How To Clean Your Kitchen With Eggshells — Yep, You Heard Us Right

Is this a brilliant cleaning hack or a nonsensical social media post about leftover eggshells? It turns out the viral cleaning hack involving turning eggshells into a scouring powder actually works. Eggshells are boiled (to be sterilized), dried in the oven, and then crushed by hand or pulverized in a food processor or blender. The eggshell powder can be combined with a bit of dish soap and water to make a paste, or you can make a heavier-duty mix by adding baking soda, powdered laundry detergent, or both.

To use this cleaning powder, sprinkle some of it on whatever surface you're cleaning, add enough water to make a paste, scrub off the grime, and then rinse away the mess with water or wipe it away with a wet rag. This method works. Think about it: Eggshells are abrasive yet gentle on surfaces, baking soda is a cleaning staple that neutralizes odors, and laundry detergent fights stains and grease. Now, you can get more bang for your buck from the eggs that seem to be getting more and more expensive at the grocery store. Your nightly kitchen shutdown just got so much easier.

Use your homemade eggshell cleaning powder or just the crushed shells and water on sheet trays, grill grates, cooktops, pans with burnt-on food, pots with blackened bottoms, and more. To clean areas with mineral buildup, like gunked-up kitchen faucets, sinks, grout, and tile, scrub them down with a paste of eggshells and vinegar. It's not just surface grime that fears eggshells — stains and odors do too. Remove coffee stains by soaking eggshell cleaning powder and water in mugs overnight. You can also remove stains and off smells from cutting boards with an eggshell and lemon juice paste. 

You just don't want to use eggshells on easy-to-scratch surfaces like soft plastic, glass, marble or other polished stones, or Teflon since the powder is abrasive enough to damage these more delicate materials. So, is cleaner made from eggshells as effective as it is bizarre? Yes, but whether it's worth the extra effort to make is completely up to you.