Potatoes are multifaceted things. On the one hand, they’re humble little lumps you dig out of the dirt. On the other, they’re the versatile superstars of the cooking world, delicious in everything from fast food french fries to classics like potatoes au gratin or pomme fondant. There’s also another side to the potato: household cleaner. That’s right, you can use the potato to fight stains and remove splotches. Read on to find out how to unleash the power of the spud and clean with potatoes.

 

How to Clean with potatoes

 

Note. For all the below methods, you can use old potatoes no longer fit for eating. That means more clean and less waste!

Remove Rust

To remove rust, simply cut into the potato and rub the raw flesh on the rusty area. Potatoes contain oxalic acid, an ingredient in commercial rust removers. The coarse surface of the cut potato will also help remove rust as it’s mildly abrasive. For very rusty items, amp up the potato’s power by adding a little dish soap or a sprinkle of salt to the surface of the potato. (If you use the salt method, be careful not to scratch the metal underneath the rust with the salt.)

Remove Tarnish

You don’t need a fancy cleaner to refresh your fancy silver. Either rub the cross-section of a cut potato on the tarnished area as described above, or use cooked potatoes. For this second method, boil a few potatoes in water just as if you were cooking them to eat. After you’ve boiled the potatoes, remove them from the water, set them aside for another use, and turn off the stove. Place your tarnished silver in the potato water and let it soak for about 20 minutes. After it’s soaked, you should have shiny silver.

Clean and De-Fog Glass

Rub a raw potato over the surface of the glass. It will clean the glass and leave a film that will prevent condensation later. If while you’re cleaning, the potato cross-section gets too dirty to use, just cut off a slice of the potato and use the new clean surface. Let the glass dry without touching it.

Stain Remover

This may not be effective on heavy-duty stains, but can work for lighter blemishes. You can try just dabbing a raw potato or potato cooking water on the spot. You can also rub raw potato on the stained fabric, then put it in a pan with some water and bring this to a boil. After “cooking” for a minute, remove the fabric. Either rub on more potato and repeat, or go ahead and steep the fabric in cold water for an hour. Then rinse.

Clean with Potatoes!

It sounds silly, but you can get a lot of chores done with your old potatoes. If you know of any other ways to clean using the world’s favorite tuber, leave us a comment below!

Reach out to a home cleaner service for your house cleaning needs.