My husband and I rent a lovely apartment in a house that was built in the late 1950s. And while the place has a lot of charm, there are some old aspects of the apartment that we have to live with even if they are not to our taste. For example, our beautiful kitchen has a porcelain sink. And if any of you have a porcelain sink, you know that it can be an inconvenience for several reasons, the main one being that it tends to scratch and stain easily.
It doesn’t matter that I clean the sink after every dishwashing session. I still end up with a sink that looks like this, even if I don’t use harsh chemicals.
But I figured enough was enough. Just because I have a rental kitchen doesn’t mean I have to settle for a sink that is never clean. I decided to do some experimenting to see if I could get the porcelain back to its brilliant white without using bleach or harsh chemicals. I purchased the following cleaning products:
White vinegar
Baking soda
Hydrogen peroxide
Lemon
Salt
Sponge
Then, I got to work. First, I wanted to make sure I started with a grime-free sink. I poured some white vinegar onto a sponge and gave the sink a good wipe down. Then I gave the sink a good rinse.
Next, I sprinkled a good amount of baking soda on a sponge. And for good measure, I sprinkled even more baking soda directly on the sink (because you can never have too much baking soda when it comes to heavy cleaning!) Then I used a good amount of elbow grease and scrubbed.
After scrubbing just the left side, I started to see a big difference. You can definitely tell which side has been scrubbed in this picture:
After rinsing the baking soda away, I could tell I was on the right track!
Next, I poured enough hydrogen peroxide onto my sponge to completely soak it. Then I scrubbed the entire sink once more. Instead of rinsing right away, I just let the sink sit like that for about 15 minutes.
When I finally rinsed, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had never seen the sink so clean.
Then, in an effort to whiten the sink up even more, I grabbed a lemon and poured some regular old salt all over it. Then I went to work scrubbing again. This picked up some of the stains that the rest of the cleaners left behind.
Next I gave it a final rinse and voila! It’s not perfect, but I’d say it’s pretty darned close, especially considering how old the sink actually is!
And here it is completely dry after the cleaning battle. I’m guessing if I repeated this whole tutorial one more time, it would look even better.
Do you have any great tips for cleaning porcelain sinks? Have you had luck with this kind of method?
