shine your sink

I have a love/hate relationship with my kitchen sink.  It's a stainless steel double sink with a dish rack in each side.    I love how good it looks when it's clean: it makes the whole kitchen shine.  But I get so frustrated with how quickly it gets dirty.

Now, I will admit that I am severely lacking in the housewife skills department.  I hate chores and will do anything to get out of them.  But a couple weeks ago, I was browsing Pinterest when I came across a tutorial on Shining Your Sink from FlyLady.net.  It seemed like a pretty easy process, so I decided to give it a try.

The day before I tried this sink-shining technique, I had rinsed and wiped out the sink like I always do.  Today, after doing the dishes, it looked like this:

Gross.  Not only does food get stuck to the bottom of the sink, but you can see the sides are dull and full of water stains.

Before I started any cleaning, I first put on my pretty apron.  It always makes me feel like Susie Homemaker.  I also turned on my favorite playlist (usually country).

Then I tackled the sink.

Step 0: First, I took out a bottle of bleach and some Ajax.  I bought this bottle at Walmart for about $3.

Step 1:  Then I filled each side of the sink with hot water all the way to the top, making sure to cover the lip.  Then I added one cup of bleach to each side. 

FlyLady says to fill and clean each side of the sink separately, but that sounds like a waste of time to me.

Step 2: I let my sink sit for one hour.  While I'm waiting, I clean the rest of the kitchen.

Step 3: I drained the sink.  FlyLady suggests that you use tongs or wear gloves to do this so the bleach and hot water don't irritate your hands.  I brave it without these.

Step 4: Then I rinsed my sink very well, making sure that all the bleach had been rinsed away.

Step 5: I scrubbed the entire sink and faucet using Ajax and the green side of my sponge.  Then I made sure to rinse all the cleanser away.  

(NOTE: If you have a stainless steel sink, DO NOT use SOS pads to scrub the top of your sink.  It will scratch the finish.)

Step 6: After the sink was completely rinsed, I used a butter knife to scrape the grime from around the rim and faucet.  This part is always the hardest for me as I have a hard time getting behind all sides of the faucet, especially in the back near the wall.

Step 7: Finally, I completely dried the sink using a hand towel.  

If your sink is not shiny after all that, you can use a window cleaner like Windex to give it a nice shine.

This is my clean sink without using Windex.  My racks do not need to be scrubbed after they are soaked, but if yours do, you can just throw them in the dishwasher.  

Using this technique to shine my sink always makes me smile.  It's so easy and works every time!