Many of us have a small can of cream of tartar sitting in our pantry, waiting for the rare baking recipe. But did you know that you can use cream of tartar to clean your home?
First off, a bit about cream of tartar. It’s a white, odorless powder that is a byproduct of the winemaking process. It forms inside wine barrels during fermentation and acts as a preservative while also controlling the pH of the wine.
Next time you’re in the spices section of your grocery store (or better yet, buy in bulk on Amazon), stock up on cream of tartar and get started cleaning your house!
How to clean your home with cream of tartar
Stainless Steel: Just mix with water to clean your stainless steel appliances.
Porcelain: Mix cream of tartar with water and rub it onto porcelain surfaces. You can also try equal parts cream of tartar and vinegar.
Copper: Mix cream of tartar with lemon juice to scrub your copper kettles.
Aluminum: Cream of tartar can be mixed with water or hydrogen peroxide to clean aluminum pans.
Fireplaces: Check out this post on how to remove the soot from your fireplace just by using cream of tartar, warm water, and a nail brush.
Scratched Dishes: Make a paste with water and cream of tartar to remove scratches from dishes.
Laundry: Keep your whites white by letting them soak overnight in a quart of water with one teaspoon of cream of tartar. A two to one ratio of cream of tartar to glycerin is also a great spot treatment for stains (just put it in a spray bottle and shake before each use). Cream of tartar and water can also be used to remove rust stains from fabric.
Do you have any additional tips or uses for cream of tartar in your home?
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In the section on cream of tartar for laundry, do you mean the mixture of cream of tartar and water to the glycerin or straight cream of tartar to the glycerin? Thanks
If you burn food badly onto a pot or pan, just boil a small amount of water with a few teaspoons of cream of tartar in the pot, then let it cool, and the burnt bits will will flake right off!
I have never imagined that cream tartar could clean. I am going to try cleaning with it. It will be really interesting. Thank you for sharing this post! I will send it to my sister. She loves experimentation. Best regards!
Yes Cream of Tarter works wonderfuly in the laundry. When I was a teenager the city where I lived has just flushed the fire hydrants, this caused the water in our homes to become brownish. If you did laundry your laundry would come out dirtier than when you put it in.
This happened to me and my mother was not home so I could ask her what to do. I called the Water Department in my town and told them what happened to my load of whites. They asked if we had Cream of Tarter in the house. I looked but only had a little. i went to the grocery store and they suggested to get the cheapest priced Cream of Tarter I could find. At that time they had cans that were bigger then the 2 ounce they usually sell. I bought the larger one I could find.
He explained that the Cream of Tarter will get the clothes clean but I first needed to run all of the faucets in the house empty until the water came out clear. This included the washing machines. I ran a small empty load.
After all of the water in my home came out clear I rewashed my clothes adding the half of the can of Cream of Tarter for a Medium load, with some laundry detergent. He said that I didn’t need to use the full amount of detergent because I just washed the clothes and the small,amount would work. I only needed to use enough to make a little suds.
So rewashed my whites with a little detergent and half the can of Cream of Tarter. When the load was done my laundry was clean and very white. Even some of the stained tee shirts came clean.
I also washed the next load with the rest of the Cream of Tarter and detergent even though it was colors. That load came out with bright colors and no residue from the rusty water.
Since then whenever I see Cream of Tarter on sale or the large container for a reasonable price I buy it and keep it in the laundry room, next to the baking soda. But that is another item to add to your laundry to get it fresh smelling,