Stainless steel items may look immaculate when you first buy them, but with time and use, they start to get smeared.
Many of us turn to chemical cleaners to polish them, but there's actually no need to use these chemicals to clean stainless steel in your home.
In a TikTok video, cleaning hack expert Carolina McCauley (@caroline.mccauley) shows us a better solution.
@carolina.mccauley Super effective and easy way to clean stainless Steel appliances #howtoclean #cleaninghacks #cleantok #homehacks ♬ Stranger - Official Sound Studio
The scoop
In the video, McCauley shows how combining two basic kitchen ingredients can create the ultimate stainless steel cleaner.
One clip shows her pouring baking soda onto the inside of a lime that has been sliced in half.
She then rubs this mixture onto her stainless steel coffee maker so that its surface is completely coated in the acidic concoction.
Finally, she wipes the steel dry, leaving the coffee maker shiny and clean.
"It's an extremely effective way to clean stainless steel appliances," she wrote in a caption. "No harsh chemicals."
How it's helping
Stainless steel is a great material to use in your home, both for its cost-effectiveness and sustainability. It is corrosion-proof, which means it resists rust, saving you from trashing your kitchen appliances after minimal use.
But you do need to stay on top of maintaining your stainless steel products to keep them in good condition.
Specialist stainless steel cleaners are a lot more costly than McCauley's natural cleaning hack. The best-selling stainless steel cleaner on Amazon is HOPE's Perfect Sink Cleaner, which costs $11.40 for an 8.5 fluid-ounce bottle.
The lime and baking soda trick is also a lot better for the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes that some cleaning products, which find their way into aquatic environments via sewage waste, are toxic to these ecosystems.
Some volatile organic compounds in cleaning products can also affect indoor air quality and are hazardous to inhale.
Not all stainless steel cleaning products are toxic, and the EPA includes some criteria for seeking out environmentally friendly products. But McCauley's hack is one simple way you can eradicate those negative impacts without too much thought.
What people are saying
TikTokers have been marveling at this simple cleaning hack, with some chiming in with their own tips.
"Wow I'm trying this!" wrote one TikToker.
"Yes indeed, they're [the] perfect agent in the kitchen. Seriously chemical free," another commented.
"Also toothpaste works like magic to make the stainless steel items shiny," added one helpful TikToker.
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