Every cooking kitchen has this

You turn the hood on every time you cook. You are careful about it. And you still end up with that grey fuzzy layer on top of your cabinets.

Your hood takes out what rises directly above the stove but not everything. Small amounts of grease particles travel through the whole kitchen. They land on every horizontal surface they can find, cabinet tops, light fixtures, ceiling, and then the dust sticks to them. Over years it turns into something that is surprisingly hard to clean off and makes the kitchen smell stale in a way that is hard to name.

If you cook regularly it is inevitable. But it is not a reason to stop cooking.