The Nightmare of Stainless
It looked so shiny in the showroom, so clean, unmarked and spotless, you simply had to have it! You waited patiently for it to arrive and if you are honest enough to admit it, you were actually excited about your new stainless finished kitchen appliance.....
Then it arrived, looking fantastic....and thats the last time you saw it sparkling, finger print free!
The rise in popularity of stainless steel cookers, fridges, dishwashers, toasters and kettles has only made the problem of cleaning worse. You have a plethora of fingerprint magnets in the kitchen!
Make sure you actually have stainless, some finishes look like stainless but in fact are silver finish lacquers or even worse silver painted plastic. You must ensure you have stainless steel finish as some of the advice below will damage other surfaces.
Cleaning Methods
There are lots of ways to clean stainless, but lets cover a few DONT'S
- Never use anything abrasive
- Never use anything sharp
- Never mix chemicals
However, the first thing you are going to need is a microfibre cloth and if you haven't followed our home cleaning blog (you should!) and been converted to microfibre, now is the time to make sure you have some to hand. The are perfect for anything shiny, glass, mirrors, windows, tiles and yes, stainless steel!
Eco Cleaning
Baking soda is another old friend, its cheap and effective. In this case, mix 2 parts soda to 1 part salt, cut a lemon in half and use this as your "polisher". The paste will gently clean your stainless sink or cooker. You can use this in pans too!
Rinse with water and buff with your micro fibre.
Limescale and Water Staining in Sinks
If your sink is a little older, maybe even a little neglected, then limescale could be a problem. The baking soda paste may remove "light" marks, anything heavier needs a heavy duty solution. Fear not, help is at hand in the form of Toilet Cleaner (limescale remover), Harpic to be precise (although other limescale removers should work). Apply the cleaner over all the marked surfaces, leave to work.
Rinse with water and buff with your micro fibre.
(Getting the hint with the microfibre yet?)
Maintenance
Now you have cleaned your stainless you want an easy and quick way to maintain its lustre. I have a kitchen fitter to thank for pointing me in direction of a trade product; its an aerosol and its very effective. We'll put this in our webstore shortly.