There are many different ways to clean and polish a stainless steel sink. Some require buying specialized products, while others rely more on household materials and DIY tricks.

While I wouldn’t advise against opting for a pre-made, store-bought solution like Bar Keepers Friend or Weiman Stainless Steel Sink Cleaner, I did some testing to determine if the cheaper methods worked – and I had some success. It turns out that all you need is a melamine sponge and plain old baking soda to clean your stainless steel sink.

Since I’m a renter, my sink, like everything else in my apartment, arrived “used”—and it shows. There are some serious scratches on it, evidence of its long history of cleaning cookware, I can only imagine. A big part of cleaning stainless steel is sanding out minor scratches, and because of that, the internet is full of recommendations for using abrasive cleaners or other gritty substances. I settled on baking soda as my cleaning agent.

Next up was choosing my cleaning solution. Perennial wisdom may tell you to use lemon wedges to remove stains, but in my experience, lemon-based tricks are hit or miss. I made up the difference by choosing a lemon-scented SOS steel wool pad.