Tip for Cleaning Stainless Steel

I've been using baking soda for years to clean my stainless steel toaster and canisters, but I've learned a new trick that makes it work even better.

To clean a stainless steel sink, sprinkle baking powder on the sink surfaces, then pour or spray vinegar over it. Cleans that sink up great! Even took the brown stains off the strainer basket!

The difference doesn't show as much in the pictures as the reality, nevertheless, from top to bottom: the dingy sink, sprinkled with baking soda, bubbling with vinegar sprinkled on that, and finally, after easily rubbing down with a dish cloth. I applied a little "elbow grease" on the worst spots, but it was really very easy.

Removing Pine Sap with Household Products

So you've taken down the Christmas tree, or cleaned the pine cones out of the yard, or just tried to pick up some broken branches, and now your hands are all sticky with pine sap. Yuk! What do you do next?

Products such as gasoline or paint thinner will cut the goo, but we've learned that soaking our skin in such chemicals is far from a good plan. Are there common household products that will help you clean your hands without toxic consequences? Yes!

Two products will do a fair job. These are plain old vinegar or rubbing alcohol. The vinegar will loosen the sap from the skin and allow you to rub it off. The alcohol will dissolve the sap. However, both of these products leave quite a bit of diffuse sticky residue, and you'll need to wash really well with a grease-cutting soap, such as dish liquid.

The clear winner was ammonia. Rubbing ammonia over my hands almost completely dissolved the sap. There was still a light stickiness, but it was removed with an easy washing with dish soap.

Save your money and don't worry about buying yet another product marketed for a specific use. Many cleaning problems can be solved with just a few basic products.

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