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Say Goodbye to Those Gray Scratches on Your White Dishware

July 26, 2012

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Shortly after Chris and I got married, we bought ourselves ten plain white dishes.  They weren’t super expensive–maybe $2.50 a piece?–but we loved the classic look and hoped we could hang on to them for a long, long time and use them for all the dinner parties we planned on having.  Well, we definitely have the dinner parties down, but over the last year these plates have picked up a lot of gray scratches from our silverware.  I mean, a lot.

It almost looks like Greta took a pen to them or something.  We have talked about replacing them, but then I came across a few posts online saying Barkeeper’s Friend would remove the scratches and scuffs.  I gave it a try.

The liquid “soft cleanser” got almost all the marks off, but I followed up with the powder to remove the deeper gray marks and they look brand new again. Here’s a closer shot of the last photo with the “after” plate on the left.

I bought both the liquid and the powder at Home Depot and they were around $2 each.   Which was a small, small price to pay for the amount of embarrassment it saved me at future dinner parties…oh, and buying new plates too, I guess.

We can’t be the only ones with the mystery gray scuffs on our dishware, right?  Where do they come from?  Silverware? The dishwasher?  Either way, good riddance!

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What do you think?

  1. lilface says:

    I have some white plates that were very ugly. I didn’t understand why only they had these scratches and my white and bone china or stoneware didn’t. I read this post and remembered that we cleaned my grandmothers porcelain sink with Comet cleanser. I just ran and scrubbed one of the plates with the Comet and it already looks 90% better. From now on I will just wash them with the cleanser. Thank you!

  2. Alright, little miss crafty-sue. I had no idea you could do this and I have about 16 plates that are going to get the treatment this weekend!

  3. Don’t be embarrassed, because you OBVIOUSLY have company, but I totally noticed your plates in this post: http://theproperpinwheel.com/2012/06/tut-tuesday-eat-placemat/

    and thought–“Oh my! We’re not the only ones!”

    It works and it will make you so happy.

  4. Meg @18preston.com says:

    My plates look the same and I’ve also been thinking about replacing them, but I’m trying this this morning first! Thanks for the post!

  5. Richlpgirl says:

    this is awesome! i’m moving into a new apartment this week and would look to spruce up my old dishes — doing this!!!

    love your blog ;)

    xxo!
    http://www.richlittle-poorgirl.blogspot.com

  6. Lani says:

    Totally getting this stuff!! i was just complaining about this to my husband!!!

  7. For reals! I was so ashamed to post the pics of THOSE plates. They’re ug. My nice white ones from Target were all packed away in storage and that wa what I had to work with. What was I thinking?! :)

  8. wow, those look like new again! i love a clean white, classic plate :)

  9. That’s awesome! We have white plates too, so I’ll definitely have to keep this in mind!

  10. meaganbriggs3 says:

    Holy cow! The difference is amazing! Our plates are blue….so I’ve never noticed any grey scuffs. But ours get a lot of soap scum stuck to them which drives me INSANE!!!!!

  11. Lisa P. says:

    That’s awesome! My white plates look the same way. They were a wedding gift 9 years ago, so this would be a great way to spruce them up.

  12. Courtney says:

    I just did this with our cookware that came from Ikea. They had dark cooking stains and spots. A little dab of Bar Keepers friend and viola! My husband thought I bought new ones :)

  13. Julia F says:

    nice! we have white plates too, they are corelle though so I haven’t noticed scratches.

  14. Jessica Gehman says:

    Bar Keepers friend was always my Mom’s secret for keeping their porcelain sink in great shape even with my dad and two kids :)

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