How To Clean A Kitchen Sink

Easy tips for cleaning stainless steel or ceramic sink. Get your sink free from germs and bacteria with these simple tips on how to clean a kitchen sink.

I remember years ago watching an episode of Oprah and someone on the show mentioned that the kitchen sink is actually much dirtier than your toilet bowl. Your sink can be filled will salmonella and E. Coli which spreads everywhere. This grossed me out so much when I heard it.

We have a tendency to spray out our sink when we are done washing dishes and assume that it is completely clean. Unfortunately, when we are spraying out the sink we are just spraying all the germs from the sink into the air and the countertops around us.

An article from CBS claims that the kitchen sink is the second germiest place in our home. Yuck! The germiest thing went to the kitchen sponge which is normally in our sinks anyway.

It is important to clean the kitchen sink every day to really keep it clean. You also should give your sink a deep clean once or twice a week to kill off germs and bacteria. Check out my favorite tips on how to clean a kitchen sink like a pro.

How To Clean A Kitchen Sink 

To clean your kitchen sink you will need a few items. You may already have everything you need around the house.

Items needed to clean sink:

• sink scrub (I make my own homemade sink cleaner)
• microfiber cloth (these cloths from Amazon are my favorites!)
• bleach tabs or bleach (I love these bleach tabs from Amazon)
• old toothbrush or scrub brush

Removing Food, Grease, and Scratches from Your Sink

When you are cleaning a kitchen sink you want to get rid of any food or grime that is in the sink, get rid of any scratches or scuffs that are on the sink, and kill off all of the germs in and around the sink.

You can see below how dirty my sink is. I normally deep clean my sink on Tuesday and Friday so by Tuesday morning it is looking pretty bad. The blueberries from our morning smoothies left some stains in the sink. Plus there are a few scratches from the cast iron skillet that I use to make our eggs in the morning.

I like to start by getting rid of the food and grime that is in your sink. If you have any dishes wash them and/or move them to the dishwasher. Then spray down your sink to get it wet. To get rid of the food and grime you will need a sink cleaner, some dish soap, and a microfiber cloth.

I like to use this homemade sink cleaner to get my sink clean. It does a great job of getting the smaller surface scratches and stuck on food off of your sink. But you can use just about any sink cleaner. If you prefer Comet or Barkeepers Friend you can use that too.

Once your sink is wet you can just add about 1/4 of a cup of the sink cleaner to the sink. I like to also add about a tablespoon of dawn dish soap. It is really good about getting rid of any grease in the sink.

Using a microfiber cloth scrub the sink down really well to get rid of any food particles. Make sure you scrub down the sides of the sink really well too. When you have the paste worked in the whole sink you can then spray the sink to clean it off.

After this most of the scratches and food should be gone from the sink. If your sink still looks kind of dirty make another pass at cleaning it with the sink cleaner and dawn. When your sink is clean you can move on to the next step of disinfecting it.

Disinfecting Your Sink

Start by adding a stopper to your sink and then start to fill the sink with warm water. Add a cup or so of bleach to the water in the sink. I have a split sink so I usually add about 1/2 cup of bleach to each of the sides.

Once your sink is completely full of water then let it soak with the bleach water in it. If you have an under mount sink you will want to clean the area where it attaches to the counter. I am shocked at how gross it gets in between the sink and the countertop.

I clean it by using a toothbrush or scrub brush to clean it. Just dip the brush in the bleach water and scrub around the sink until all of the areas are clean. I almost always get some gross food or junk out when I scrub.

After you clean that then you can let the bleach water sit in the sink. In order to kill off the bacteria and germs, you will want to let the bleach water sit in the sink for at least 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, you can let the water drain out of the sink.

Use your sprayer to spray down the sides and bottom of the sink to get all of the bleach water out of the sink. Your sink is now clean and ready to be used!

I recommend spraying it down each time after doing the dishes and giving it a quick clean at the end of each evening. You can give it a quick clean at night by either spraying and wiping it down with the homemade granite spray or by using the homemade sink cleaner if you want to get out any scratches or stuck on food.

It is amazing how nice it is to wake up to a clean and shiny sink. I love it! You can see below how much better the sink looks after I cleaned it.

If you have a garbage disposal with your sink you may want to spend a few minutes cleaning it before or after you clean and disinfect your sink each week. You can see my best tips for cleaning smelly garbage disposal here.

With these easy tips, you can learn how to clean a kitchen sink to help get it free from germs and bacteria. Plus, it looks so nice when you have your sink clean and shiny!