I hope everyone had a great weekend! Ours was nice and relaxing, even somewhat productive. After running errands and doing some light chores today, I decided to tackle yet another to do: the kitchen sink. It’s become quite stained and chipped over the last year from all the entertaining we do for the holidays.
disclaimer: this really is “clean”– and disinfected even!
I have a sure-fire strain removal technique I thought I’d share. I am also going to try to fix the chips in the porcelain for the first time too.
First step is gathering supplies.
To scrub and deoderize:
Baking soda
Vinegar (not pictured)
An old exfoliating glove, scrub brush, old toothbrush or any scrubbing apparatus you have (I’ve used old shower puffs before too)
Citrus peels
For repairing chips:
Sandpaper
An epoxy solution kit with paint brush
A popsicle stick
An old jar lid
Next, clean the sink with soap and water. Then, sprinkle the baking soda in the sink, creating a paste with the scrubbing device of choice. Let this sit at least five minutes or more while you grab a drink, stretch or whatever it is you do for fun. After the wait, plug the sink and pour enough vinegar in to cover the bottom of the sink and start scrubbing at the stains once the bubbles die down. Drain the sink when you’ve got all the stain out that you can get at this point. Reapply baking soda and scrub at the stubborn spots until your arm feels like it’s going to fall off or the stain is gone, whichever comes first. Rinse the sink, making sure to get all the grit from the baking soda off. Finally, fill the sink with hot water and citrus peels, let sit a few minutes, then drain and run the garbage disposal to eat up all the peels and odors. Your sink should be sparking by now! If not, at least you know it’s a clean “dirty” 😉
it doesn’t take many peels to deodorize, this is from one orange
Now on to those chips. Follow the directions on your epoxy repair kit. Mine said to lightly sand the chips to remove any rough edges, then wipe to clean the spot thoroughly. This if course, after drying the sink from our prior cleaning. Once sanded and cleaned again, mix the epoxy and pour half into another container for the freezer in case additional coats are needed once the epoxy dries. This is where the old jar lid comes in. After you have done this, use the paintbrush to apply thin coats of epoxy to the damaged area, letting coats dry for 45 minutes each. The epoxy only stays wet for so long, but I was able to get three coats out of it before it was wasted. Let dry overnight and if more coats are needed, thaw frozen epoxy and apply until the spots are filled. I’ll need to reapply at least another coat with the frozen epoxy tomorrow, but this is how it looks so far.
before
after
