A few months ago, I was browsing Pinterest and found a pin that peaked my interest. I was skeptical, but it peaked my interest enough to try it out. I have porcelain sinks. As long as I have lived, I've had porcelain sinks. It is my dream to one day have a stainless steel sink. Why? Because of this:
Holy nastiness. I have usually been able to clean my sinks, because of the condition that they were in when I moved into the place. This time around though, we moved into a short sale home, occupied by renters who clearly did not care about the place. I didn't think too much about the condition of the home because we were getting a screaming deal for it. But the sink was one of those parts of the house that was already beat up. And no amount of cleaning has helped. It just gets progressively worse. 3 years after we moved in, I finally accepted that it just wasn't going to get any better. Until the Pinterest article. Just to be able to compare all the following photos, here's a close up of one side of the sink (hint: this is the image you are supposed to forget after reading this article. Gross.)
And here is the list of the things that I was told to buy/use:
1. Dishwasher Detergent
2. Clorox Spray Cleaner
3. Bar Keeper's Friend
4. A Sponge with an abrasive side
And here is the process. First, I used my dishwasher detergent, plus a little Lemishine. I have to use Lemishine in my dishwasher because I have hard, hard water. It gets my dishes cleaner and I don't have spots on them. The article said I could use dish soap, but dishwasher detergent is a little stronger, and is slightly abrasive. I used the soft side of the sponge, since I knew that this step is mainly to get rid of the gunk still in the sink. This is what it looked like after this step:
Okay, a tiny bit of difference. But there are still 2 more steps. The next step involves the Clorox Spray. In my opinion, bleach is kind of the end all, be all of cleaning products. I use it in my laundry. I use it on my sheets and towels (I own all white sheets and towels - a little move I made when my kids kept getting sick. This way, I can bleach the crap out of them whenever anyone gets sick. Kill those little germs!). I use it when cleaning bathrooms. So it just makes sense that it would work here. I sprayed it in the sink, making sure to thoroughly coat it. And I walked away. I let it sit for about 15 minutes. Came back and found this:
Holy crap. Big difference? Uh, YEAH! But what you can't see in this picture is that there is a tiny bit of grime left. Not much, but enough to push me to the final step. Bar Keeper's Friend. Several years ago, my mother-in-law told me about this product. I thought it was just another version of cleanser. Fancy shmancy version. And when something like that gets in my head, I tend to dig in my heels. I'm kind of stubborn that way. But since this sink cleaning deal came in a package, I went along with it. I was very surprised at a couple of things. First, it smells nice (translation: it won't work, in my opinion). Second, it's not abrasive at all (translation: it won't work, in my opinion). So I squirted some in the sink, used the abrasive side of my sponge, rinsed, and stood amazed at the final product:
Yes, MIL, I am eating my words. You were right. Bar Keeper's Friend is an amazing product. This whole process did not take much effort, only took about 5 actual minutes out of my day. That's a win-win for me. So let's recap the steps - 1) Dishwasher detergent, 2) Clorox spray cleaner, allowed to sit in the sink for 15 minutes; 3) Bar Keeper's Friend. A voila. A nice, clean, porcelain sink. Pinterest proven.
