The Best Kitchen Cleaning Products, Tips & Tricks, According to Our Community

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When we polled our community for their best cleaning tips and tricks, a few members pointed to a natural cleaning hack that I have also tried: baking soda and vinegar.

You’ve seen the stories touting its scouring powers and the fizzing and foaming that happens when you combine the two. Surely that indicates that it’s a powerful cleaning agent, right?

Not so, says one of our longtime community members. “Vinegar + baking soda = nothing,” Halfpint noted on the Hotline. Now a financial analyst, she majored in chemistry and spent 10 years in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, and nanotechnology industries, making her expert enough in this basic chemical equation. “The acid and the base neutralize each other and that’s it! It does not dissolve grease (because it’s basically water).”

So why do people keep recommending this cleaning solution? “It’s the fizz reaction,” she said. Baking soda and vinegar produce carbon dioxide gas when mixed together, so “it looks like it’s working.” (The reaction also generates water and a salt, sodium acetate.) Playing with the ratio doesn’t help, either, according to Halfpint; the two components still neutralize each other, leaving a slurry of mainly baking soda or vinegar depending on the dominant ingredient.

Considering how many people still vouch for this cleaning combo, it's hard to scrub it from the record. Everyone does agree that they are both good cleansers on their own, though, and like other duos with similar star power—Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Bacon and Eggs—Halfpint has her own favorite, too.

“Baking soda is good for softening proteins. You can make a thick slurry with a little water and baking soda, apply to burnt-on food, and let it soften up enough to scrape/scour off.”

Vinegar can do the same thing, “but it might not be as effective as the baking soda because it's more aqueous,” or water-based, said Halfpint. Its key ingredient, acetic acid, is diluted by design, making it safe to eat and use around pets and children (not to mention sustainable and cheap).

That’s reason enough for some to reach for natural cleansers, but our community swears by commercial products, too. Here are their go-to brands and tricks to erase any kitchen mess.

Our community’s favorite product for cleaning stains from stainless steel and enameled cast iron (a historically hot topic on the Hotline) is Bar Keeper’s Friend [BKF]. The brand, which sells a powdered and a soft cleanser version, is also beloved by Halfpint and Food52 thanks to its key, powerful cleaning ingredient: oxalic acid (so you’ll need gloves). You won’t want to use this on nonstick pans or porous surfaces like marble, though. The brand lists all the ways not to use it here.

Second to BKF as everyone’s cleaning go-to was adding water to a stained pot or pan and bringing it to a boil, along with a degreaser like lemon or soap.

@formandsavor also likes to pour boiling water down the garbage disposal “for a good, clean deodorizer.”

As for a degreaser, Halfpint prefers dish detergent and hot water, specifically Dawn. “Dawn is terrific at getting grease stains out.” @toma_family also swears by it: “Dawn dish soap works for everything it seems.”

Instagram personality Sarah McAllister (@gocleanco) is the expert that community member Sheila consults to keep her kitchen clean. Her favorite solution combines a gallon of hot water, a teaspoon of powdered Tide, and ⅓ cup of bleach. “[It’s] my go-to for mopping floors, wiping down cabinets, stainless steel appliances, etc. No suds, so no need to rinse.”

For greasy surfaces, Sheila uses “Good old Mr. Clean (Sarah taught me to put it in a spray bottle),” and for cooked-on stovetop disasters, she turns to Easy-Off Fume Free.

To “keep your sponges from getting stained,” @alanfong85 likes to “prewash” greasy dishes by wiping them down with paper towels.

To clean burned pots, @vmdpdg soaks dishwasher pods in them.

And @robinofspring recommended the most unexpected cleaning device: “The thin plastic scraper tool for cleaning enameled [and nonstick] pots.”

Ultimately, the most popular cleaning method our community called out is nothing you can buy in a store. It’s called: having someone else do the dishes. The key is to “Cook…so I don’t have to clean,” wrote @amandas_thename, speaking for all the lucky home chefs who have a partner or teenager in their house to clean up after meals.

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Got a cleaning tip you recommend? Is anything better than Bar Keeper’s Friend? Let us know in the comments!