So, when we bought our house, one of the things we knew we wanted to do in time was update the kitchen a bit. There are a couple cabinets that are falling apart, the laminate is peeling on them. The appliances were a little dated but not horrible.

They still worked, so we wanted to use them until they broke or we found a really good deal to replace them. The refrigerator handles were yellowing and the dishwasher was doing the same.

The dishwasher was a little gross though. No matter how much I cleaned it, no matter how many cleaning hacks I looked up, it was always gross to me. I felt like I couldn’t consciously put my dishes in there, let alone my daughters bottles, and get them to come out clean.

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Slowly, but surely, Dave and I have been replacing some of the appliances when the right deal arises.
We started off with the impeccable deal we found on our Range Cook Top. We were in Lowe’s in Delaware just looking. Dave found an “open box” section.

We found this range, out of the box. Long story short, between the open box deal and Military Discount (thanks Dad), we got a $1000 gas range cook top for $180! What a steal.

Our refrigerator was our next big find. Our neighbors were moving. We were very sad to see them go. They’d been awesome neighbors. But, we inherited a lot of awesome stuff from them.

They rented the Pod system to use for moving to FL. They had bought a new refrigerator to take with them to move to FL but they didn’t have room for it in the POD.

It was still in the box and packaging in the garage. It was a $1600 refrigerator that they sold to us for half price! It has the sweet french doors and the freezer section on the bottom.

Finally, once we had my daughter and we had to switch to formula, I was cleaning bottles twice a day. It was getting ridiculous. The dishwasher was old and wasn’t cleaning the bottles well enough.

We found a new dishwasher. Originally, it was $700, but on sale and with military discount (again, thanks Dad) we got it for $495!

We know how to find Stainless Steel Appliance deals!

Sooooo… now to the cleaning of these stainless steel appliances. I feel like they fingerprint up in no time. They streak if you don’t use the correct kind of cleaners too. I had tried multiple cleaners that claim they’re for stainless steel but they just left the appliances looking streaky or smudged.

I almost rather look at fingerprints than a cleaning job done half assed.

Stainless Steel Cleaning Hack

Ready for my awesome trick? I never thought this would work, but I was desperate to find something that would work after epically failing with other cleaners.

So, grab a microfiber towel and some Pledge and get to it.

You’ll have clean stainless steel appliances faster than you think.

We use lemon Multipurpose Pledge in our house because the lemon scent goes with the other cleaners that we use. If you want to use that as well, grab your Lemon Pledge here. The best stainless steel cleaner!

Start by spraying the Pledge on your microfiber cloth, not directly to your appliances.

Take the towel and wipe it on and then off. Wipe in the same direction as the “grain” of the appliance. If you look closely at the appliance you’re cleaning, you’ll see it has either vertical or horizontal looking grain.

If you wipe against the grain, it looks like it smears and doesn’t look smooth.

Continue to wipe with the grain and make sure to wipe the handles of the doors as well. You’re basically buffing the steel.

I do want to note that our floors tend to get a little slippery around the fridge after doing this, from Pledge residue on it, so please be careful, and know that you may need to wipe that area as well.

You can apply the same principle to a dishwasher. Wipe with the grain and use a microfiber towel. It wipes best, a normal thick kitchen towel doesn’t wipe and clean it properly, it just smears.

Hopefully, this tip helps you clean your appliances faster and easier!

Feel free to share your cleaning tips in the comments below!