Baking Soda Magic

There is no way you can appreciate this picture but I'm including it anyway. I was washing up our few Sunday dishes yesterday and, as I finished, I sort of idly wiped out the sink. Then I wondered: could I get the sink cleaner?

I'm not a putterer when it comes to clean. Mess paralyzes me and I have a very all-or-nothing attitude. I need to do a total clean of one small area at a time. When it comes to the kitchen this means that I either scrub the sink clean and then move the mess on either side through the clean sink and into the dishwasher or onto a drying surface, or I pile everything into the sink, clean both counters and wash the dishes from there. I love starting from a clean sink. It's a tiny oasis of peace in the midst of kitchen chaos.

When we moved into this apartment I thought, "What a pretty kitchen! Too bad the sink is sort of brown." It did not occur to me that maybe the apartment came standard with a less-than-clean sink. I've just been sighing over my brown sink for four months. I scrubbed at it for awhile yesterday to no avail, thinking, "I need a good abrasive . . .". Now, I have a whole book devoted almost exclusively to how to clean your house with baking soda but I've never actually tried it. One tablespoon later and I had this bright, shiny marvel in the middle of my kitchen. Eric says the glare hurts his eyes. It's amazing. I've felt so happy every time I used the kitchen today.

If the cold, gray November is getting you down, get out the baking soda and scrub your sink.