How to Clean a Stainless Steel Sink
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Wondering how to clean a stainless steel sink? Look no further! Follow this step by step tutorial to clean your stainless steel sink and deodorize and clean the sink drain as well!
How to Clean a Sink
Its been just over a year since we moved into our new construction home and to be quite honest I’ve had a bit of a struggle watching the house turn from brand spankin’ new to, um, we’ll just say “lived in”. I promised myself when we moved in I would clean on a stringent schedule and keep it in the pristine condition it was in when we moved in.
And then life happened and, yeah, not so much.
Meet my cruddy kitchen sink. Sink, meet my amazing readers.
Since I sort of neglected the sink and let it crudify itself I thought I’d share my shameful sink and how I got it back in shiny shape-WITHOUT using chemicals or smelly cleaners!
You might also like my tutorials for cleaning and preventing fingerprints on stainless steel and cleaning your dishwasher!
Supplies
Here’s what you need:
- 1-2 Lemons
- Vinegar
- Baking Soda
- Salt
Step by step
First, slice your lemon in two and sprinkle it heavily with salt. This is your scrubber-use it to scrub down the bottom and sides of your sink. When the lemon is juiced from the scrubbing move on to another section with more salt.
When you are finished rinse all areas of the sink thoroughly to remove any residual lemon juice and set aside the used lemons for later, we’ll be back to them!
Kitchen need a deep clean? Check out our 8 Day Kitchen Cleanup!
How to Clean a Sink Drain
To make sure your sink doesn’t just look clean but actually smells clean too there are a few tricky places you have to get to where the nasty stuff hides.
I dare you to go check this spot on your drain plug between the metal and the rubber stopper-gross stuff in there!
To clean the drain plug, heat a bowl of vinegar in the microwave for 90 seconds and soak the drain stopper in it for 5 minutes. After soaking, wipe it out with a damp sponge. SOOOOOO much better!
Another place to make sure you get is the underside of your rubber drain skirt if you have one. You can’t soak this area, so instead wet your sponge in the warm vinegar that you are soaking the drain stop in and wipe the underneath portion of the rubber well. You may be grossed out by what is hiding under there-I was!
Deodorize a Smelly Sink Drain
Okay, now to clean and deodorize the sink drain!
Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda down your drain. If you have a garbage disposal, very quickly turn it on then off to help distribute the baking soda in the drain. Let it sit for five minutes then pour one cup of vinegar (you can use the hot vinegar leftover from cleaning the drain plugs!)
Watch that baby foam with stink-killing goodness!
How to Clean and Deodorize a Garbage Disposal
As the last step, if you have a garbage disposal we can give it a fast clean finishing touch. Simply throw your leftover lemons that we scrubbed the sink with in the garbage disposal, turn on the hot water and run it until they are gone.
Congratulations, you have a sparkling, not-stinky sink and you didn’t use any harsh chemicals!
Do you love cleaning with natural products? Be honest-is your sink feeling a little gunky lately, or am I the only one that forgets to do a deep clean?
How to Clean a Stainless Steel Sink and Sink Drain
Easily clean your stainless steel sink and sink drain naturally, no harsh chemicals, with this step by step tutorial.
Materials
- 1-2 Lemons
- Vinegar
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Sponge
Instructions
- Slice lemons in half. Sprinkle a half heavily with salt and use this to scrub the sink.
- When the lemon half is juiced, continue with the next lemon half until the entire sink has been scrubbed. Set lemons aside for later.
- Rinse the entire sink with water.
- Remove the drain plug. Heat a bowl of vinegar for 90 seconds in the microwave. Allow drain plug to soak for 5 minutes, then wipe clean with a damp sponge.
- Use the damp sponge dipped in warm vinegar from the bowl to wipe the drain skirt both on top and underneath.
- Pour 1/2 cup baking soda down the drain. If you have a garbage disposal, turn it on and off quickly to help disperse the baking soda. Allow it to sit for 5 minutes.
- Pour 1 cup of vinegar down the sink (you can use the vinegar you soaked the drain plug in!) Allow to foam, then rinse.
- If you have a garbage disposal, put lemons from step 2 in the drain and run hot water while running the disposal to finish cleaning the drain.
GENIUS!!! I have never seen that trick salting the lemon!. very nice post, i certainly love this website, keep on it.
I had no idea that the piece of rubber under the sink stopper was hollow!! THAT’S what I’ve been smelling – thought it was the drain. Thank you so much! My sink is now spiffy,
Yes! It gets pretty gross doesn’t it-I remember the first time I discovered it too! ~Melissa
I don’t have a garbage disposal, any ideas on the drain?
I love these ideas. Thanks for sharing them! I have used the vinegar and baking soda to unclog a drain before and it seemed to work well. I have not heard about using the lemon and salt but it makes sense. Thanks again 🙂
Looks and sounds like a great idea. I am going shopping tomorrow to get everything needed.
I pop the plugs into the dishwasher every so often – it gets them sparkling clean. Also, the disposal skirt pops out. You might have to tug on it a bit, but it’s not attached to the sink. I put that in the dishwasher, too.
These ingredients beat anything else. And there are no harmful effects on your family or anything you put in the sink. There’s nothing worse than a smelly sink, except two smelly sinks together. (Also, sorry to be a smartie pants but I can’t not say anything – you have a major spelling mistake at the start of this page in the photo of all the ingredients – look at ” deordoize “).
Thanks!! I saw the misspelling but I can’t change the picture now without breaking all the pins on Pinterest! So I’m stuck with a typo from 2 years ago!!
LOL Melissa. And now I’ve brought attention to it all over again. Sorry. I should learn to just mind my own business.
Amazing advice!!! We have been dealing with sink stink and nothing I’ve tried has worked. I feel totally dumb because it never occurred to me to clean under the rubber disposal skirt! That could have been the culprit right there -it was disgusting! I’m taking the advice from another writer to use a sponge on a handle the next time I do this. And I will be doing this again, regularly. It’s so easy, and leaves everything smelling fresh. Thank you!
I was so grossed out the first time I saw the under-the-rubber nastiness too Monica-it’s SO disgusting!!
You can sanitize your wooden cutting board with salt and lemon. Just sprinkle coarse salt over the board and scrub with half of the cut lemon. Gets out garlic and onion smell!
The importance of home plumbing becomes magnified when you buy a new home. There are many people who confront various plumbing problems soon after they buy their dream home.
Thanks for this. I use vinegar and baking soda for most cleaning but the lemon and salt scrub is new to me. So is the cleaning of the sink stopper – it never occurred to me. Do you have any secrets for naturally cleaning an oven.
I’m way behind the curve on this one, but I’m always looking for new “recipes” for smell-goods at home. One of my faves is sliced lemon (with a little bit of the peel zested in), vanilla extract, and a few sprigs of rosemary. Simmered on low on the stove. Smells amazing! Probably it’s because of my job, but I really pay a lot of attention to cleaning and deodorizing.
For inside the garbage disposal may I recommend using a sponge on a handle to clean it. The ones that are cut into sections from the Dollar Store. I wet the sponge and add baking soda then scrub the inside of the flap, sides and the bottom . Rinse the sponge then continue with vinegar on the sponge to sanitize.
Great tip, thanks!!!! I’m definitely going to try that!
GREAT idea. makes it easier to get under the rubber fins. Also, I put my sink stopper in the dishwasher AT LEAST 1-2 times a week to keep it sparkling clean. You may want to do the suggested cleaning here to make sure you are not putting crud in with your dishes. Once clean, the dishwasher will maintain that clean!
Thanks for sharing this great tip! 🙂
GENIUS!!! I have never seen that trick salting the lemon!
Thanks Jocie-it works really well!!
Wonderful…will give this a try for sure!
I use the baking powder/vinegar trick, but had never heard of the lemon/salt trick. Love it! SO glad you shared, as my sink gets grungy too!
Thanks! I hope it helps, it worked great for me!
Yeah…you’re definitely not the only one! We don’t have a garbage disposal in our apartment, so we have drain stoppers in both sides of our stainless steel sink, and you’re right, that one spot is DISGUSTING! I feel like I clean those suckers weekly and they just get bad again right away!
Great tips! I can’t wait to try this today!!
Thanks Jennifer!
Love the idea of throwing lemons in the garbage disposal! Mine is pretty foul right now too and I never quite know what to do about it. I’m trying this one for sure!