How To Clean a Stainless Steel Sink (Remove Your Rust & Freshen Too!)

Find out how to clean a stainless steel sink and remove rust! This will also clean your sink drain and freshen your sink at the same time.

How to clean a stainless steel sink, remove rust, and clean your drains too!

I’m super excited to share this quick fun tip that works great if you have a rust stain in your stainless steel sink.  As a BONUS it also cleans your sink drain!

I once left an old baking pan in our sink to soak, and it left a nasty rust stain on the stainless steel that needed some TLC.  I knew that I wanted to use a natural disinfectant or homemade cleaner to clean this rust stain up, but wanted to make sure I didn’t use anything that would hurt the stainless steel.

I remembered I had an extra lemon in my fridge (and always have baking soda in the pantry), and put together this easy DIY  stainless steel sink cleaner.

All you need is a lemon and about a cup of baking soda, plus a bit of hot water.   For the best results, be sure to rinse the sink before beginning. 

This rust stain was super easy to clean off. I just poured a little baking soda on the stain, cut the lemon in half, squeezed out a bit of lemon juice, and then used them lemon to do a quick scrubbing.

In under a minute the stain was gone!

Since my garbage disposal can always use a thorough-de-stinking, I cut the lemon into quarters added some ice, and let the disposal churn it all around a bit. (Note, your disposal will sound awful while this mixture is running through, but the ice will sharpen the blades and the lemon will make the disposal smell fresh!)

I definitely prefer to use these natural ingredients when doing something like this rather than using a drain cleaner.  If you have a clogged drain, you can also use a baking soda and white vinegar mixture to loosen before using the lemon and ice.

I did a super quick clean out of the sink using a few drops of olive oil (I’ve always used it to shine my stainless kitchen sink).  Just buff the sink with a rag to make it really shine. This will help get any water spots off too.

And the sink’s all freshened up, as good as new, clean, and dry.  Love that!

Print Recipe

How to clean a stainless steel sink (and your sink drain too!)

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Baking Soda
• 1 Small Lemon

Instructions

How to clean A Stainless Steel Sink (and remove rust)

• Rinse your sink
• Cut Lemon in half
• Place about 1 Cup of Baking Soda on rust stain or across your stainless steel sink
• Use the lemon to scrub the baking soda
• Rinse and Dry
• If you're looking to shine your sink, add a few drops of olive oil and massage in using a soft cloth

How to clean your sink drain

• Take the half lemon you used to clean the sink and cut into quarters
• Get a cup of ice
• Place lemon and ice in drain disposal and run until ice has gone through disposal

Do you have any other tips for cleaning stainless steel? I’d love to hear them – leave a comment to share!

Looking for more DIY cleaning?  Here you go!

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• Homemade Window Cleaner
• How to Clean a Dry Erase Board
• Homemade Ring Cleaner