Here’s an easy 4 step process to clean a stainless steel sink, with a video demonstration. We also share what cleaners to use and include natural options.
How To Clean A Stainless Steel Sink
Keeping your stainless steel sink clean isn’t as difficult as it seems. It does seem like it can be intimidating when you aren’t sure what products to use. Below, you will find 4 simple steps to get it clean and keep it that way.
You can see our video demonstrating how to clean a stainless steel sink here:
4 Steps To Clean A Stainless Steel Sink
Get the gross OFF! Use a solution of dish soap and water to wipe down all the food and grime. Do not rinse. Just let it soak for a minute until it loosens all the stuck-on food. When everything is softened, wipe out the sink with fresh water.
You can skip this step if your sink isn’t too bad but it’s a good idea to do it if you have a lot of stuck on food.
Scrub it! Use either a stainless steel cleaner or baking soda and vinegar. (Bar Keepers Friend is a good inexpensive stainless steel cleaner brand, which does not contain bleach.)
- You can use a product like Comet with bleach if you want. I prefer to use the Comet but YOU CAN NOT LET BLEACH SIT IN THE SINK. If you use a cleanser with bleach, you must rinse it off right away as bleach can pit and stain your sink. Also, if you use this kind of abrasive cleanser, use a lot of water to prevent scratching.
- If you use stainless steel cleaner, just rub on with the grain of the sink and rinse.
- If you decide to use baking soda and vinegar, then scrub the sink with baking soda first. When you’re finished scrubbing, leave the baking soda on. Then pour some vinegar over the sink and let it bubble. Rinse with water. Vinegar is somewhat useful in disinfecting, but the vinegar will not disinfect as well as bleach.
IMPORTANT: When you’re cleaning the sink, make sure you wipe around the edges and the back of the faucet. (See our video.) A lot of people miss this area. This is where a lot of gross stuff can collect, causing unpleasant odors, and the grime can build up over time so that you will have to scrape it off.
If you have missed this area a lot and you have a big build up, you can take a plastic scraper like a pot scraper or a plastic knife and scrape away the build-up.
- Dry the sink: Wipe down the clean sink and counters with a dry cloth. This makes the sink look shiny and extra clean.
- Shine It! To add even more shine to your stainless steel sink, wipe down with a small amount of olive oil or mineral oil and shine with a dry cloth.
To freshen your disposal, you can put a piece of lemon or orange peel in your disposal and run it. The lemon will help clean and freshen, so if you have odors you might try this.
Here’s my #1 Tip for keeping your sink looking good: WIPE IT DOWN IMMEDIATELY AFTER EVERY LOAD OF DISHES!!! Seriously! It takes about 30 seconds to wipe and dry your sink and if you do this every time it will keep the grime from building up. While you’re at it, make sure to wipe the counters, too, and be sure to dry them as towel drying makes counters look shiny and extra clean just like it does with the sinks.
That’s it! As you can see in our video, it really doesn’t take much to get it clean. Once you know what cleaners to use, you can scrub away and have a fresh clean sink in just a minute or so!
Don’t know if this may be helpful or not for your rust/stains, but I’ve used Barkeeper’s Friend (similar to Comet) to clean my stainless steel sink to a great shine for years. It comes in both a powder and liquid form. I use the powder form and a Dobie sponge to scrub the sink and a grout brush to get around the edges and then rinse (maybe twice). Dry it with paper towels and it is good for another round of kitchen going-ons. I’m not sure if it also contains a disinfectant or not, though. Hope this helps. Thank you for all you do to help us make life more enjoyable! Have a beautiful day and may be even a shinier one :)
Usually we just use the stainless steel cleaner and never baking soda and vinegar. I’m so excited to tell my mom that we can make the stainless steel even more clean than it already is! She is going to be so excited to hear about this way to make her sinks cleaner. What should the proportion of baking soda be to vinegar?
Depending on how big an area you are doing just pour out a mound of baking soda and moisten it with vinegar until you have a really loose paste or consistency. You really don’t need exact measurement because even if it is too runny or thick it will still work fine.
I used a bathroom cleaner on stainless kitchen sink and it dulled it and left water type spots that I could not get off. I will try this method. Do you have any other suggestions if it does not work?
We covered a few methods in this post so try all of those like you said. If they don’t work then the problem might be that the cleaner you used either had some acid ingredient or ingredient that may have had a reaction with the stainless steel which would mean it is a permanent thing on the sink I’m afraid.