Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Scrub a Dub Dub

Happy Wednesday!
 
This week is my spring break so I have been doing lots of spring cleaning! Last night we dominated Gypsy's room, that's the hedgehog, it's really our spare room but she lives there so it's hers too ;) That room has been nasty since Christmas! Ah! Embarrassing! I wish I had taken a picture so you can see what a feat that was! But alas, that would be the ultimate embarrassment letting everyone see how awful I let that room get! It's like that one drawer in your kitchen that collects everything from spare change, nuts and bolts, broken pencils, old coupons, random keys to things you don't own anymore to mouse traps. Yes that drawer. Well I have a whole room like that. But at least it is organized chaos now right?! Right?!
 
Anyway I was thinking about how Pinterest is full of those pins about the new green cleaners, and while I just finished cleaning my whole house yesterday with regular cleaning agents (Comet, Windex, Clorox etc.) I wondered if they worked well? I am not opposed to "green cleaners", I just happened to have the others on hand.
Has anyone tried them out?! What worked? What didn't work? Was anything more trouble than it was worth?!
Let us know and we can do a post about it! Send us your stories and pictures here!
 
Let us know, I would go around testing them all but I didn't think about it till this morning after my house is already spic and span, so now I have nothing left to scrub...who knew it could be a bummer to wake up to a clean house?!
 
So all this cleaning had me going through our emails and I came upon two entries that were fails from the same original pin. Let's check it out!
 
The Original
 
 
 
This blog is full of good ideas and fun posts, it's definitely worth stopping by if you have a minute to spare.
This pin is about how you can use the "miracle cleaner" of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda to clean just about anything...
Let's see how it did for our readers yeah?
 
The Pinstrosities
 
From Andrea
 
From Becci
 
 
So what happened?! Clearly it worked for the original blogger, but not so much here.
 
My thoughts:
For one, the original blogger stated that she had a really hard time getting her edges clean with this concoction. From what I see of the first Pinstrosity that is what is having the most issues, and that would explain a little bit of what happened with Becci. However their results aren't nearly as great as the original bloggers.
 
The other thing that comes to mind is that perhaps the finish on the pan and type of pan these ladies were trying to salvage was much different that Jill's (the original blogger).
Another thing to consider is that maybe you could use a toothbrush or a rough textured scrubby to help you out with this. Sometimes elbow grease just isn't enough. I am sure Jill used a sponge on hers, but perhaps hers wasn't quite as baked on as our two unlucky ladies.
 
One thing to think about before you go scrubbing the living daylights out of your pans is that if you scrub too much you can sacrifice the integrity of your pans finish. Becci noticed that after her scrubbing endeavor she had stripped her pan of it's non-stick surface. This makes the pan not as great to use now.
I can say that for most things you can use tin foil on your pan for easy clean up and it will save your pan from a fate like the last two pictures. Sometimes though you are in a hurry and forget tin foil, or you are out, or hubby is making dinner and doesn't realize...life happens is what I am saying. So for all you ladies who have new pans, I would suggest using tin foil, protect your pans!
  For all of you who have older pans which have been beaten to death loved and cherished by food and ovens over the years, I would say give this a good pin to try out but if you are scrubbing hard and it isn't budging it might be time to retire said pan and move on.
 
One more thing I just thought is to perhaps try out a patch on the pan, put the mixture on a small spot and let it sit for five minutes then come back and see how it does with a  little scrub. If it works you have a go! If it doesn't save yourself some time and energy and move on.
 
Does anyone have any other "miracle cleaners" that you have used that you could recommend?!
 
I hope everyone is having a great week!
Stay tuned for Marquette's post tomorrow!
Happy Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps!
 
 
 
 


18 comments:

  1. This tip has saved a few of my cooking pots:
    http://be-it-ever-so-humble.blogspot.com/2009/10/getting-scorched-food-off-pans.html

    That said, I actually like the residue I get on some of my baking pans, especially my bread pans. I try not to wash it off when I clean the pans; it's like a non-stick coating.

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  2. I just want to add that if you scrub off some of the non stick coating, it could be dangerous. I am not so trusting of non-stick and would love to throw out all my pans that have it. Eventually I hope to have none in the house. But I do have some and I cringe every time I use them.

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  3. I tried this pin too and decided it would just be easier to buy a new pan.

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  4. I tried this and got the same results (as in, no results). I was all excited telling my mom, "I found this miracle kitchen cleaner! All our old pans will be sparkling and shiny!" but it actually did nothing at all. I'm not sure it would've done that much though, because these pans are about 10 years old and I think they're permanently stained. Still, I had high hopes. Did not work at all.

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  5. Barkeepers Friend. It's like the miracle cleaner.

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  6. I say leave the pans how they are. My older "seasoned" pans provide better results :) I could care less what they look like.

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    Replies
    1. Yes! Why do we care what our pans look like? No matter how hard I try, my baking dishes eventually get baked on stains. They're exposed to grease/oil/fat in a hot oven...what do you expect?

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  7. Meh. A little bit of clean discoloring on my baking pans so totally doesn't phase me that I choose not to waste my time trying to get it off. I have MUCH more interesting things to do. ; )

    However, this tip for cleaning high chair straps worked wonderfully and was totally worth my time (after three kids, our booster seat's straps were so disgusting that I just couldn't unphased anymore): http://athomeinthebronx.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/how-to-clean-high-chair-straps-14-2/

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    Replies
    1. So...am I the only person that just tosses them into the washing machine in a lingerie bag?

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  8. I've tried this particular pin and had dismal results. However, the pin about using ammonia to clean stove burners (full list: http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/2011/12/did-you-know-round-3.html, my pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/98305204336252656/) works brilliantly. The ones in my old apartment were gross enough that I had to do the ammonia "treatment" twice, and needed to give a bit of a scrub between overnight soaks. However, those burners ended up looking like new.

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  9. I tried this pin and realized that it required a tremendous amount of scrubbing. And quite a lot of the scrubbing product. So much, in fact, that it might be cheaper to buy a new pan. I'd suggest skipping this idea.
    -Mary

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  10. Barkeepers friend for my sink / tub / counters / stovetop / stuff like that.

    Vinegar for my mirrors / windows / sinks / toilet / stuff that needs a decent shining up.

    Vinegar and baking soda for my drains.

    Plain old dish soap and water for my pots and pans. They may not look pretty but I don't really care!

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  11. I once found that baking lemon custard pies (lemon meringue pie without the meringue) in the silicone cups I usually use to bake bran muffins got rid of some of the stain. So maybe a good way to "clean" some of the stain off pans is to bake something really acidic in them?

    Even if it doesn't work you still get some yummy baked goodies.

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  12. I've had pretty good luck boiling food residue off of pans. I'm not sure how one one accomplish that on a large pan like these, but it does pretty well for pots.

    If it's just discoloration, though, and not food residue . . . who cares? I have pans that were used to hold bain-maries, and our freaky water left black marks that outlined the bottoms of the custard cups. It's not organic residue and it has no effect at all on the utility of the pan, so I'm not wasting time and effort to clean it up.

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  13. This pintrosity makes me soooo happy!!! I thought it was just me, I follow Jill's blog and have gotten a lot of GREAT things off of it, but this one was a total bust for me.

    So glad to know it was not just me. Thanks for all of your great posts!

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  14. I second the pin on the ammonia trick for burners. It worked wonders!

    What are everyone's thoughts on homemade laundry detergent? The powder kind? My SIL gave me some for Christmas. Is it supposed to have suds/bubbles? My doesn't and I'm not sure if it's doing the job.

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    Replies
    1. Homemade laundry detergent isn't supposed to get sudsy, but it will get your clothes clean. I've been using it for about a year now and I love the stuff! In the last year I've switched to making all of my soaps, cleaners and detergents myself and I can't believe how much money I've saved and how much cleaner my house looks/smells.

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  15. I've read from some reviews that it might also be the stain itself that is resistant to this method of wash. I had a pan (regular pan, no non-stick) that looked a lot like the one pcitured so I tried this technique and had limited results. It worked meh and the pan certainly did NOT look like the picture. BUT one day I was making brocoli soup and let the soup boil too hard. It was made with whole milk and half and half which browned and left a nasty stain at the bottom of my pot that no scrubbing could touch. I decided I'd try this technique out again. I left it on all day (mainly because I was busy and kinda forgot) and holy crap it worked. A bit of elbow grease with a spongue and the bottom of my pan looked brand new. The stain was only a couple of days old so maybe it helped that I hadn't cooked anything else and have it really set into the bottom. I am going to try this technique on the bottom of my oven though. The baking soda + vinegar and dishwashing liquid did NOT work. Not even a little.

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