The Ritz-Carlton provides ways for holiday hosts and hostesses to clean up everything from silver to old pots and pans.
How to Clean Glassware and Remove Hard Water, Lipstick & Coffee Stains
- For hard water and lip stick stains, wash your glasses in warm soapy water with a dishrag and add about a half cup of white vinegar to your water. If you soak them in the vinegar overnight that will help to loosen and remove the stains even more. Use a fine steel wool pad in the vinegar and use it to scrub the loosened hard-water stains off your dishes and glasses. Rinse your dinnerware and glassware off with water and towel dry.
- You can also use lemon juice and table salt to remove any remaining hard-water stains on your glasses or dishes. Mix equal parts of both together and allow the paste to stay on the surfaces for 10 minutes. Lemon is an effective hard-water stain remover and will help you clean off remaining stains.
How to Remove Burnt Stains from Pots & Pans
- Pepsi or Coke – One of the best things to use to remove "burnt stains" from pots and pans is Pepsi or Coke. Let is sit for a few hours (overnight is best) and the stains practically wipe off.
- Lemons, salt and dishwashing soap: To clean copper pans, give them a good scrub with dishwashing soap, then take a half a lemon and pour salt on it, use it to scrub the copper, you will see the shine come through. Keep adding salt to the lemon as you clean.
- Baking soda is another great remedy that most people have readily available. Baking soda on a damp sponge removes grease easily from stove, back splash etc.
How to Clean Solid Silver
- Wash the silverware as soon as possible after use, quickly removing remnants of acidic foods such as salt, olives, vinegar or egg yolks that can break down the silver. You may clean the flatware using warm soapy water, rinsing thoroughly and drying with a clean towel.
- Line the bottom of a heat-proof glass or plastic dish with aluminum foil, shiny side up. Add 1 tbsp. baking soda, 1 tbsp. salt and 1 gallon boiling water and stir. Immediately put the silver pieces in the dish, making sure they're completely submerged and touching the foil. When the tarnish is gone, rinse the silver in warm water, dry and buff with a soft cloth.
- Another great silver cleaner is right in our own homes: Toothpaste can remove tarnish from silver and costs a fraction of what traditional silver cleaners do. Rub the silver with toothpaste and run under warm water, working the paste into a foam and then rinse off.
