Try Doozy pre-cleaner: Doozy Pre-Cleaner

Not painting. I will follow up with Howard’s Restore-A-Finish if needed, or Restore-A-Shine if the shine looks uneven but stain is intact. I have had wonderful luck in the past with both, but never on anything so filthy looking. I will check out Doozy!

Dawn is what I’m thinking, too. In some very hot water, with a scotchbrite.

Would Mr. Clean Original work?

I was in a situation where i was faced with a short term kitchen that had cabinets like that. I said to my self...to hell with the finish, they are going to be clean.....and took and SOS soap pad to the grime around the handles. I was gentle and amazingly enough the finish wasn't damaged.....and the grime was gone in lots less time that I had been spending trying things like 409 and a plastic scrubber.

I have used a VIM cleaner before on the worst spots on my cabinets. It worked great, got off all the bacon grease left on by the last people.

At work we were doing a refinish and had to clean them before refinishing. Gun wash worked best but definitely strong fumes and it did take off some of the old finish. The old finish was just a clear coat and we were putting a new finish on so it didn't matter to us.

I don’t think these ever had much of a “finish” to speak of, but definitely were stained. Just gotta get the grease off. Will start with Dawn in hot water and ramp up. Then restore finish. That is a job I have lots of experience with. But these nasty brown grease shadows, especially around the pulls — ugh. Hope I needn’t resort to SOS. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Thanks, all.

Let us know how it goes. Mr. Clean does beat Dawn in grease removal.

An old NYC apartment of mine had similar cabinets covered with decades of grime. We used baking soda and water paste to gently scrub the grime away. Followed by hot water/ dish soap. It took a lot of elbow grease, but was affordable and WORKED without harsh chemicals or smell. I recommend also cleaning the inside of the cabinets this way as grease gets everywhere not just the doors.

Congratulations to your family!

If there is no top coat you can really damage the wood w what you are proposing. A single layer of a stripper can be superior to scrubbing unprotected wood w water and aggressiveness. Most people talking about their experience probably had a top coating on cabinets which prevented water penetration. You can't apparently be certain of what you have from your descriptions. I've used KOTTEN KLENSER and other times a single stripping application . it depends.... but water / unprotected wood ..NO...stripping is not that bad. Do you have an area? you can do a few at a time. get set up and pull abt 3 doors off. keep going w a few at a time. How many are there? You can upgrade the hardware and hinges as well. When you can really assess the wood and condition of doors thoroughly you can determine if you want a refinisher to work with them . You've done the nitty gritty work. It depends /what are the doors? style and species /what prospects in redoing them in terms of the space and needs/goals of your nephew/etc.