The Kitchen Ingredient That Gets Hard Water Stains Out Of Wood Cabinets

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Like your body, the wood in your cabinets can get injuries that are skin-deep, in a manner of speaking. You're likely familiar with those injuries: They're those  white water rings that glasses leave behind on your cabinets. The stains form when the glass has condensation on it, and the liquid from that seeps deeply into the cabinet's finish. While some DIYers may turn to commercial cleaning options for this issue, you don't have to. You'll find the perfect solution in your fridge or cupboards. It's mayonnaise or olive oil.

As you would know, oil and water don't mix, which is why this solution works. When you use this genius tip for cleaning your kitchen cabinets, the oils in the mayo force the water out of the wood's grain. Some mayonnaise recipes also include lemon juice. If the water that created the stain had mineral deposits in it, then the lemon juice will break those deposits apart. This cleaning trick is one of the more efficient ways to use mayonnaise around the home because mayo's recipe has all the components you need to clean the stain.

To get started, put a dollop of mayo on a paper towel. Pat it into the stain. Let it rest like that for several hours. If it's a tough stain, you may need to leave it overnight. After the waiting period, give it a rub with an Amazon Basics Microfiber Cleaning Cloth until the stain disappears. Finally, it's worth noting that this treatment doesn't just remove the white water stain from the wood. The mayo's oil gives the wood a good conditioning, too, which brings the cabinets back to their original glowing selves.

If, on the off-chance you don't have any mayo, you could still be in luck. If you have a little vinegar and olive oil in the cupboards, you're golden. Although this is among the more surprising uses of olive oil around the house, the stain-removal method actually shares most of the cleaning agents that are in the mayo. That is, it has the water-displacing oils and the mineral-breaking acid thanks to the olive oil and the vinegar, respectively.

In this scenario, you really will have to try to mix oil and water. The easiest way to do it is to mix the two ingredients in a glass or a bowl, as if you were mixing them up to make a vinegar-and-oil dressing for your salad. Pour it onto the stain and wipe it with the cloth, taking care to move your hand and the cloth going with the wood's grain instead of against it. Rub until the stain disappears.

Finally, you should keep in mind that while these stain-removal methods mostly work, there are a lot of variables that will contribute to the success of your efforts. These include the type of wood you're dealing with, and how deep the stain goes into the finish. To that end, it's often best to test out your cleaning method of choice on a spot that's out of plain view, if that's an option, before you try to tackle the big stains.