Stainless steel appliances remain a popular material to showcase in kitchens. And why not? They look sleek, modern and timeless — making stainless steel appliances easy to merge with any kitchen design style. If you own these appliances though, the downside is they can be hard to keep clean, until now.
Stainless steel appliances can be magnets for fingerprints, smudges, water spots, and streaks, which means your constantly cleaning your appliances to keep them looking their shiny best. While I personally love the look of stainless steel, I use to constantly wipe down my appliances with an all-in-one stainless cleaner, which still somehow left small stains (like the drip of a watermark embedded into the material) and drove me CRAZY!
This post is in response to a question over on my Facebook Fan Page from Debbie H. who asked, “how do I clean stainless steel appliances?”
Cleaners for Stainless Steel
When cleaning this material you want to avoid using harsh abrasives, scouring powders, steel wool, bleach, and ammonia. These products can scratch, damage and tarnish the shiny, smooth finish.
A few years ago, I discovered a better (and cheaper) way to handle it this cleaning task.
In this video below, I share an eco-friendly way to clean stainless steel appliances without using chemicals. In fact, these are everyday items you probably already have lying around your home.
Quotable from this video: “With just three little ingredient you can find yourself an irresistible piece of stainless steel” – @ToriTothStager
What You’ll Need:
- Dawn dish soap
- baby oil
- 2x microfiber cloths
By following these steps, and you’re going to end up with an irresistible piece of stainless steel.
Start by dabbing a small amount of Dawn dish soap on your microfiber cloth. Rub it into the cloth then, with a little bit of pressure, rub the cloth along the appliance and follow the direction of the grain (usually left to right).
Next, take a second microfiber cloth, put a few drops of baby oil on it and again, rub with the grain of the metal.
The dish soap cleaning the steel, while the oil seals and refines the shine. It’s important to use a microfiber cloth, because it’s a soft material that won’t scratch the grain.
This is just one of several spring cleaning tasks to tackle this season. If you need help keeping track of all your “to-dos” and maintenance projects grab a copy of our signed home planner, Make It Home: The Ultimate Property Project Planner to manage seasonal checklists, design projects and home maintenance tasks.
Tell me how this eco-friendly cleaning hack worked for you! For me, the drips and drops seem to just disappear. If you’ve got a cleaning, decorating or staging question– ask us. We’re here for you.
Happy Cleaning,