You've cleaned everything else, now for the kitchen sink
Posted on 28/09/2016
You have just finished cleaning your entire house from top to bottom (because you know that that’s the right way to clean your house), you are about to sit down, put your feet up, put the telly on and convince someone to make you a cup of tea.
Then you make a realisation that chills you to your core. You thought you’d cleaned everything, you were sure you’d cleaned everything, but you forgot one vital thing. You forgot the kitchen sink.
Cleaning everything but the kitchen sink may be a cliché, but it isn’t really a viable option for you. Unfortunately, as you know, it can be very difficult to get that shine back to your kitchen sink, between you and your family, a lot of different liquids (and occasionally other things) find themselves splattering the sink and the stains, marks and grime look like they’re never coming out.
But not all is lost, there are tricks that can be used to make your kitchen sink look like it did the very first day it was used.
The sink
A daily wipe down with a soft sponge and or rag and a mild soap will help keep your sink cleaner, but it will still need weekly attention. When cleaning stainless steel, avoid anything that contains bleach or ammonia, or any abrasive cleaners as these can damage your sink.
For your weekly clean of your sink, start by rinsing it thoroughly to remove all remnants of food that may contains salts or acids that could potentially damage the finish. Sprinkle a liberal amount of baking soda onto your sink and rub it with your hands until it becomes almost a paste. Leave this for ten minutes and then rinse away thoroughly.
Soak sheets of kitchen roll in white vinegar and place them in the sink. Leave these in place for no longer than half an hour, 20 minutes should do it, then remove and dispose of them. Rinse the sink out with warm soapy water.
For the taps, use a mild soap and water solution, a discarded toothbrush can help you get into those hard to reach areas.
The garbage disposal
If your sink has an attached garbage disposal unit, it is equally important to clean and maintain this. Conveniently the baking soda and vinegar you have utilised for your sink will also come in handy here.
Half fill a cup with baking soda and sprinkle that into the disposal unit, follow this with a cup of white vinegar.
Next you will need ice cubes, two to three cups full will do fine. Pour the ice down the drain and sprinkle rock salt (coarse sea salt will work as an alternative), run the tap over the ice, as it starts to melt turn on the garbage disposal. Be careful with that as it takes practice for the risk of the ice water going everywhere to be fully alleviated. The combination will help to remove the grime and dirt from the inside of your disposal and reduce the risk of the unit becoming jammed.
You can finish here, but many people advise cutting citrus fruit (lemons or limes) in half and putting them into the disposal before turning it on. Not only does this help to clean the drain a little more, it will also help to neutralise those unwanted odours that can be created.
A simple solution for an age old problem, so the next time someone tells you they’ve cleaned everything but the kitchen sink, you can smile slyly to yourself, knowing that you now know the secrets of the perfect clean sink.