Day 2: From Grimy to Shiny!

Ok.. I have been SO excited to start this challenge to clean naturally for 30 days!!  Though now I'm a bit nervous to reveal to you how my sink normally looks!  But alas, today's challenge was to find a natural, homemade sink scouring powder. So here goes..I am going to be real with you.  Here is a before picture:



Please take special note of the rust stains on the bottom of the sink and the nastiness encircling the drains.  Perhaps I should have done a close up, but this will have to do! :)

Normally I would use:  This part is a bit embarrassing, too!  So I have already confessed that I am not a stellar housekeeper, so hopefully you won't be too shocked to find out that I normally just use dish soap to clean out my sink. (*gasp!*)

This month I am using: Kitchen Scouring Powder  -  I found this super simple recipe from the DIY Non-Toxic Cleaning Recipes ebook.

Ingredients:  I love, love, LOVE the fact that I had all these ingredients already!



I was able to pick my essential oil of choice- so I went with Young Living's Citrus Fresh essential oil.  It has a great crisp, clean scent which is perfect for spring cleaning a kitchen sink!  (The glass shaker was purchased at the Dollar Tree.)Here is my little helper measuring out the baking soda..



I added about 25 drops of essential oil because I really wanted to smell it when I was scouring!  We even made our own paper funnel to pour the mixture into the glass shaker. After we had put the lid on, we covered the holes with a towel and shook up the mixture to get the clumps of essential oil to dissolve.  This seemed to do the trick!

Getting Down to Business- Sink Scouring:

1. I took everything off of my sink and sadly did not have any sponges available- so I used a dish rag.


2. Making sure the sink was slightly wet, I shook out the powder all over the sink.  Then I used my dish rag, along with an (old :) ) toothbrush to get in the crevices, and scrubbed the sink.


3. There were still a couple of rust stains that had been there a long time, so I shook the powder on those spots and scrubbed with a toothbrush.  Waaaa-laaaaa!  They disappeared!!


4. Then I rinsed everything off and was SUPER impressed with how clean and smooth the sink felt.  Downside?  No shine. :(  I was really hoping for a shiny sink when I was done so I could ooh and ahh!  (Do you see the right side is not as shiny, below?)


5. What to do?! I just kept reading through the ebook!  Towards the back of the DIY recipes book, I found it!  Could it be this simple?!?  OLIVE OIL.   Yes... it takes 1 ingredient, a soft cloth and some elbow grease.  Are you as amazed as I am, that olive oil shined my sink?!  This is a new revelation to me!  It was SO pretty I wanted to put up some yellow tape and close the sink down for the day!

Time Estimate:  10 minutes to make scouring powder, 10 minutes to give the sink a good scrub and 5 minutes to buff out some shine.  = 25 minutes of spring cleaning today

$ Estimate:  $1  Since I had all the ingredients anyway and just had to purchase the glass shaker, it was a great deal!

Overall Rating for Kitchen Sink Scouring Powder:  4.5/5

Conclusion:

The only downside: my hands were a bit irritated from using the cleaner in the beginning (perhaps the salt and scrubbing action combined?)  

The upside: My sink has NEVER been quite this beautiful before!  I was so excited to get such great results from all natural, essential oil infused homemade cleaners!!

What do you use to scour your sink and get it to shine?  Let me know if you try this recipe-  I would love to hear it worked for you!   Happy cleaning!

 

 

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Please remember I am not a doctor or professional and the FDA has not approved these items for  the prevention or treatment purposes.  It’s important that you do your own research and consult your doctor with any health issues you might have.  This post contains affiliate links- thank you for supporting our family and ministry by using them!