Today I am going to show you how to clean a stainless steel kitchen sink naturally using baking soda and vinegar. This method is simple (six steps) and quick (under ten minutes).
A shiny and clean stainless steel kitchen sink can be one of the nicest looking objects in your home and possibly the nicest looking in your kitchen. But how do you get one using natural everyday affordable household products?
I am going to show you how. In fact, this is the exact process I use to clean stainless steel kitchen sinks for my clients. It is simple, quick, and above all it’s effective.
Before we start cleaning let’s first find out why you want to use baking soda and vinegar to clean a stainless steel kitchen sink.
Why Clean a Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink with Baking Soda and Vinegar?
Baking Soda occurs naturally in the earth and has the following cleaning properties:
- It is an alkaline and base which makes it react with acids
- Dissolves dirt and grease in water
- Moderately abrasive making it a good scouring powder
- Deodorizes bad odors by neutralizing them
Want to learn more about baking soda? Check out Baking Soda — The Everyday Miracle
Vinegar can be naturally made using grapes, apples, coconut, sugarcane, grains, corn, or yeast.
It has the following cleaning properties:
- It contains acetic acid and therefore reacts with bases
- Cleans hard water spots (very important when it comes to stainless steel)
- Removes dirt, debris, and grease
- Disinfects and deodorizes
Want to learn more about vinegar? Visit The Vinegar Institute
Vinegar and baking soda are also affordable household products that you probably already have in your home and use for other household purposes.
What You Need to Clean a Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink
- A couple of tablespoons of baking soda
- ¼ to ½ cup of vinegar, depending on how big and dirty your sink is
- Waffle weave microfiber towel or a dishrag
- Oxo Good Grips Deep Cleaning Brushes or a toothbrush
- Non-scratch scrub sponge
- Terry cloth towel
Clean Your Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink Naturally in 6 Simple Steps
- Wet the sink with hot water and sprinkle baking soda around the stainless steel sink.
- Wet the non-scratch scrub sponge with water and scrub baking soda lightly around the sink with the sponge. Use an oxo good grip deep clean brush or toothbrush to clean around the drain and around the base of the faucet and other hard to get to places in and around your sink.
- Use approximately ¼ to ½ cups of vinegar to cover the baking soda paste. This may be easier to do if you put the vinegar in a spray bottle and spray it onto the paste.
- Wipe the baking soda paste and vinegar up with a wet waffle weave microfiber towel or dishrag. Make sure to clean and scrub any rough areas and stains that were not removed with the paste alone. Use the Oxo good grip deep clean brush or toothbrush again if necessary.
- Rinse waffle weave microfiber towel or dishrag and start rinsing the paste off all areas.
- Wipe the entire sink with a dry terry cloth towel.
Below you can see a video of me cleaning a stainless steel kitchen sink.
Now your stainless steel kitchen sink should be clean and shiny. There shouldn’t be any water spots either because the vinegar should have removed them.
You can also clean your oven with baking soda and vinegar. Click here to learn how.
Conclusion
As you can see, cleaning your stainless steel kitchen sink naturally using baking soda and vinegar is simple, quick, and effective.
There are many things you can clean and do with vinegar and baking soda in your home. Visit our Learning Resources page to learn them, including how to make your own Natural Stainless Steel Sink Cleaning Product.
Now, I’d like to hear from you.
Have you ever cleaned your stainless steel kitchen sink naturally with baking soda and vinegar?
Let us know in the comments below.
HI,
Natural cleaning always shows effective results when compared to using harmful and costly chemicals.
Your article clearly mentioned all steps and how to do video just was super helpful.
Baking soda is gentle abrasive, so its great for cleaning stainless steel sinks to remove greasy and dirt residue.
Your idea of cleaning sinks with a combo of baking soda and vinegar effortlessly removes dirt, grime, and other residue’s.
Appreciate you for sharing content on this household issue.
Good Luck
Cheers!
You’re welcome and I hope it helps you when you clean your stainless steel kitchen sink!
Great presentation, Justin, love to see it in action too! I would normally put baking soda and vinegar down the plug-hole which is great in shifting the bad odours in sink pipes.
I have used baking soda and alcohol rubbing 70% to help with mattress problems like fungus or discolouration and it’s amazing how it shifts that stuff, because of condensation within the rooms.
I have used baking soda and cocount oil to brush teeth and I think a bit of taumeric too!
Cleaning a stainless steel sink is something I haven’t tried yet.
I want to go and clean my sink now! lol. or can I borrow you to do the cleaning for me? especially my oven wow I will definately try out the paste version over night.
So glad I came across your post, I am also like to use natural substances to clean, rather than the so toxic cleaning agents they have out there.
Love how bold and simple your post is and easy to follow. Great read Thank you.
You’re welcome. Sounds like you’ve used baking soda in the past. Sorry can’t come to your house to clean but do give this baking soda and vinegar cleaning method a try! Thanks for the comment!
It may seem funny to some, but detergents are quite expensive where I’m from, so that’s why we never used them in my household.
The smell of vinegar will always remind me of my auntie cleaning the house. There’s nothing that removes bacteria quite as well as vinegar does, and here it is again, being a saviour and helping me clean my sink once again.
Thanks for the in-depth explanation. I appreciate it!
You’re welcome. Vinegar and baking soda can clean a lot of household things and they’re inexpensive to buy. So if you can avoid buying detergent just use them.
Great article! I absolutely love using Baking Soda whenever I can. I don’t know why I never thought of using it on my sink! I usually buy stainless steel cleanser but it cakes up and I can never get it out of the container so it becomes a wast of money. Thanks for pointing out such a great and chemical free solution. I’m going to do this today! I’m going to look around your website for other cleaning hacks. Thanks again!
You’re welcome. Baking soda and vinegar is a very inexpensive way to clean and you won’t need to waste money on other cleaning products.
I love the idea of natural cleaning. We have a lot of iron in our water; therefore, our sinks looked just like those on your picture to the left.
Thanks for showing the “how-to” video. After watching it, I went ahead and cleaned them. Now they look beautifully shiny.
Can I use this same concoction to clean my tile floors and their grout?
JeannetteZ
You’re welcome Jeannette Z! I’m glad you used the baking soda and vinegar cleaning method on your stainless steel sink. For the grout on tile floors, I usually use baking soda & water or hydrogen peroxide. But be careful because the longer you leave in on the grout the whiter it will get. If you don’t want the grout to get real white, don’t leave it on there for real long.
Perfect timing man! I was just looking at my stainless steel sink last night and thinking how I need to go at it and give it a good cleaning.
I really dig that the method you provided is using natural products and how easy it is to source baking soda and vinegar. Throw in a little elbow grease as they say and I should have it looking shiny again in no time.
Also have to clean my bathtub soon lol, tired of using comet. Would this concoction work for my tub also?
Thanks Robb! Yes baking soda and vinegar also work in the bathtub. I use baking soda and a non-scratch scrub pad to scour my client’s bathtubs and vinegar to shine the bathtub stainless steel handles and faucets. It’s very similar to the cleaning process I use for the stainless steel kitchen sink.
Hi Justin ,
Well presentation Baking Soda and vinegar reaction is very effective and it does work well as you proved in practical.
I wish to see more article you will bring for us. Good luck .
Regards,
Goutam
Thanks Goutam!
I have sometimes combined baking soda and vinegar and it always has this chemical reaction, the mixture begins to sizzle, it looks cool actually 🙂 I often use baking soda and vinegar to clean, because it’s natural, there are no strong and harmful chemicals and it does a great cleaning job. It also eliminates bad smells. Is baking soda the component that eliminates bad smells?
Yes Christine, baking soda neutralizes bad smells. I’m glad to hear you use baking soda and vinegar to clean!
Hi
Very nice trick for cleansing a stainless still kitchen. I did know about baking soda but not about vinegar.
I will definitely have to try it.
Many thanks for sharing
Cheers
You’re welcome Arnaud. Give it a try!