Best Way to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances One of the questions that I tend to get asked a lot is how to clean stainless steel appliances. Since we are working in the kitchen for this month’s Household Organization Diet, I thought that this would be the perfect time to answer it and have even been doing a little experimenting on our own stainless steel appliances as well.
First off, there are many different grades and types of stainless steel so what is best for mine, may not necessarily be best for yours. Even with our own appliances, I find that the stainless steel on our fridge and dishwasher cleans up much easier than the stainless steel on the oven. What I recommend is starting with the most economical cleaning option and expanding out from there if it is not working for you. I have really tried to cut back on the amount of cleaning supplies that I use and stick to green cleaners as much as possible. Finding cleaning products that serve multiple purposes
will help to save you a lot of time, energy, and money, so look for products that you already have in your home first before going out and buying something new. No matter what cleaning method you use, there are a couple of general rules of thumb to follow… 1. Do not let the cleaning agent dry on your s tainless steel. Give it a wipe and buff it with a dry cloth. 2. For the most part, less is more, so use your cleaning product sparingly. You can always add more, but using too much product can definitely eat up your time and will require more scrubbing and polishing to get it off. 3. Wipe in the direction of the grain. For all of our appliances, this is side to side rather than up and down. 4. Invest in good microfiber cloths as you will need them no matter what cleaning method you use. I use a Norwex polishing cloth and the Norwex cleaning cloths for 80% of my cleaning and have had the same cloths for about 3 years now. This is one time that the dollar store clothes just don’t cut it.
I generally just use the Norwex polishing cloth and a water bottle {filled with either plain water or a 50:50 mix of water and vinegar for extra cleaning power} to clean my stainless steel and will give it a quick wipe as part of my daily kitchen cleaning routine.
If it is extra dirty and greasy, I will use a microfiber cloth first to scrub and then use the polishing cloth, but, honestly, that is rarely needed. While this works great on the fridge and dishwasher, it does leave a slight streaking on the stainless steel on the oven. For the most part though, it is pretty insignificant and, for the sake of time, that is usually all that I use.
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