If you’re a coffee or a tea drinker, you absolutely need to know this natural way to remove tea stains from your cups and mugs. Here’s how to do it easily without using harsh chemicals!
There have been several occasions in recent years where I’ve heard people talking about needing to bleach their coffee mugs. Let me just say, the fact that this is a “normal” way of taking care of this problem totally freaks me out. First of all because bleach makes me nervous and secondly because I’m a mug drinking kind of girl! How many bleached mugs have I been drinking from all of these years? I have a different method to remove tea stains from my mugs and it works just as well!
Now of course, if you love coffee and tea as much as I do, your mugs are going to wind up looking like this before too long.
Even though this mug has been cleaned and sanitized in the dishwasher, that’s definitely not something that I’d want to make someone drink from if they came over to my house for a visit.
For the record, I did let the stains build up a little more than usual this time around because I wanted to get some really good “before and after” pictures for you. They’re really bugging me though, so let’s get to cleaning them, shall we?
How to Remove Tea Stains From Mugs
All you’ll need is some hot water, some white vinegar and some scrubbies. I tried out a couple of different types of scrubbies this time around just to see which one was better.
I always use the green “scratchy” version, but I thought I’d try out these no-scratch scrubbies as well. I don’t even find that the green ones leave marks on my mugs, but I thought a gentler option might be good to know about. In the end, both did the trick, but I did find that the new blue “no-scratchy” version wasn’t quite as satisfying. Oh well! I’m sure I’ll have a need for it some day so it’s good to have around!
OK, so here are the steps you need to take to get your mugs sparkly clean:
First fill each mug about half full with hot water (boiled or just hot from a tap, both will work) and half full with white vinegar. Let them sit for about 10 minutes. Next, dump out the vinegary water and give each mug a swish with the scrubby of your choice. Rinse the mugs out, dry them, and you’re done!
The Results
Why would you waste your time and potentially your health messing with bleach or other harsh cleaners when vinegar works so well so quickly?
I so appreciate having nice, shiny clean mugs when I go to make my tea in the morning, but I appreciate not being slightly paranoid about drinking bleach even more!
Do you drink enough coffee or tea to make your mugs get stained like mine do? I hope this comes in handy for all of my fellow sleep-deprived coffee lovers out there! Now you know how to remove tea stains from your mugs!
You can find more easy-peasy cleaning tips on my cleaning archives page and you’ll find quite a few natural solutions there too! It’s just how we do things around here!
MORE IDEAS LIKE THIS
- How to De-Rustify Your Knives
- How to Clean Your Microwave Naturally and With No Scrubbing
- How to Clean and Oil a Wooden Cutting Board
- The Secret to Keeping Wood Counters Beautiful
- The Very Best Homemade DIY Ant Killer
- Homemade Carpet Cleaner and Deodorizer DIY
- How to Keep your Home from Being Taken Over by Pet Fur
This post contain affiliate links.
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.