Do you ever see a wonderfully shiny chrome faucet and wonder “who has the time to constantly shine that up?” If you have -or even if you haven’t but still appreciate a good shine- you need to try this handy little trick that will keep your faucets shiny for longer. It’s so easy you won’t believe it!
I’ve been watching way too much Downton Abbey on Netflix lately. I’ll admit that when I was trying this trick out, I felt just a little bit like some kind of clever old-fashioned butler who had all the best tricks up my sleeve for keeping things in tip-top shape. I also felt a little ridiculous, because, well you’ll see.
So here’s how things started out:
It’s a little hard to tell, but trust me when I say that my bathroom is less than spotless these days.
On a side note, here’s how the faucet is actually supposed to look:
Chris recently thought there may have been a leak in the sink somewhere (which, it turned out, there wasn’t), so he took everything apart and when he put the faucet back on, the handles were backwards. I told him just to leave it, as we definitely have bigger fish to fry. Stay tuned for that!
So anyway, if the handles look weird and backwards to you, it’s because they are!
Back to the trick.
Keep Your Faucets Shiny
I started out by cleaning the faucet up nicely, and by nicely I mean I cleaned it at all. Because that’s just not something that happens too regularly around here lately. I mostly do the toilets and leave the other fixtures to fend for themselves. But I cleaned them for you and for the good of all of blogkind and now I’m most definitely glad that I did.
When I was done I took a sheet of wax paper and rubbed it over all the chrome. This is where I felt ridiculous, because paper just doesn’t seem like something that you should be polishing with. Rubbing wax paper on things is just the kind of weird thing that gets me made fun of around here. I almost… almost felt embarrassed about trying this one out, even though no one was there to see me. You know what though? It really did make the clean-ness stick! A few days later I checked back and despite all the handwashing and toothbrushing that goes on here, it was still in tip top shape!
If you’ve got some grout that needs cleaning, now that you’re in full-on bathroom cleaning mode, this trick for how to clean grout is a really great one!
So there you go! This is one of those old wives tales that really works! And now I can spend even less time cleaning the bathroom… if that’s possible! 🙂
P.S. This method is best on chrome finishes as other finishes may have coatings on them that can be worn off if you rub them with the wax paper. Luckily, chrome fixtures are probably the only ones you really need to worry about water spots on anyway. I just wanted you to know, just in case!
*UPDATE* I made a little video showing you how this method works!
If you like clever cleaning tips, tricks, and hacks like this, check out my book The Cleaning Ninja! It’s full of all-new cleaning and organizing tips from front to back and it’s available now wherever you like to buy your books!
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- How to Install Your Own Heated Tile Flooring
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- How to Get Rid of Paint Spills and Messes Even After They’ve Dried
- Believe it or Not, There’s a Right Way to Mop!
- The Super Simple Household Binder System That Actually Works
- The 10 Minute DIY Pillow Cover
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- The Creek Line House Homekeeping Tips and Tricks Archive
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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.