Porcelain is a fantastic material and makes our homes bright and beautiful. Well-tended porcelain stays brilliant and clean and outshines stainless steel, making it the perfect surface for our bathrooms and kitchens. Knowing how to clean porcelain guarantees that you can keep your home looking as good as the day you moved in.
When you have a few reliable DIY porcelain cleaner recipes in your back pocket and some elbow grease, you have peace of mind knowing that you can deal with any issue you encounter. We built this guide to show you how to remove stains from porcelain easily and without breaking your pocketbook.
The recipes we include in this article range from everyday cleaning options to hardcore DIY porcelain cleaner options, and they’ll all get your porcelain looking its best. You’re guaranteed to find the right recipe for your cleaning needs.
Porcelain Cleaning Basics
The best way to ensure that your porcelain stays looking pristine and germ-free is to give it regular attention. Try to clean your porcelain tiles and bathroom sinks often, and clean stained porcelain as soon as you discover it to prevent any grime or dirt from building up.
Adding porcelain cleaning to your weekly list of cleaning chores will help you in those tasks. Many of these recipes are also suited for washing other types of surfaces, as well. For example, dish soap and water are appropriate for a marble cleaner or for laminate flooring.
Regular Cleaning
This section covers essential DIY porcelain cleaner recipes you can use weekly without worrying about damaging your tiles or porcelain-coated cast-iron tub. These recipes won’t scratch the porcelain; you can create them all using household cleaners. Regularly using these recipes will help keep heavy-duty cleaning jobs to a minimum.
Clean Your Porcelain with Water
Don’t underestimate water. It’s the foundation of most cleaners and has stellar cleaning properties when you use it by itself. The beauty of cleaning with water is that you’re not using any harmful agents that might leave a residue.
Water is safe to use and will clean away a surprising amount of grime. When you want to know how to clean porcelain sinks with a safe and reliable weekly cleaner, you can’t go wrong with water.
Don the gloves, and soak a sponge in hot water. Wipe down all porcelain surfaces, and put a bit of pressure behind your wiping to clean away stains. Use the cloth to dry the porcelain.
The porcelain should wipe clean without too much trouble. If you encounter stubborn stains, move on to a more potent DIY porcelain cleaner.
Use Liquid Dish Soap
Liquid dish soap is one of the most highly versatile household cleaning products you’ll find. Dish soap not only works for dishwashing but also can kill fleas on kittens and puppies and is ideal for creating a homemade tub cleaner.
You can also use dish soap to get your porcelain looking gorgeous every week. You’ll be amazed at what this simple cleaner can do to remove stains from porcelain.
Combine the liquid ingredients in a basin, and soak the sponge in the solution. Wipe down all porcelain surfaces, and bear down when needed to clean away stains.
Continue until the porcelain is clean. Never use steel wool or a scrub brush to clean porcelain, as doing so can scratch the porcelain glazing and leave rust stains.
Get Your Porcelain Clean with Vinegar and Water
Anyone who’s spent any time in the DIY world is familiar with vinegar and the wonders it works for cleaning inside the home, outside areas, and even in your car or RV. Vinegar is one of the prime ingredients in all sorts of homemade bathroom cleaner recipes.
Vinegar contains acetic acid, a mild acid that eats away at organic matter of all descriptions. It makes vinegar just what you need to clean your porcelain surfaces in the bathroom or in other areas throughout the house. Use this recipe when you need a bit more power behind your cleaner.
Combine the liquid ingredients in a spray bottle, and spray down all of your porcelain. Use the sponge to clean away soap scum and other residue and build up. When you have finished, rinse the porcelain with clean water to complete your cleaning task.
Make Your Porcelain Shine with Baking Soda
Baking soda, like vinegar, is one of your best friends when you need a DIY porcelain cleaner. Baking soda has chemical cleaning properties and is also a mild abrasive, which is just what you need to get your porcelain bathtub and porcelain kitchen sink shining.
Baking soda won’t harm your tiles and leaves the porcelain smelling fresh, too. It’s a fantastic choice for a DIY bathroom tile cleaner.
Combine the ingredients in a basin and soak a sponge in the solution. Use it to scrub away soap residue, grime, and any stains. Apply elbow grease as needed to scrub out any hard water spots or dirt. Rinse the area with water after the porcelain is clean.
Make Your Porcelain Shine with Peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is a handy household cleaner that you can use when you need to know how to remove stains from porcelain and many other surfaces. Peroxide works in much the same manner as chlorine bleach, but peroxide is milder and is safe to use on colored tiles without risking discoloration and damage.
Give peroxide a whirl as your weekly recipe when you have to clean high-traffic grimy porcelain. It’s a great way to clean porcelain tile floors and grout.
Skip adding water if you want a stronger solution to clean bathroom floor tiles or those in the hall or kitchen. Don the gloves, and pour the peroxide and water into a spray bottle. Spray down all the porcelain, and use your sponge or a mop, depending on the area, to scrub it clean. Rinse the peroxide solution off the porcelain with fresh water when you finish cleaning and dry.
How to Remove Stains from Porcelain
Regular cleaning is a necessary first step, but you likely will have more challenging cleaning jobs ahead of you. Sometimes, you’re going to encounter porcelain with extra stains and grease and grime, and you’ll need to know how to clean porcelain using stronger methods. That’s why you should have an advanced recipe or two to go along with your regular cleaning options.
Advanced Cleaning
This section includes recipes that pack some extra cleaning power. The methods in this section are perfect for those situations in which your usual approach doesn’t clean away a stain. You can use these DIY porcelain cleaner options to tackle more robust porcelain stains without trouble; they’ll handle most porcelain cleaning jobs.
Clean with Vinegar and Essential Oil
Essential oils might not seem like they’re good for anything other than producing delightful fragrances, but they make great ingredients for cleaners. Folks looking for how to clean porcelain easily should give recipes with essential oil a shot.
This recipe not only utilizes essential oils to clean your porcelain but also includes vinegar for extra cleaning power. Try this method for a cleaner that smells as good as it cleans.
Fill the bottle with vinegar and essential oil. Spray all porcelain enamel surfaces, and let the mixture sit for a minute. Then, scrub with a sponge to clean away any stains or lingering grime. Rinse the porcelain with clean water when you finish cleaning.
Use Vinegar and Baking Soda on Your Porcelain
Baking soda and vinegar combine to make one of the most effective and useful household cleaners around. In addition to their regular cleaning power, the two ingredients create an energetic reaction when combined that you can use to clean away tough porcelain stains. Use this recipe when you need some additional muscle in your cleaner.
Fill the container with vinegar, and put on the gloves. Sprinkle baking soda on any stains on your porcelain, and then spray the porcelain with vinegar.
Let the solution work on the stains for about five minutes. Give the enamel another spray, and use the sponge to scrub the stains away. Rinsing is needed after you clean to deactivate the vinegar.
Get Your Porcelain Clean with Baking Soda and Lemon Juice
Like vinegar, lemon juice is mildly acidic and has a natural cleaning action that can’t be beat. Use lemon juice in place of vinegar to clean your porcelain while leaving behind a delightful lemony scent. It’s the perfect choice if you like to smell the clean as well as see it.
Add the liquids to a spray bottle. Sprinkle the baking soda on any porcelain stains, and spray the porcelain down with the lemon juice solution. Let the lemon juice mixture sit for about five minutes.
Respray the enamel, and use the sponge to scrub away any stains. Rinse the porcelain with water when you finish cleaning.
Hit the Porcelain with a Magic Eraser
The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is one of the most useful new cleaning solutions available today. The Magic Eraser combines a natural bleaching action with mild abrasion to leave behind spotless surfaces. It’s just right for getting your porcelain clean and shiny.
Because the Magic Eraser is one of many abrasive cleaners, you should test it or any other abrasive sponge out on a hard-to-see spot before tackling all of your porcelain. Follow the Eraser’s manufacturer’s instructions to ensure that you can get support for the product.
Always wear appropriate safety gear when cleaning with a Magic Eraser, including gloves. Rinse the porcelain after you finish cleaning with the Magic Eraser to wash away lingering debris.
Clean Your Tiles with Borax and Vinegar
Borax is an ordinary household cleaner that you probably use for laundry and pest control. You can also use Borax to take care of all but the worst porcelain stains you might run across. When you add it to vinegar, you get a dynamite cleaner that can take on the worst stains and come out the winner.
Combine the Borax and vinegar in a spray bottle, and spray down the porcelain surfaces. Let the solution work on the porcelain for about five minutes to loosen build up and grime. Scrub with a sponge to clean away any stains and rinse with clean water when you finish washing.
Heavy Duty DIY Porcelain Cleaner Recipes
We’ve prepared you well for everyday and advanced porcelain cleaning tasks, but you still need to consider extreme situations. Sometimes, you’re going to come up against stains that your usual cleaners can’t handle. To make sure that you know how to remove stains from porcelain in any circumstance, have a few heavy-duty recipes ready to go.
This section takes a look at the most reliable and most potent DIY porcelain cleaner methods. We show you how to tackle the worst stains on porcelain without spending a fortune. You’ll learn how to use hardcore household cleaners to take care of any porcelain stains, and we also show you which commercial cleaner works wonders on dirty porcelain.
Deal with Porcelain Stains with Ammonia
Ammonia is a fantastic cleaner that you can use to clean windows and soothe wasp stings, and it will get your porcelain back to new condition in a hurry. You shouldn’t use ammonia to clean your porcelain every time you clean, though, as repeated use is not good for porcelain.
But, when you encounter a stain that won’t go away no matter what you do, ammonia is just what you need. It’s particularly effective for toilet stains. For deep-down stains, ammonia is the best DIY toilet bowl cleaner you can use. Give this option a try for super cleaning action on all your porcelain surfaces that are heavily stained.
Don all safety gear, open all windows and turn on exhaust fans. Mix the ammonia and water in a spray bottle. Spray the porcelain with the ammonia solution, and let it sit for a few minutes. Or, if you’re cleaning the toilet, pour the solution directly into the bowl.
Scrub at any stains on the enamel with a sponge or an old rag until they lift away. Rinse the porcelain thoroughly after you finish cleaning it or flush the toilet a couple of times to wash away the residue.
Hit the Porcelain with Chlorine Bleach
White porcelain is both standard and easy to clean, but it can wind up with some horrific stains if you don’t clean it regularly. Bleach can come to your rescue when you want to know how to clean porcelain with tough stains.
Use bleach as one of your big guns when you clean porcelain, and you’ll never have to stress out about stains again. Note that you should never use bleach on colored porcelain, as you can damage the finish.
Don your safety gear, and make sure you have sufficient ventilation before you begin cleaning. Combine the liquid ingredients in a spray bottle. Spray the porcelain, paying particular attention to any stains or grime.
Let the solution work on the stains for a few minutes. Then, scrub with a sponge to clean away the stain. Rinse the porcelain thoroughly when you finish cleaning.
Use Baking Soda and Ammonia
This recipe takes the already impressive cleaning power of ammonia and turns the volume way up. Use this recipe to clean away any stain you run across, and it won’t damage your porcelain in the process. Give this cleaning option a try the next time you need extra potency in your porcelain cleanser.
Don all safety gear, and make sure that the work area has adequate ventilation. Combine the liquids in a bucket, and soak a sponge in the solution. Scrub at all porcelain stains and grime to clean them away. When you’ve removed the stain, be sure to rinse the porcelain with clean water.
Get Your Porcelain Gleaming with Bar Keepers Friend
Bar Keepers Friend might not sound like the sort of product that goes on porcelain stains, but it does a fantastic job cleaning away messes. Porcelain isn’t too different in composition than glass and is generally nonreactive with chemicals. As a result, you can use Bar Keepers Friend to clean your porcelain without worrying about damaging it.
Always wear appropriate safety gear when you work with Bar Keeper’s Friend. To clean porcelain, pour a little Bar Keepers Friend on stains. Let the cleaning liquid sit for a few minutes and use a clean cloth to wipe away any stains.
We hope you had a fantastic time learning about cleaning porcelain. Our homes are full of porcelain tiles and tubs, and so knowing how to clean porcelain is essential for every homeowner. Our guide shows you the tricks and recipes you need to get your porcelain looking beautiful. Your family will thank you.
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