Aluminum Sink Help

[IcyMist]

Couldn't figure out where to put this post, so thought the ole catch all forum would work.

Does anyone have any good tips on keeping an alunimum sink all nice and shiny? I end up scrubbing the stupid sink constantly because it gets water spotted, dingy looking and just NOT clean looking. My mother has bad eye sight so am always having to clean up glops and spatters of food from everywhere, but the poor sink seems to get the worst of it. Dull, dull, dull!!!

I cringe every time she says she is going to make up a batch of smoothies. Last Saturday I spent the whole day (at least 7 hours) cleaning the kitchen. Most people only have to do deep cleaning of their kitchen every few months, but with mom I end up having to scrub the kitchen thoroughly every few weeks. Well by the time I had the kitchen nice and shiny, she told me that on Monday she was going to make another batch of smoothies. She freezes a batch of them in the freezer and then zaps them in the ole micro for about 40 secs or so until they are the consistency she likes. Well I cringed inside but smiled and said "that's nice, you can add some of the peaches I had just purchased". When I got home........ARGGGGG How mom was able to get smoothie on 3 cabinets is beyond my comprehension, but 3 cabinets were covered with gooey specks all over them.

Unfortunately I cannot start scrubbing the kitchen when I get home because mom gets in a snit and says that the kitchen is clean enough because she just cleaned it. Double ARGGGGGGG. So I have to wait until the weekend to clean up the mess or hurt mom's feelings and make her feel guilty that after working all day I have to come home and scrub the house. By the way, mom is 81 years old.

Don't get me wrong, am not really upset at my mom because with 4 kids to raise by herself, she did a darn good job of making sure we had food and clothes on our backs. I also then remember all the times that I left messes in the house and mom ended up having to clean them up.

LOL don't know how I got so off track, but am really interested in finding out other people's secrets to keeping their alunimum sinks clean.

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYBODY!!!!!

 

[buckytom]

heya ice,

i too am a clean and shiny sink freak. i use a combination of calcium/lime/rust remover to get rid of mineral stains, then "soft scrub" (like a micro-pumice cleaner) to get it polished and shiny. no matter what, with use, especially with hard water, you'll have to scrub frequently, and mutter obsenities as you do to get it really clean (the obsenities really help, trust me).

umm, as far as your mom goes, have you checked her vision recently? i know it sounds funny, but many older folks "get used to" their diminished vision (rather than face the realities of old age), and just compensate and make do. loss of faculties due to age is an insidous and ever so slightly progressive thing, so most people learn to work around them.

 

[IcyMist]

Thanks Bucky. As for mom's vision, I know that it is horrible. She has glacoma, one eye has had many surgeries to reattach her retina and she has had cataracts in both eyes. Her poor eyes are just wearing out. I didn't mean to sound angry or upset with my other because I am very proud of her and it is my turn to help take care of her. It's just that after a hard day at work it gets me a little gloomy coming home to a kitchen that was nice and shiny 2 days ago and now looks like 4 kids had ran amok in the kitchen.

Brings back another memory that I am rather ashamed of, but can blame my brother for giving me the idea. As you can imagine, with mom having to raise 4 kids by herself, it was a chore to keep food on the table. Well when mom would go shopping and leave my brother and I home and tell us to do our chores, boy were we bad!!!! One time I saw my brother putting plates in the lake and he said that he was letting the fish clean them for him since it was his day to clean the kitchen. Wellllllll the next time it was my turn to clean the kitchen it was after breakfast and the forks all had dried egg on them. That was a chore that I hated, cleaning dried egg off of forks. Sooooooo I walked down to the lake and.....well if anybody is out swimming in the lake and steps on a egg encrusted fork.....MY BROTHER DID IT!!!

 

[buckytom]

rofl icy, too funny.

all i can say is when your mom (god forbid it's anytime soon) is gone, you will wish for one more day of dirty kitchens. life is too short to agonize over the minutiae.
my mil was a clean freak when she was young, and as she reached her 80's, her vision as well as her cleanliness faded. it was somewhat of a surprise when she had eye surgery and afterwards she started complaining about how clean we kept the house for her all of this time...lol.

i would give anything to give my wife one more day with her mom no matter what the kitchen looked like...

 

[luvs]

at my Grandpa's i always do the dishes and splash the sink all up, so i wipe it down with paper towels to keep water spots from forming.

 

[IcyMist]

I agree Bucky, I don't fuss at mom and I know it is going to be hard when it is time for her to leave us and I just keep praying that she will die in her sleep and not in pain and hopefully that won't happen for a long time yet. I just smile and nod and try and agree with whatever she says. Unfortunately, at times my mom can read my mind or at least my face. I try and keep a neutral unemotional look on my face, but she can still read me like a book. Mom's eyes may be bad and have a really bad memory, but she is still as sharp as a tack with most things and I hope she remains that way. I would much rather remember her as being a feisty lady that likes a good argument than of her just sitting in a chair or laying in bed just waiting to go.

 

[IcyMist]

I do the same Luvs but the kitchen is where my mom spends the most time and she always has the water on for one thing or another. I am constantly wiping down the sink when we are going to have people come over and can use a whole roll of papertowels just wiping it out following my mom around. She just can't understand how we go through so many papertowels in a day.

Mom is one of those people who likes to use (shudder) dish towels for everything. I end up soaking them in some bleach water and then washing them. Sometimes it takes several washings to get them clean. I would much prefer just using papertowels. More sanitary and not having to wash them.

 

[luvs]

i hadn't read all of these posts earlier.
icy, it sounds like you love your Mother dearly. i'm sorry that she may not be at her healthiest what with her eyes and all. she sounds like a great Mom. my Grandpa is 79 going on 80, and i know the worry that accompanies a loved one's aging.
i hug my Mom each day or else she comes and hugs me and i get upset if she goes to sleep before we can say, 'goodnight, i love you' to each other. i cry a lot just over the stress of being ill and she usually has something to say that makes me stop crying. and i can't go to bed if we've been arguing without making amends. i've heard several times that you shouldn't go to sleep angry at someone, and i took that to heart. the older i get, the more i realize just how awesome my Mom is.
i'm glad your Mother has you and i'm sure she loves and appreciates you very, very much.

 

[PA Baker]

I use a dry Brillo pad or other steel wool made for cleaning pots and pans. Gently buff the whole sink area with the dry steel wool and then wipe it down with a soft cloth. It makes it shiny and really gets in to all of the grooves and such to get out grime.

 

[Alix]

Do you have Comet Cleanser in the US? There is nothing better for cleaning metal sinks. It is cheap too! It will get off any crusted crud and the shine will blind you.

IcyMist, your mom sounds like a firecracker. Can you wait til shes gone to bed to wipe down those cabinets? Or does she stay up later than you?

 

[IcyMist]

Actually she stays up later than I do and I can't make too much noise when I get up at 2:00 a.m. or she will get up and come searching out what the noise is with an old school bell that her great, great, great grandmother use to ring to get the kids to come in for school. I don't know if she plans on hitting someone over the head with the bell or just start ringing it. I asked her once and she said she didn't know yet.

 

[Zereh]

I found some Stainless Steel scrubber stuff at Home Depot because I hated my dingy looking sink too. =P You spray it on, it foams up, then you use some elbow grease to get it all shiny. I don't use it all the time but just every few weeks as it needs it. And I thought I was the only one who obsessed about that kind of stuf...


Z

 

[GB]

IcyMist I don't have a suggestion on how to clean the sink, but how about this? You mom makes a big mess that you end up cleaning up when she makes her smoothies. What if you were to make them for her? It sounds like the amount of effort to make them would be less than the amount of effort to clean up after her. Of course you don't have to let mom know you are making them because she makes a big mess. Tell her you are doing it because you love her and want to make them for her (which I am sure would not be a lie anyway). That way you have your clean kitchen and Mom feels even more loved than she already does

 

[IcyMist]

Good idea, but you don't know my mom. She has always been in charge and it took a lot for her to admit that she can no longer drive a car and sell her car, but she did it. DOUBLE BUT she likes to do things herself and would be upset with me if I made them.

Oops guess I was calling my stainless steel sink an alunimum sink.....ARGGG blame it on....ummmm, errrrr, not enough sleep?

 

[GB]

I completely understand IcyMist. My mom would probably be the same way.