Do a web search for green cleaning products on the internet, and you’ll find a bajillion results, ranging from expensive store bought products to a myriad of feel good homemade concoctions. Heck, I’ve even been known to post a recipe or two on this very blog. But really, the greenest cleaning methods have always been and will always be elbow grease. That’s right, fellow non-consumers, put your back in it, work up a sweat and git scrubbin’. The scientists behind toxic automatic shower cleaning sprayers and toilet cleaning tabs are selling you on the idea of a clean house without actual muscular effort. But unless you have physical limitations that bar your scrubbing power, chemicals that melt soap scum and water spots do you (and your, ahem . . . planet) a disservice.
I have a vintage bun warmer pan that I bought at Goodwill in 1990 or 91. It is the perfect pan for cooking pasta, because it weighs next to nothing and has a swivel top that allows for a small amount of steam to escape, thus avoiding the inevitable boil-over. I think I payed a buck or two. However, I recently burned the crap out of this pan, and was considering it a complete loss. I was even keeping an eye out at Goodwill for a replacement, when I remembered that my sister Jessica had given me a box of soapy steel wool pads for Christmas. (She knows me so well.)
So I rolled up my sleeves up and got my scrub on.
The burnt crud came off pretty easily. Not so easily that there was no satisfaction in the job, (what fun would that be?) and I was suddenly filled with childhood memories of my father scrubbing pots and pans to their very shiniest and showing them off to my sister and I, who were about as interested as toddlers at a meditation retreat. Luckily, my father swung by yesterday afternoon, and was appropriately impressed with my scrubbing prowess.
And yeah, my elbows are buttery soft. Thanks for asking.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Before
After
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
I so agree with you! I do a lot of cleaning with just water and elbow grease.
The pot looks wonderful. Sometimes I used to take steel wool to the various burnt on bits on my mom’s pryex and corning ware – always fun to see the difference. I want to give a word of warning though (because I’ve discovered a few friends who did not know this – steel wool and green scrubbies are very bad for non-stick cookware, they scratch and remove the non-stick coating.
Thanks for the tip, although I actually made the decision a number of years back not to use non-stick cookware.
Katy
Very impressive! How long did it take you?!?
It probably took me 15 straight minutes of scrubbing.
Katy
It makes things shinier too. I remember visiting Grandma Wolk (in the days before being on a first-name basis with one’s grandparents) and her proudly showing me a small aluminum saucepan that positively glistened. She asked me to guess how old it was and I told her it was obviously new. “Nope,” she said. It was a part of a set of cookware she got as a wedding present in the 1920s. She had just kept very good care of it and used steel wool to clean it.
Nearly all of my cookware is comprised of cast offs. A rusty spot on a cat iron pan, burn marks on a stainless steel pot, etc. A bit of serious scrubbing and some re seasoning in the case of cast iron and you would never believe they were someone else’s kitchen rejects.
Same thing applies to when I get a nasty stain on a shirt, if I can’t get it out, I’ll redye it. Beautiful clock no longer works, I’ll replace the clock work, rewire the lamp, repaint a picture frame, sand and refinish a cedar chest that has water stains. A little bit of hard work pays off.
wow, I like the way you think….you are real 🙂 I see myself in you.
I just love that you got steel wool pads for Christmas. That says alot.
WOW ! Very Awesome! Great Job! You inspire me.
I just ran across this: http://www.belkin.com/conserve/smartav/ and immediately thought of you. Don’t know if you can justify this with your “buy nothing new” compact, but it would certainly save any future TVs from meeting the fate of your last one!
Oooh, I like that idea! I will never get into the habit of turning off the power strip every night, so to me, even tho’ it’s a new item, it saves energy, so it’s Compact-y.
I adore this pot! My dad devised a pot scrubber bit for his drill because we have a tendency to rice-a-fy the bottom of the stainless steel pots very often.
My mom accidentally discovered that the best way to clean a pot that’s been burnt beyond being usable is to give it to her daughters to use in their playhouse. Months of mud pies later, the burnt on crud was gone and she reinstated the pot in the kitchen.
Fantastic! 🙂
Soaking a pan with salt water can help lift the crud so it doesn’t need quite so much elbow grease. Probably not a good move for your cast iron vessels!
Yay for elbow-grease! I hate the smell of most chemical cleaners, so the more things I can get clean with some hot water and elbow-grease, the better!
The only two cleaning products i’ve been using lately have been homemade orange degreaser and dr. bronner’s soap for my floor (and dish soap). there’s been a lot of scrubbing lately.
I’ve always used a lot of elbow grease, but now I’m beginning to have problems with arthritis in my hands and tendonitis in my wrist. Maybe I’ve used too much elbow grease.
I won’t use harsh chemicals in my home, either. I’m glad so many of you feel this way. We’re assaulted with ENOUGH toxins in the environment without inviting poisons into our homes!
That pan is thoroughly cleaned! You can use sand, salt or vinegar when cleaning soft metals (like copper) or Boron-silica glass.
As a citizen of a nation where there are 17.5 million bicycles (and 16M people) I like to cycle a lot. Often you can find great bikes or bikeparts that people just throw out with the trash, or when someone else vandalized a parked bike. After waiting for 3 months and asking around to find the owner, I take the bike home and restore it to its original glory. Like Katy wrote: using a lot of elbow grease and fingernail whitener. It is amazing how good a discarded bike will look after some polishing; the 70’s bikes have lots of chrome. And most fun of all is riding a restored bike!
Now, when will I find that perfectly good titanium frame?
Thanks Katy for (another) inspiring story.
Maarten, the Netherlands
Think of the calories you burned! Incentive enough!
I have this same pot (without the fancy decorations, unfortunately). I got it from my grandfather’s kitchen after he passed away. I use it to steam vegetables (never thought about pasta – duh!). I’m ashamed to say that I bought an electric steamer with a timer because I kept over-steaming things (used off of Craigslist, at least), but after a couple of years, I find myself pulling out this pot instead. An oldie, but a goodie. I’m trying to teach my kids to take care of things, instead of just “Oh, it broke. Mom, can we go to the store and get a new one?”
gotta love it! what a perfect example of non-consumerism–taking care of what we have instead of buying new. well done!
After trying many green cleaners to clean my bathroom sinks, I discovered that by simply scrubbing them dry each night with a GOOD QUALITY microfiber cloth was all that was needed.
Fill the bottom of any burnt pan with some baking soda and water and wait a day or so and it comes right off! I was skeptical of this but it worked great on a frying pan that my husband had burnt jelly on the bottom of. 🙂 I bet it would work on the sides of a pan too.
Speaking of elbow grease….when my husband was around 10, he lived with his grandparents. They were cleaning up the kitchen one night and his grandpa handed him a pot and told him to put some elbow grease into it. My husband then proceeded to dig under the sink looking for elbow grease. After a few minutes of searching, he came up empty handed and told his grandpa that he couldn’t find the elbow grease. His grandpa was laughing so hard that he nearly passed out!
Great story!
Katy
It looks like you burned the OUTSIDE of your pan… if there’s a chance of that happening… do the old Girl Scout trick for cooking over a campfire (which blackens pots horribly) and put dishsoap on the outside of the pan BEFORE you start cooking. Just smear it around with your hand (or papertowel if you’re squeamish) up to an inch or so from the top. Cook. Empty. When you put the pot in water… the black slides off easily… except where you missed… and I always miss *somewhere*! Then that elbow grease comes in handy!
Good tip!
Katy
I rarely clean my car as I am lazy and can’t be bothered to do the whole soap up and wash thing and I am too cheap to pay to get it done frequently. Last weekend, just for the hell of it, I took some of those microfiber cloths…wet them down and wiped my car down. Used barely any water compared to the average car wash. Amazing! Three cheers for elbow grease, cheapskate-ness, and laziness!
I recently bought a copper watering can from Goodwill for a whopping 3 dollars. After about 20 minutes of scrubbing with a special metal polish, the thing is just absolutely gorgeous! In other elbow grease news, I inherited my Mamaw’s cast iron skillet. One day, I really noticed how much built up grease was on the thing (ugh). I took a new razor blade to it and I bet I scraped off a cup of vintage bacon grease, lol! Bleech! Now it’s as smooth as glass and is my absolutely most favorite pan. :0) (virtually ALL of my cookware is vintage, too)
You had me at cast iron pan.
Katy
Hi.
I just burnt a whole bunch of rice onto the inside of a pot. Like, burnt burnt it. I read that you can boil water with baking soda in it until the water is all gone, which will leave a residue that can be wiped away with much of the blackness. I tried it and it works! I did it twice and the pot is virtually without black. Maybe steel wool will get the last tidbits off!
a
Wow! Impressive.
clever, clever, clerver and so very true. I am 58 years of age and I remember my own dear Mother doing these smart and clever tricks. When we went camping she always washed the cast iron pots and skillets in the river. She would shove them down in the rocks and sand at the water’s edge and let them soak while she relaxed and cooled off in the gentle stream after a she had made a labor-intensive wonderful camp dinner for all of us (in the heat of the late afternoon, no less). And, after her after-dinner river romp with the kids and relaxing , she would swirl the sand and rock round and round and back and forth in the clear waters of river till the cast iron was clean and as smooth as a baby’s bottom. She gave us so much more than the best memories ever. How to do everything well, thrifty, simply and with lots of love and care. “Use it up, wear it our, make it do or do without” was posted emphatically on her refrigerator for years until she passed away and in her own writing, it is now lovingly posted on mine. She would have so loved this blog….wonderful, kindred spirits.
Now you went and made me tear up! You mother sounds terrific.
Katy