Inspired by the folks who described their own homemade cleansers in our green cleaner comment thread yesterday, we remembered this list of simple and safe homemade metal cleaners in Real Simple Cleaning, and pulled it off the shelf this morning to take a look. Perfect for keeping your kitchen or bath faucets shining bright without chemicals!
1. Ketchup brightens copper. According to Real Simple Cleaning, the acetic acid in ketchup dissolves the oxide tarnish that makes copper look cloudy.
2. Lemons and Salt shine brass and copper. Cut a lemon in half, sprinkle with salt and rub on fixtures. Buff with a clean cloth.
3. Toothpaste works on chrome. Choose a plain white style toothpaste, rub on with a damp cloth and buff dry.
4. The acid in White Vinegar dissolves soap scum on chrome. Pour a bit on a cloth and rub it on the faucet.
5. A combination of Flour, Salt & Vinegar polishes brass, bronze and copper. Mix a paste of one tablespoon each of the three ingredients. Smear the paste on with a damp cloth, wipe, spray with water and buff dry.
These five tips are part of a longer list in Real Simple Cleaning, published in 2007, available here.
(Image: bathroomus.com)
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Rubbing alcohol is the best! I use it in the kitchen and bathroom. It's great on stainless steel, cuts through grease like nothing else, quickly restores shine to everything. It's cheap, kills germs and works great. I highly recommend it.
Is it safe to use rubbing alcholol on metal?
I've been using it on everything lately and loving how it cuts through dirt and evaporates immediately. I'm worried about what it might do to metal, though (and granite)
Cheap vodka works amazingly - really shiny and no streaking
I use Windex on my chrome, it makes it beauteous!
For stainless steel, dampen a cloth with seltzer water (fizzy water) and rub. No spots !
I've been putting a 75/25 mix of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle for about a year now and I haven't found anything it can't clean so far. I use a microfiber cloth with it and everything ends up looking brand new and shiny!
I have a cabinet under my sink FULL of cleaning supplies that I don't even use anymore since I started using vinegar.
Rubbing alcohol works great, but it is also flammable. :)
I use cheap Gin as a cleaner (I got it as a gift - Blech!)
Also works pretty well to get rid of the mildew that can grow on a leather coat that's improperly put in the closet damp after a sudden rainstorm. (Another dumb mistake on my part)
Would vinegar also work on soap scum in the shower?
I have posted this before hope this helps-
http://www.ecocycle.org/hazwaste/recipes.cfm#altcleaners
Trish1980- there is a rust solution on there.
Vinegar dissolves mineral (lime/calcium) build-up. Wrap a paper towel around your faucets, soak with vinegar and let it sit for a while. Then scrub clean.
I mostly use microfiber for everything these days, but what I really wanted to say was that between the tequila I buy for my favourite (and therefore frequently cooked) meal and all these uses for gin and vodka I'm going to be making a lot of trips to the liquor store!
Having grown up in the 50s -- on a farm (the original "green" people), the house was always cleaned with vinegar. It is a miracle cleaner and the fact that no harm will come to my animals if they ingest (a tad) while cleaning their foot pads, makes it my "forever" cleaner.
This week I started using a spray bottle of white vinegar and water (50/50 mix) to wipe down the inside of my fridge. The next day, I grilled chicken on my George Foreman and used the same mixture to clean the grill. I just sprayed it and let it soak, the cooked-on particles came right off!
...sort of unrelated, but, I have never "cleaned' my hardwood floors--just vacuumed them. Am I a horrible person? I'm totally afraid of ruining them with even a little bit of water. (Of course, I do spot clean with just a damp cloth).
FYI (from a scientist) --- vinegar also contains acetic acid. So do nettles (but at a much higher concentration!)
The reason alcohols and acids works on stains are different from a chemical perspective; alcohol is an effective solvent, so the things stuck on your pots "dissolve" off into the rag you have soaked in your liquor. On the other side of things, acids act to neutralize bases like soap scum (=soaps and lyes have a basic pH, while acids are acidic). Put an acid and a base together, and you get something neutral..also known as water! ...which wipes right off!
Things like salt and flour do very little to chemically treat the stain or buildup, but they are very good microscrubbers and get into the grime and effectively scrub it away. That's why baking soda is a great scrubbing tool for coffee cups...you wouldn't think that such a powdery substance would be good at scrubbing things, but it is on the scale of grime!