The Copper Kitchen Sink!

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The Copper Kitchen Sink!

In 2015, Brian and I were ready to start looking for a home to purchase. We had relocated from Yakima, WA to Olympia, WA the Summer of 2014. At that time, we needed to live in a specific area so Connor could attend the high school we’d selected for his Senior year. The rental house we had found was in a wonderful neighborhood and was a nice size. It’s just difficult to rent after owning and we now felt we knew the area well enough to start an earnest search for a house.

House hunting is always interesting. It can bring up all kinds of conversation, differences in what’s important to a couple and really stretch the imagination of the “budget”. Needless to say, Brian and I had looked at every house that met the basic filter criteria in our search area. We simply weren’t finding anything that made us want to offer. You know those criteria- 3 + bedroom, 2 + bathroom, at least half an acre for a good garden, and a SHOP. We came really close to offering on a beachfront home. I just couldn’t get past the plywood kitchen cabinets and the $80K price tag to repair the bulkhead.

So, we continued searching, considering building, deciding not to build because of drainage and permit challenges, etc… Until one day on Trulia or Zillow or another MLS site, I was searching and accidentally didn’t set all our criteria filters! THE house, with a chicken coop and a Copper Kitchen Farmhouse sink! Oh, yes, the rest of the house was also nice, but the kitchen sold me. We still haven’t built our shop, it’s scheduled for January 2019 and we’ve made due with storing the wood working tools and a tarp carport for Brian’s car project. But, I have a kitchen design that makes food prep, canning, dehydrating, baking etc… easier and more efficient than I’ve had in the past.

Caring for my copper kitchen sink is interesting. Simply rinsing it with hot water and soap isn’t effective to keep it shining and beautiful. When we purchased the home, the former owners had left a small amount of copper cleaning cream. I was concerned about the toxicity of the chemicals in the cream. On our journey to living greener reducing the use of chemicals that are toxic to us, soil and water is ongoing.

Sometimes the steps to selecting the least toxic product can be comical. It involves standing in the aisle of a grocery store trying to get the scan feature on the Think Dirty app or the Good Guide app to work so we can compare products. It also involves searching on the internet for Material Safety Data Sheets, toxicity ratings and often, head scratching. Material Safety Data Sheets are really geared towards commercial use, but I find that they often can give me information of where to look for more data. I spend some time on the internet researching before I purchase new brands. For many of our cleaning needs, we have found products we’re quite comfortable with that I’ll discuss in future posts. The Copper Sink, well, we’re still searching for the best option.

Right now, I use  Wright’s Copper Cream. I like it for a number of reasons.
– It has a health rating of 1 (meaning it has a slight health hazard rating)
– There are no flammable ingredients in it (some of the other metal cleaning options are flammable)
– I can purchase a larger tub so there’s less environmental impact from packaging

I will continue to search for a greener option and may dabble in making my own copper cream when my current tub of Mrs. Wright’s is gone.

So how do I clean my copper kitchen sink?
1. I use doTerra On-Guard Concentrated Cleaning Solution diluted with hot water to clean my sink daily. This sanitized the sink and keeps it smelling fresh.
2. A couple times per week, depending on how tarnished it looks and if we’re having guests over, I don my rubber gloves and pull out my tub of Mrs. Wright’s Copper Cream
a. Using a soft cloth made from a repurposed old t-shirt, I gently rub the entire surface with cream
b. Rinse the sink out with warm water. Note: it probably could be ANY temperature of water and cold water is a greener option. On our journey I’ll get there.
c. Wipe the sink out with a dry cloth made from another old t-shirt
d. I shine my copper tea kettle at the same time
e. Enjoy the beauty of bright copper!

I love my big farm sink! It makes washing dehydrator trays, pots and pans very easy. It does mean being creative about rinsing dishes to conserve water. That’s another post for another day!

Do you have metal surfaces you clean with a metal cream of some sort? What do you use? I’d love to hear your thoughts on what works well for you and why you chose it!

Thank you for  sharing our journey and I hope you are successful in finding a greener option for cleaning your metals!