Saving the Mugs

A friend of mine was crowing about the great deal she got on new dishes - under $50 to replace all of them. (Deals are always a topic that gets my attention). Unfortunately she said that she really liked her old dishes but the plates and mugs were too stained to keep.

Hold on.

We have a cleaning problem.

I didn't want to tell her this, but she just wasted her cash.

There is a magic trick that I do for under a penny that saves my dishes and mugs from stains.

Behold: one of my befouled mugs.

To be clear, this mug was CLEAN in that I scrubbed it for several minutes with the scrubby side of a sponge and some water, then ran it through the dishwasher. These were true, honest stains that had no plans of budging.

Here's what you do: get a washcloth, and grab your baking soda.

Wet the cup, sprinkle some baking soda in, then give it a little scrub.

(I have no idea why this image is sideways on my preview. I think iPhoto and Blogger are trying to teach me patience.)

See how the stain is already coming up onto the baking soda paste? Maaaaagic!

After about a minute, I rinsed the mug and took my 'after' picture.

THAT'S WHITE!

It was so clean and white and shiny, that I couldn't take a flash picture like I did with the 'before' shot. After turning the flash off...

So pretty! Now I want to fill it up with something dark and delicious that will probably stain it.

I do this with the mugs and plates every couple of weeks as needed. It costs me a couple of cents of baking soda, and saves me $50 of new dishes.