Not sure about you, but I am entirely too lazy to hand-wash most of my day to day kitchen items that really should be hand-washed.... i.e. certain tupperwares, my knives, pieces of my food processor and juicer that I'm 99% positive aren't even dishwasher safe... the list goes on. Honestly, the only thing I really don't put in the dishwasher are my pots and pans, and that's strictly because they are new, and the old ones got ruined because of the dishwasher. Lame.
Well, not just my pots and pans got ruined by that necessary evil that is the dishwashing machine. I have been ignoring the fact that my Kitchenaid knives have been becoming increasingly more and more rusted by the day. It has been grossing me out, but what grosses me out even more is the thought of buying new ones. I had it in the back of my head that perhaps I would see if I could nab a set on sale either on Black Friday or another time during the holiday shopping frenzy.
Then, this morning, something came over me. I thought... what if there's an answer on Pinterest?? {note: it's sad that everything I look for is now on Pinterest. I used to automatically google. Now, googling comes second fiddle to looking things up on Pinterest.} In any event, the answer to my question was YES.
As with any time I do research, I always check a few different sites to ensure I'm not jumping on the bandwagon of something horrible. As I scrolled through the pages and pages of ideas, one seemed to jump out at me the most often... soak 'em in lemon juice.
Really?!?! Is it that easy and I have been dealing with gross, rusted knives for all this time? I had to see for myself, so I set myself up for my "science experiment" as I called it when tt got home and asked what the h-e-double hockey sticks I was doing.
What you'll need:
- Your gross, rusty knives
- Lemon juice
- A receptacle
- A good scrubber sponge
What you do:
- Get your station set up. I worked on the kitchen counter, right next to the sink for easy access. For my receptacle, I actually used my biggest Pyrex baking dish. Most websites suggested using a cup, but my knives had rust on the handles too so I wanted to ensure that the entire knife was submerged. I made sure I had paper towels and a clean, dry dishtowel on hand as well.
- Soak your knives. They'll need to soak for probably 5-10 minutes, depending on how bad your rust is. Because I was doing all of my knives at once {6 steak knives, a bread knife, a small one, and three larger knives, as well as my kitchen scissors} I actually used almost the entire bottle of lemon juice to ensure they were all covered. If you use a smaller receptacle, you would probably be able to get away with less juice.
- Scrub away. I used my Scrub Daddy sponge to start, keeping it cold so that it scrubbed well. I realized that some of the spots were a little more stubborn, so if the sponge didn't take the rest off, I used a Magic Eraser which did the trick.
- Wash, rinse and dry. Once I was finished scrubbing, I washed the knives in very hot water, and dried them completely.
What did I learn? Well, besides lemon juice apparently being a miracle worker, and Pinterest saving the day yet again, I learned that hand-washing AND making sure knives are completely dry before putting away, will help to keep away those pesky rust spots in the future. And if I get lazy and start putting them in the dishwasher again? Well at least I know how to fix the problem. ;o)
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