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Welcome to Clean Enough, a new kind of cleaning column for busy home cooks who have better things to do than scrub and sanitize around the clock. Every other week, neurodivergent writer and mom Emily Farris shares tips, tools, and products that can help you stay on top of the dirtiest spots in the kitchen while also dispelling a few cleaning myths and cutting down on clutter.
A long, long time ago, before there was TikTok, I fell prey to some cleaning clickbait on Facebook that informed me that the kitchen sink is usually the dirtiest place in a home. I remain skeptical to this day, but the germy mental picture the writer painted never left me, and I became obsessed with having a clean kitchen sink. At the time ours was an almond-enameled drop-in, and it had been scratched and stained by previous owners. Only one thing removed the stains: Bar Keepers Friend, an amazing, but abrasive, cleaning powder. I applied it with a Magic Eraser and way too much elbow grease.
Eventually, I got the entire sink back to its original, unfortunate shade—but only because, in my overzealous attempt to buff away the stains, I also took off a decent amount of enamel. The once shiny-but-stained basin became matte and porous, which meant it held onto everything, including coffee stains and food-borne bacteria. And the dirtier it got, the harder I scrubbed. I knew I was making things worse every time I cleaned, but I couldn’t help myself.
Then in 2018 we did a little cosmetic kitchen renovation and I was thrilled to get a brand-new bright white enameled cast-iron Kohler. I was determined to keep it sparkling clean—without compromising the enamel—so in addition to adding a protective stainless-steel sink rack—I wiped it down with all-purpose spray every night and bleached it every week. Every Sunday I’d fill it to the top with piping hot water and a few capfuls of regular old chlorine bleach and let it sit overnight. And my sink mostly stayed white. It was never bright white, and I still had to scrub the stains, but it was better than nothing (even if it smelled bad and ruined a few of my black shirts with tiny bleach spots).
My system worked, but it wasn’t perfect, so at one point during lockdown, I decided to try my own version of a popular Instagrammer’s go-to cleaning solution of powdered Tide and chlorine bleach. I wondered why I needed to use Tide and bleach when I could just use Tide with Bleach? (The answer is that laundry detergent “bleach” doesn’t actually disinfect like chlorine bleach does, but this particular soaking ritual isn’t necessarily about sanitizing, though I do that too.)
So one Sunday night I filled my sink with piping hot water and instead of adding bleach, I added two heaping tablespoons of powdered Tide with Bleach. My house smelled so clean—like in The Before Time, when I occasionally had a professional clean it for me—and the next morning when I drained and rinsed away the soapy water, it was like I had a brand-new bright white sink. Even the little rubber feet on my sink protector looked factory fresh. My house still smelled good too.
Though my sink is consistently bright white, I still disinfect (almost) every day with an all-purpose disinfecting spray—but definitely not a sponge. Because I’m pretty sure those are even nastier than the sink itself.
Under-sink storage
Because I only use about two tablespoons of Tide for the kitchen every week, I don’t want to store a big box of it under the sink. Instead, I transfer a little to a canister I keep in the cabinet, along with a small scoop. (Okay, okay; mine’s an old baby formula can and the formula scoop is the perfect size too, but any small container and scoop will do.)
Sink stopper
If you don’t have a sink stopper, or yours is no longer stopping water from going down the drain, this universal kitchen sink stopper from Oxo should do the trick.
