This month’s theme is DIY! Welcome Heather, our newest contributor, as she shares an easy DIY iron cleaning process.
I don’t know about the rest of you but I know I use my iron for some things that I probably shouldn’t. I mean why would it be capable of such great things if it wasn’t made for more than just ironing shirts and pants?!?!? Take for instance last weekend; my husband and I just recently bought a new house…an old new house…and there is a lot of work to do. One of those things being an old vinyl floor that needed to come up. We scraped and scraped and nothing was working so we went to the books and found out that steam and heat would help get it up. What has steam and heat in a convenient all-in-one package you might ask? You got it, an iron! So we went to work…
Unfortunately, the iron didn’t really help much and it came away from the whole experience looking pretty raggedy (see the before picture above!). (Secretly, it made me a little excited because now I could research how to clean it and write about it on Bargain Hoot! Come to find out it’s the easiest thing ever!)
What you need is your nasty iron, baking soda, a little water, a washcloth and some vinegar if you want to go the extra mile. Take a little baking soda and make a paste out of it with the water. There isn’t an exact science to this so just make whatever consistency you feel necessary. Spread that around the surface of your iron. Now I had a little problem with getting the solution out of the holes in my iron, but other people seemed to not have that problem so you can decide how careful you want to be around them or not.
I let the solution sit on the surface of my iron for about 45 minutes, just to make sure it would come off good and clean. Wipe off with a washcloth and VOILE! Your iron should be sparkling clean! (See the after picture at the top of the post!)
Now if you want to, you can make a vinegar/water solution to pour into your iron to clean the insides. It’s an equal amount of each and you simply pour it into your iron and steam out. This will help clean out the inside of your iron and the steam holes that can sometimes have built up gunk in them. After you finish that, I would put some water in and steam it out again to get the vinegar completely out.
There you have it! A completely new looking iron with just a little bit of time and effort!
Heather, That’s an amazing before and after of your iron!! That baking soda paste really works wonders!!
We have well water, complete with minerals, at our house and it builds up around the steam vents. I will be trying your tip!
would this work for a flat iron as well?
Hi Cesi! From the research I’ve done, yes, this solution should work with a flat iron. One Good Thing by Jillee also has a recipe that uses baking soda and hydrogen peroxide instead of vinegar. You might try that as well. Here is the link with her instructions: http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/11/how-to-clean-your-flat-iron.html
Hi! Would this work on a steam generator iron? Mine is very strict about not using the normal iron cleaners (The ones you put into the tank!) as it has a separate tank! They suggest not using distilled water and to just put some warm water into it and shake it around and pour out but this does nothing for the bottom! Would this help? x x
I would feel bad to recommend something that hurts your iron. I would just try a small area to be safe.
It doesn’t seem like there would be a problem…but better safe than sorry.
Thank you for your comment.
🙂
Heather’s helpful post has been blogged by someone as if it was their own here: http://myzooforyou.blogspot.com/ I hope you can rectify it!
Thank you for sharing that info.
Do you need to have the iron on? I use a mini iron when dressing my dolls…instead of sewing, we use glue and it can really gunk up an iron fast! Thanks for the tip!
This worked so well! My iron was in a right mess, I had burnt a jumper on it at the weekend and was a bit sceptical about this idea but it really works! My iron is like new! Thanks for sharing xxx
Yeah!! I’m so glad it helped!!
Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to share this with all of us. I followed your intructions and ta da, my old iron looks and works good as new!
Thanks for the great idea! I use baking soda for cleaning all over the house, but never thought of cleaning my iron with it.
As for the vinyl tiles: I placed my iron on newspaper to soften a tile while taking a heated one off, worked like a charm on my flooring, and the iron was practically clean afterwards.
HI, this is a great idea and hopefully I will be trying it out. One question though – what is baking soda? Is Baking Powder or Bicarb of Soda?
Regina, That is awesome!! Thank you for the comment!!
Susan- It’s Bicarb of soda….
I am going to try this today. I used some cleaner for irons from the store but my iron still is gunky. I will let you know if it worked!! Thanks for posting.
Thanks! I am going to try this today.
Thanks for your comment Tina! Hope to hear some good news about your iron!!
Hi! thanks for the tip.. my poor iron is looking a bit dull and dreary and I would love to try this, however, I have a ceramic sole plate. would this work just as effectively?
I believe you mean “viola” and not “voile”