in that stuff but it stripped years worth of oil off my worktop in about 30 seconds - there is a big bald patch now!

DofM - thanks.
Cork mats are just to stand cups and glasses on. We managed to mark the worktop on our first day in the house with a slightly wet glass from the removals men and have decided to take no more chances...
Maybe I am being slightly paranoid (must have wiped up splashes around the sink over 20 times in the course of making dinner today!)