ASpotless Kitchen
How to tackle this much-used room’s toughest spots with surprising everyday items – like salt and ketchup:
Zap stone counter stains with hydrogen peroxide.
You can remove most coffee or juice stains with a little hydrogen peroxide in water, plus a few drops of ammonia, according to kitchen designer Florence Perchuk. For everyday wear and tear of your stone countertops, buff away small scratches
with superfine dry steel wool called “grade 0000.”
Use baking soda to mop up tiles.
To clean tile floors or a backsplash, Marty Hoffman of Hoffman Brothers Floors suggests mixing baking soda and water together as a homemade cleaner. Pour half a cup of baking soda into two gallons of water. Then scrub with a string mop or sponge.
Clean cast iron with salt.
To clean a cast-iron pan, add two tablespoons of oil and place on medium heat. Once the pan is heated, pour in three tablespoons of salt. Next, using a tong to hold a paper towel, scour until clean. Finally, rinse and coat with vegetable oil to cure. Done!
Shine floors with white vinegar.
For wood floors, contractor Stephen Fanuka says, “You want to get a nice clean shine on a wood floor? Get yourself a bucket and mix nine parts warm water to one part white vinegar. This is a cheap trick I learned from an 80-year-old cleaning lady who used to make my wood floors look dazzling.”
Wipe away wall splatters.
There are basically two kinds of stains on painted walls: oil- and waterborne. Benjamin Moore’s Carl Minchew suggests taking a wet cloth or paper towel to the waterborne ones – wine, Jell-O, ketchup, mustard, even smashed mosquitoes. For oily stains – cooking grease or crayon – try using a little mild dishwashing soap mixed in with water, and then rinsing with water.
Remove tarnish with ketchup.
It’s not just for french fries. To remove tarnish from copper and brass fixtures, pots, and pans, give ketchup a shot. Dab some onto a soft cloth and gently rub. Finish by rinsing with warm water.
Clean a narrow vase with Alka-Seltzer.
If your hand doesn’t fit down a narrow vase, then fill it halfway with water and drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets to do the dirty work for you.
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