When I first announced that I was getting stainless steel appliances, I had a lot of people thrilled for me because they knew what a beautiful addition to my kitchen they would be, but warned me about the hassle that comes with five children and fingerprints on the stainless steel surfaces. Once they were installed, I purchased the recommended stainless steel appliance cleaner because I am definitely about taking care of investments, and if it meant a more expensive cleaner, so be it.

But honestly, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how easy they are to maintain. Maybe the new models have made improvements? Anyhow, as my stainless steel cleaner bottle has come to the end, this frugal lifestyle blogger feels there must be a more economical way to clean my appliances.

So I did what any educated person in this era does, I googled,

“How to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances.” 🙂

Wow, I never knew that people had so many opinions about  simple cleaning options. Besides tips like using microfiber cloths (which I haven’t tried yet), the recommendation to wipe the steel with the grain using a soft cloth was mentioned as well as numerous stainless steel cleaners. I finally found the frugal alternative I was looking for in a string of comments recommending a product that I grew up with …. Pledge.

pledge

My job as a young girl was to do the dusting, and so I remember that classic Yellow Pledge bottle well. I wish I could say I carried on that skill into adult hood, but it’s not my strongest trait. I believe that is why the Lord gave me a daughter who loves to clean. I encouraged responsibility as a young age, but I had nothing to do with her Type A tendencies, which I LOVE!
As soon as we received the complementary Pledge, she couldn’t wait to try it. It was quite funny. I actually typed the following convo as she cleaned.
“Mom, this stuff works really good.”
“Works really well, honey,”  the grammarian in me replies.
“Yea, well, it works really well then. You don’t even have to scrub all that really dirty stuff off. It disappears.”
As I sit here typing this, my daughter is going to town every surface that she can.
I encourage, “Go for it, honey. Make sure it works just like it says.”
“Oh, it does, mom.”
(Insert giddy mom chuckle knowing she’s getting all these chores done and I don’t even have to ask.)
I just would never have thought to use it on stainless steel, but sure enough, it cleans wood furniture (which I remember oh to well), granite, marble and even car dashboards. Seriously? Can I tell you how many cleaners we have just for the car alone? Here’s the official verbiage about what its uses are:

The Pledge® aerosol family of formulas can be used to dust, clean, shine and give limited protection to the following surfaces: sealed wood and wood laminates, synthetic wood surfaces (IKEA), stainless steel, leather, sealed marble, sealed granite, vinyl and chrome.  This would include car dashboards (vinyl) and car seats (leather or vinyl).

This was a great revelation and I am excited to bring Pledge back into our family. 🙂 It actually brings back lots of fond memories with my mom.

I’d love to hear what other stainless steel owners have to say. Do you have any tips of the trade that I need to learn?

How do you clean your stainless steel appliances?

P.S. We have some great suggestions in the comments such as olive oil and other options, but I do want to add to please check your manual for any specific cleaning instructions. I would hate to lead anyone astray, but my “what works for me” recommendation. 🙂