A Surprising Use for That Grapefruit You Have Sitting Around

Have you heard? It’s citrus season. In the midst of winter, lemons, oranges, grapefruits, and limes bring unexpected—but well-received—moments of brightness. Well, it seems citrus isn’t here just to bring light to our plate and our palates, but to our sinks, our glassware, and our porcelain as well. Just today, I pulled a hack from Buzzfeed; it recommends using a grapefruit to remove pesky watermarks and stains from sinks and counters. So, with a bit of gumption, a teaspoon of curiosity, and an armful of citrus, I headed to our staff kitchen to see if this hack would hold up.

The directions read as follows:

• "Cut your grapefruit in half, and coat the halves in kosher salt. You can scrub the salt in with your fingers to saturate it enough to stick."

• "Scrub the half into a heavily water-stained faucet or glass. The coarse salt will scrub off grimy build-up, and the citric acid will eat away water stains, leaving a fresh, natural scent."

Seems easy enough. For the sake of experiment, I grabbed a lemon, a lime, and an orange, as well. I wondered if they would have as strong of an effect as the grapefruit. I spotted a basket of well-worn Mason jars and grabbed four of the dustiest, rustiest I could find. Why, you may ask, was there a basket of aged Mason jars sitting around? Well, this is Food52, after all.

With four fruits and four jars, I began my trial. I started by coating each of the sliced citrus halves in a generous layer of kosher salt. This part was easy enough and actually produced four beautifully dusted slices.

Next, I set about scrubbing each jar. I used a healthy combination of elbow grease and my newfangled tools to get at that grime. I started with the grapefruit. Almost immediately I started to see results: The salt acted as an abrasive and got at the gray layer on the jar's outside while the citrus juice smelled inviting and fresh. I didn't even have to brush too hard before most of the dirt came off and shine came back to the glass. I then scrubbed each jar with its corresponding fruit. Scroll to see the results:

I wasn't able to get inside the jars and scrub because, well, hands; but I did get the outside nice and sparkly. In some of the images, it's hard to tell, but a considerable amount of grease did come off—can you see the bit of shine on some of them? Of all the fruits, the grapefruit definitely worked best. Was it because of its juice or due to a larger surface area for scrubbing? Not quite sure. Either way, this is definitely a hack I'd recommend. It's super simple and relatively cheap with an ingredient you may already have lying around. Plus, it's completely environmentally friendly, which I'm down for. I'm not sure how it would work on a larger, more resistant stain, but something tells me with a some effort and conviction it might just do the trick.

Do you have any unique cleaning hacks we should know about? Tell us about them in the comments.