Among the valuable life lessons I’ve picked up over the years, “clean as you go” is possibly one of the hardest to abide by for me, even today. For some reason digesting in relaxation on the couch has always made the perfect segue after eating a great meal. Of course then there’s family time, story time, bath time, night-night time, quiet time, pay-the-bills time, exercise time, and before I know it I skip over cleaning time right on to bed time. Unfortunately, choosing not to clean the dishes, stove, and counter tops only adds to the chore later on and often creates ugly stains that seem impossible to remove.

Enter Bar Keepers Friend. This stuff is just plain awesome at removing gunk from pots and pans, rust and food stains from ceramic sinks and cook tops, and making stainless steel surfaces shine like new! I use their Liquid product for all of these tasks and according to the label it’ll do a whole lot more.

I first heard about Bar Keepers Friend when my wife and I purchased a stainless steel cookware package from a local home furnishing store. We owned one stainless steel pan and after cooking a few rounds of bacon and sausage it was heavily stained. After telling the salesman about our staining problem, he pointed us to this product and we have yet to find anything that works better. It is very potent so a few drops go a long way and it has a nice light orange aroma so it won’t gas out the people with sensitive noses like me.

I’d say the best policy is to clean your work area and utensils right after you use them, but if you are tad “busy” like me you’ll definitely want this weapon in your arsenal.