​by April Anderson
Just Another Natural Nut
 
I am going to be honest with you, maintaining stainless appliances for aesthetic purposes is hard work.

As a business who uses only natural products, maintaining stainless appliances for aesthetic purposes when clients use or have used a conventional product to 'shine it up' is frustratingly time consuming.

Every time you use a conventional product dedicated to stainless, you are leaving a waxy residue that, overtime, builds-up.  For companies who create these products this is awesome as the longer you use their products the more you have to use each time and the more you have to buy.

I will let you in on a little secret....you don't need those expensive products to maintain the aesthetics of your client's stainless appliances (the above pic has only been cleaned and polished with Just Shine)  The trick is to make sure you are using a product that does not have wax or silicone as an ingredient (most conventional glass cleaners and some 'green' ones do).  Water alone can work as long as you don't have to deal with a lot of sticky smudges.

You can check out my video on how to make your client's stainless shine if you have never used a conventional stainless polishing product here  

How do you know if there is a build-up on the stainless appliances...do the water test.  Put tap water into a spray bottle, place the nozzle on spray, not stream and spray the front of the appliance.  If the water starts to run down towards the floor, you have a build-up.  If the water stays in one spot with no running vertically towards the floor you have no residue build-up (for this to work you have to spray on vertical surfaces)
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You will need

1. a clean damp cloth and clean soft cloth or 2
2. Just Shine, or water
3. arm power

If you have been using a conventional polisher for your client's stainless you need to add another step.  I use the Just Polish because the one of the ingredients work to remove all of the residue build-up over time .  Click here to see my video using Just Polish or straight olive oil to clean the stainless

You will need

1. a clean damp cloth for the olive oil only and a few clean soft cloths for the polishing
2. olive oil – it doesn't matter what brand and if you have olive oil that went bad and can't use for cooking, its still good for this.
3. arm power

How to use your olive oil

1. Remove all of the stuck-on food smudges with a little soapy water
2. Saturate your clean damp cloth with the Just Polish (shake well before each time you spray ) or your olive oil (be safe and pour over sink or a big bowl next to the fridge that you can dip in to  when you need more)
3. Re- saturate as needed doing only a section at a time so to not have the olive oil harden making it more difficult to polish
4. When it comes to polishing, don not freak out when you see the olive oil turn white, it's just working with what is already on there, when polished in the white goes away
5. Watch the video to better understand how to polish using this method

Just Scrub or pure baking soda  is my go-to when it comes to cleaning stove tops

As part of your initial set up when you first enter a clients home, prepping the stove top for cleaning later is a priority.

• sprinkle a small amount onto a space on the stove top
• using your hand, take that pile Just Scrub or pure baking soda and gently move it around to cover the entire space.  What you will notice is the product will cling to the areas where there is build-up (spillage) and not cover the areas that are clean.  Tthe picture on the right shows a large area where there is no product as there is no need for it to be there.  The picture on the left shows a well used stove top with only a small are in the front centre clear of spillage.
• walk away and let is sit and do it's thing until you are ready to clean the kitchen (which is one of the last things on your list of tasks) ... you don't need to wet the area as it will work just fine dry.

Sometimes all you need on that stove top is Just Shine Glass & Hard surface spray, your kitchen toothbrush and a couple of clean cloths.

There are homes that don't use their stoves often or they tend to clean them after each use so doing the full on pure baking soda method is not necessary.  

• Prep the area before starting to clean your clients home.  I prefer to  take the grates off and put them in the sink for safe keeping
• Spray the entire area of the stove top (should only take 4 to 5 bursts)
• Let it sit and dwell
• Come back to it when it is time to clean the kitchen
• Spray once again with your Just Shine glass & hard surface cleaner
• Take one of your cloths and starting on the left (on the right if you are left-handed) top and work side to side until you reach the bottom of the surface.  You might have to use a little bit of elbow grease for some of the tougher spots but generally everything should lift up while wiping.
• If there are any left over spots, spray the spot and tackle it with your kitchen toothbrush
• Spray the surface one more time and polish dry with your 2nd clean cloth.  At this point you would also polish up the back panel and the knob panel (knobs too)