How To Clean your Stainless Steel Sink
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How To Clean Your Stainless Steel Sink
Nothing gives a kitchen a clean look like matching stainless steel appliances… but whoever came up with the name “stainless” steel is a liar!
You can wipe down your fridge and dishwasher… but when that sink gets dingy and stained… that clean, shiny kitchen suddenly turns to drab.
Walk a mile in your kitchen sink’s shoes. It is constantly being filled with dirty dishes with food scraps, having an assortment of colorful liquids poured down it’s drains, being scratched by forks and knives, having hard water run all over it, and having soap dry it out… wouldn’t you look a little ragged after dealing with all of that every day?
Luckily, there are several methods to not only clean your sink, but to polish it as well. Once you walk through your kitchen and can use your sink as a mirror, you’ll be living the clean life!
Get ready for the before pictures… this is post Thanksgiving and Christmas madness… and this is just plain embarrassing!
Method 1 – Basic Clean
For a regular amount of dinge, this method should cover it!
For a seriously dingy sink, try this method, then get into some of the others to really get your sink to shine!
What you’ll need:
Baking Soda
Dish Soap
Vinegar
Tooth Brush or Cleaning Brush or Scrubbing Pad
Get your sink wet and plug it up!
Sprinkle baking soda all over.
Squeeze some dish soap on top of that.
Pour your vinegar over top.
Watch the bubbles do the dirty work while you take a three minute break and enjoy a few sips of wine. (I don’t recommend taking more than 5 minutes as the solution will lose it’s power)
Get your toothbrush or scrubbing pads and put in some elbow grease.
I do not recommend using steel wool. If you are not incredibly gentle, you can create more scratches in the surface that can hold food scraps and stain and will end up making your sink ware more quickly and stink.
If you are brave enough to try steel wool, it can help to buff out some of the existing scratches, but tread lightly! Check out method 2 for a safe way of removing scratches!
The almighty after pictures! A basic clean in 5 minutes! Not bad!
Method 2 – Buffing
For sinks that are in need of a light cleaning.
If you have completed method 1 and are in need of some spot cleaning, move onto method 2 once your sink is dry.
What you’ll need:
Cream of Tartar
Hydrogen Peroxide
Fine Mist Spray Bottle
Buffer Pad or Soft Sponge
Sprinkle your Cream of Tartar over the bottom of the sink.
Spray your hydrogen peroxide to create a paste.
Buff away scratches and stains. Work in a circular motion to avoid creating a grain in your sink.
Rinse and check out the buffed and clean surface of that pretty sink!
Method 3 – Removing Rust
For scratches or dings that have that frightening brown color coming in to greet you, fear not, method 3 is here!
What you’ll need:
Rubbing Alcohol or WD40
Scrubbing Pad and/or Rag
Try sopping the rag in some rubbing alcohol and buffing that rust right off.
If it’s stubborn, pour it straight into the sink and attack it with that scrubbing pad!
Method 4 – Polish
This is going to sound strange, but it has been proven to work! Ask your grandma, she probably did this one!
What you’ll need:
Flour
Microfiber Cloth
Sprinkle a tablespoon or two of flour in your dry sink and buff with your flour.
If you have done Method 2 (Cream of Tartar and Hydrogen Peroxide), and you feel like you need to buff at a finer grit, go for the flour!
Think of methods 2 and 4 as sand paper with different grits to buff out the small scratches in your sink!
(Though I used this method on my sink, the pictures did it no justice, so I skipped adding them in)
Method 5 – Shine and Sparkle
If your sink is clean but just doesn’t match the shine of your fridge, fear not, you’re about to see your reflection!
Not only does this method give your sink a solid shine, it gives your poor sink a bit of moist nourishment! After constant dirty dishes, soapy water and scum, it could use a spa day!
What you’ll need:
Baby Oil (or Olive Oil)
Rag
Pour oil onto your rag and give your sink a good massage.
One or two of these methods should be enough to get your sink looking (and smelling) good again!
A run through all of these methods should make any dingy sink look as good as new!!
Stop by 21 Ways to Make Your Home Smell Great to check out my garbage disposal cubes and other ways to make your home smell incredible!
48 Comments
Neat trick. I clean my drains with baking soda and vinegar. Stopping by from Tip Junkie.
Baking soda and vinegar are a match made in heaven for anything that needs to be cleaned!
Thanks for sharing this trick! Just hopped over from tipjunkie.
Thanks for stopping by! Hope this helps!
Wow. It comes out stunningly! I must remember this #fortheloveBLOG
It really does! Poor dirty sinks tend to go unnoticed until they get out of hand. Definitely pin for later!
Great tips, thanks for sharing. I will be using this advice tonight on my kitchen sink, which is in desperate need of cleaning.
Thank you! I hope yours end up sparkling!
Great tips #wanderingwednesdays
Thank you for stopping by!
Never thought of shining up my sinks with oil! I like using baking soda and vinegar to clean mine, plus some lemon essential oil down the drain for a better smell.
Nothing smells better than lemon in a kitchen! Yes, the stainless steel can get very dried out, oiling it is a great practice! Just like oiling and seasoning your cast iron pans!
I love this!! Always looking for cleaning tips o this is brilliant! #fortheloveofBLOG
Thank you! I’m so glad I could be of service!
Great tips. Added this one to my Cleaning Tips & Tricks Pinterest board.
Thank you! I’m honored!
Hmm, I haven’t tried rubbing alcohol to clean rust before. I should give that a go!
We have a white sink in our kitchen and keeping it clean is a pain. It takes bleach and baking soda regularly.
Thanks for the tips!
Thank you! It works great! Practically disappears before your eyes right back to the stainless steel!
I’ve had a white sink before and I definitely don’t miss that constant maintenance!
That’s pretty nifty!I never even thought to use flour as a polish. I will try now!
Thank you! I hope it works well for you!
Fab tips! I didn’t know this but baking soda is a real staple in our cleaning methods!! I’ll try it on the sink! #sharingthebloglove
Thank you so much! Baking soda and vinegar really are the household heroes!
Talk about synchronicity, I made a quick not this morning to research online how to clean some small rust spots on my ss sink. I’m going to try your method and already know it is going to work great. Thank you.
I’m so glad! Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope it works well for you!
Great tip to use oil. Who would have thought?
It’s not something that immediately comes to mind when you mention stainless steel, but it works wonders!
Look at the shine on that! Great tips, thanks so much for sharing with #Blogstravaganza xx
Thank you for stopping by!
I’ve used baking soda before which works a treat hadn’t ever thought of using baby oil for the shine though – great tip. Su #blogstravaganza
Baking soda is such a great product for cleaning! Yes! The oil puts back the moisture that gets stripped from the sink with constant soap grime!
Amazing results and so super shiny! Thanks for linking up with the #BloggersBests
Isn’t it incredible what a few minutes with ingredients you have in your cupboard can do? Thank you for stopping by!
Love all the different options! Vinegar is such a great cleaning ingredient, so many uses and gets everything looking really sparkling. This does make me thankful our sink is porcelain though! Thanks for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
With so many different varieties of dirt and grime, I wanted to give everyone options for what they need! I adore vinegar! It can be used to clean literally everything! It’s gentle and can disinfect better than so many other products!
Thanks for stopping by!
I had no idea there were so many ways to clean a sink. I like all of these methods because I have all of these things in the house already with the exception of peroxide.
Thank you for joining #ThursdayTeam
That’s what I love about these basic cleaning products! They are so versatile and you always have them around! Thanks for stopping by!
I’m so going to try this. I have a fear of germs in the kitchen and bathroom. Thank you for linking up with #StayClassymama
The kitchen and bathroom are, unfortunately, great nests for nasty germs! I hope this works well for you!
My sink needs a good ole clean so this is a well timed post! Thanks for linking up to #fortheloveofBLOG
Post holidays and the start of a new year is always the best time for a nice deep clean in the kitchen! Thanks for stopping by!
Wow they certainly do like a mirror by the end! Our sink is white plastic and I hate it (we inherited it when we moved into the house and it’s on the to-do list to replace at some point) because it doesn’t clean very easily at all and, being white, it shows up all the stains. Grr. #blogcrush
Plastic?! That sounds like it shouldn’t even be an option for a sink! I hope you’re able to upgrade soon!
THANK YOU! I pinned this to save too. I had a porcelan sink for 30 years andLOVED it. Now I have stainless and do NOT love it. I will definitely be doing this today!!!
I made the transition two years ago as well. Sinks are the hardest to keep pretty in the kitchen! I hope this works well for you!
I use vinegar and baking soda for lots of cleaning, it truly is such a great way to clean without the harsh chemicals. Thank you for sharing with #ablogginggoodtime
It really is the best duo for any cleaning job! Thanks for stopping by!
Great tips! Thanks for these, I’ll definitely try them on my sink – it’s a bit neglected! #blogcrush
As all sinks are! Thank you!