Cleaning stained plastic containers is up there as one of the hardest jobs in the kitchen. Whether the container has had curry or bolognaise sauce inside, it’s always difficult getting it to look good as new.
No matter how much you may scrub it or put it through the dishwasher, the stains seem to have made themselves permanent inside the container. And while they won’t be dirty due to how much you’ve scrubbed it, it will forever look dirty.
However, one woman named Kristie has now taken to her TikTok to share her simple kitchen hack on how you can get rid of these stains in seconds without even have to scrub them.
“One of my favourite and most useful hacks I’ve ever seen,” she wrote in the caption of her video, which has been viewed over 6.7 million times.
The video went on to show Kristie standing by her kitchen sink with a dirty plastic container that had been filled with what appears to be a bolognese, which had stained it orange.
She goes on to rinse the container under the sink. However, this still left it with clear tomato stains all over it. She then poured a few drops of washing up liquid into the plastic container along with a bit of water.
Next she goes on to add a piece of kitchen towel into the container before closing the lid and shaking it for a few seconds.
Kristie then goes on to open up the lid of the container and removing the now orange-coloured kitchen towel before rinsing out the container, which was now stain free.
How does this work?
While it might seem like magic, there’s actually an easy explanation for it. The vigorous shaking action physically helps the detergent break down and lift grease and oil from the plastic’s surface.
Meanwhile, the kitchen roll acts as a sponge, absorbing the loosened grease and oil and physically pulling the stains from the plastic.
This method is particularly effective on fresh stains but may also work on older or stubborn ones.
People quickly took to the comment section to share their thoughts, with some having questions as to how it worked.
“Does it work on bowls that have been like that for months,” one viewer asked, to which another viewer replied: “it did for me!”
Someone else wrote: “YES I also saw it from TikTok years ago and i’ve been doing it ever since! gets rid of the oil so fast.”
“Literally LIFE CHANGING!!! Have been using it for more than 3 years,” another person said, while someone else wrote: “I don’t understand how this works, but cleaning it with the same soap and scrubber doesn’t.”
Several people also said they’d switched to glass containers for this exact problem, as glass don’t stain as easily.