Friday, October 25, 2013

Natural rust removal...

I recently discovered a new-to-me YouTuber, Melissa Maker and her channel "Clean My Space"  thanks to one of my "old favorites" ("Organized Clutterbug") mentioning her in a video about natural cleaning.  Of course, I've spent most of my time over the past two days watching TONS of her videos!

This morning, I came across this one: "Clean My Space" - "Shine Your Flatware & Glassware | Day 5 of The 12 Days Of Clean!"  In this video, she goes over basic shining, but what really caught my attention was when she started talking about removing rust from flatware.

I have a couple of vintage cheese graters that are horribly rusted, but they look so neat that I can't bear to part with them (I only show the circular one here, as that was the rustier of the two)...

Note: none of these photos have been edited more than cropping (and text on one), I didn't want a filter to mess with how the rust looked.

This is how I cleaned them:

I started with my rusty grater...

Then I gathered my tools:
my (kitchen) cleaning toothbrush, 
a clean rag, a bowl with equal parts salt and lemon juice
and a towel or paper towel to work on.

I got some of the salt/lemon juice mixture on the toothbrush...

...and scrubbed it all over.

Then I buffed it out with the rag,
using the salt/lemon juice mixture as needed.

After washing and *thoroughly* towel drying.

NOT BAD!

Now, I will say that I probably still won't be using them for cooking,
but they look a lot prettier hanging on my wall without significantly less rust.


Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to get rid of/prevent rust?
Comment and share your knowledge if you do!

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