How To Make Your Stainless Steel Sink Shine


How to use natural ingredients to clean your stainless steel sink and make it shine!
 I'm writing this post and it feels like midnight, but it's really only 7. Curse daylight saving time! But, seriously. Where has this year gone? I can't believe we are this close to Winter already.

Since holiday parties are about to get into full swing, I figured this little tip would help make your kitchen sparkle for your guests! A year or so ago, I was talking with my sister-in-law, and somehow cleaning stainless steel sinks was brought up. I mentioned how I hate mine and I can't do anything to make it shine, especially without using chemicals. She mentioned that she remembered her dad buffing out their sinks to make it shine. It totally made sense! Well, I tried buffing it and my arms got too tired; plus, it's really hard to get into some of those angles with your elbows and what not. So, I have a time saving tip for that too :)

Here's the before of our sink. Even after scrubbing it with soap. Gross, huh? Yeah. Well, that's like 7 years of grime that just doesn't like to come off. I have never seen this sink shine since a week after we bought the house. I've used Comet and multiple other cleaners, and it does nothing for the shine. 
How to use natural ingredients to clean your stainless steel sink and make it shine!
 So, this is how I now clean my sink and make it shine! First for the cleaning. I use vinegar and baking soda. I put the vinegar in a little dish with a scrubber.
How to use natural ingredients to clean your stainless steel sink and make it shine!
 I first sort of pour the vinegar around the sink. I get into the tough spots with the scrubber; trying to coat the whole sink with a layer of vinegar. I then sprinkle baking soda all around the sink.
How to use natural ingredients to clean your stainless steel sink and make it shine!
 I scrub the baking soda into the sink, up the sides, in the drain catch. Everywhere. Sometimes I need a little more 'wet', so I dip the scrubber back into the vinegar. Warning, this makes it bubble like crazy, it's just a simple reaction the vinegar has with the baking soda.

I'm not too sure behind the science of this, but the vinegar acts as the cleaner and de-sanitizer while the baking soda is the abrasive, helping cut through the grime.

Okay, so now that the sink is clean, it's time to make it shine even more. So, buffing worked, but I needed something a little more. So, I decided to buff the sink using canola oil. I'm sure you can use vegetable oil or olive oil too. I just did about the a tablespoon into each section of the sink, used a rag and buffed the sink. Wax on, wax off type of thing :)
How to use natural ingredients to clean your stainless steel sink and make it shine!
 Here's the after!
How to use natural ingredients to clean your stainless steel sink and make it shine!
 In case you needed the before again:
How to use natural ingredients to clean your stainless steel sink and make it shine!
Yep. Crazy difference there! I wasn't so sure about the oil and how it would hold up to water. So, here's a picture what it looks like after I ran the water for a little bit and then wiped it down.
How to use natural ingredients to clean your stainless steel sink and make it shine!
Still shiny :) This is super quick too. Maybe took me 5 minutes to do both sides of the sink. Even with dishes in it, it still shines :) Obviously, this isn't going to last forever. So, you'll want to clean and buff it as often as you feel like it needs it. Wax on, wax off :)

7 comments

  1. ours looks like crap i am so going to try this thanks xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use Windex with Vinegar on my stainless steel appliances and then buff them with a dab of olive oil. They not only look great but also stay cleaner!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for these suggestions! I did the vinegar and baking soda just as you suggested - and it worked wonders on my kitchen sink! I tried some olive oil on a paper towel after drying it, and it actually seemed to make it duller and a littler smeary looking. After washing it out again with water and soap it was better, but it actually seemed to be better before I put the oil on. Did I do something wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  4. After I cleaned mine I used the stainless steel polish from my new dishwasher, It looked like new.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Same here. I grew up doing dishes in my mother's sink that was installed in 1959. When we purchased our house in 1989, with a sink installed about 7 years earlier, I was delighted to have a so-called stainless sink. Imagine my surprise when I started finding rust in it. Who knew there are different grades of stainless and that not all stainless is stain and rust proof. I certainly didn't! I use a similar cleaning method to get the grime and mineral stains out, but I've never figured out a way to make it shine. Thanks for your tip of the oil. I do have one other suggestion. I accidentally found that Clorox toilet cleaner makes it a bit more stain proof. I was trying to unclog the bathroom cleaner nozzle, and was spraying it into the sink to test my results. Imagine my surprise that where the spray hit the sink had water roll off it like your car does once it's freshly waxed.

    ReplyDelete

happy DIYing! Alicia