Mayonnaise, a dip to go with fries, a dressing for a salad, a saucy filling for a chicken and bacon sandwich, and a great cleaner!
Whoa! A cleaner? Yep, that’s right. Mayo can clean stuff – who’d have thought it!
Good old-fashioned mayonnaise actually has excellent cleaning abilities, some of which you’ll be surprised to hear about!
Keep on reading to find out what this condiment can do.
What Can Mayonnaise Clean?
Mayo is usually white or pale yellow in colour, has a creamy, thick texture and is mainly made from egg yolk, oil, salt, and either vinegar or lemon juice (and sometimes mustard gets added – but not always!).
When you put all of these ingredients together, you get a cleaning solution! So, what can this sauce clean?
1. Take out water marks and heat stains on wood
Water stains on wood
To get rid of surface-level moisture marks on wood, grab a neutral-coloured cloth and gently rub a layer of mayonnaise into the water blemishes on the surface.
Allow the mayo to rest like this overnight, and the next day, wipe the sauce off the item using a very damp cloth.
Feel free to try this method out on significant water marks. If the blemishes are very deep in the wood, this may not be the most effective treatment.
Heat stains on wooden surfaces
To remove heat marks from your wooden furniture, follow the method above! But be prepared to repeat the treatment multiple times. The heat stains may not disappear after a single treatment.
2. Repair very light scuffs and scratches on wooden surfaces
If you’ve got tiny scratches or scuff marks on your wooden furniture and floors, treat them with some mayo.
Clean the area with a damp cloth first, then carefully massage an even layer of mayo onto the affected areas.
Ideally, you need to leave the treated area alone for a few hours or overnight. Then, you can grab a cloth and buff the wooden surface clean the next day. The once scratched/scuffed item should be mark-free by the morning.
Of course, this method may only be a temporary fix and won’t be suitable for big, deep scratches. But it’s a quick and easy solution to try out if you’re in a pinch.
3. Dust fake plants
Fake house plants add a touch of colour to homes. But as is the case with most furniture in a house, if they’re not taken care of effectively, they become dull, riddled with dust, and look more bin-worthy than display-worthy!
A cheap solution to your planty problem is to rub mayo into the leaves of your fake greenery. As you massage the mayonnaise into the surfaces, the once-dusty plants will start to shine again!
Dusting each leaf may be a little time-consuming, but the end result will be worth it.
4. Remove fingerprints from stainless steel surfaces
Stainless steel items are known for being riddled with fingerprints! An easy way to get rid of these marks is to rub a little mayo onto the surface and then buff it with a cloth.
Watch as the prints disappear!
5. Get rid of adhesive mess
There’s nothing worse than buying a new mug or pair of shoes only for the price tag to be stuck on the surface! You sit there, for what feels like hours, trying to tease the adhesive gloop off. In the end, you give up and leave the imprint of the sticker’s edge behind!
But what if there was a simple solution to this sticky problem? A dash of mayonnaise!
Before you remove a sticker, coat it with a generous amount of mayo. Then, leave the mayonnaise on the sticker for up to an hour.
When you return later, you can rub the sticker off the surface. The mayo will have broken down the gluey bond between the item and the sticker.
It’s as simple as that! And so much easier than sitting there trying to peel the tag off!
This trick also works on car bumper stickers too! So, if you need to remove an old sticker from time gone by, follow the steps above, and the once-loved print will be gone.
6. Clean tar off surfaces
If you’ve had an unfortunate mishap with some tar, don’t panic! Just coat the tar-filled area with mayonnaise, leave it on the surface for 10 minutes, then wipe it clean. You can leave the mayo on the surface longer if need be!
7. Clean sap off items
Did you park your bike under a sappy tree? You probably didn’t realise the sap was oozing from it until you saw the stain on your bike’s seat!
But rest assured, if you rub a little mayo into the sappy area and then wait a few minutes, you can rub the mess off.
If the sap has hardened, this method won’t be as effective! But by all means, try the mayo technique out.
It may be able to soften the gunk ever so slightly for you, which could help the cleaning process along.
8. Get rid of crayon marks on walls
Got a crayon artist in the family who loves to draw on walls instead of paper? Don’t fret. You’ll be able to remove the eyesore, oops, I mean drawings, from your walls with some mayo!
Simply coat the whole blemish with an even layer of mayonnaise and allow it to sit on the surface for at least an hour (it can be longer if need be).
Then, grab a damp, neutral-coloured cloth and wipe the entire area down. You can repeat the steps above if necessary!
9. Polish silver and remove tarnish from jewellery
Are the in-laws coming for tea? Better get the silverware out, then! A cheap and easy way to polish your silver items is to dip a cloth in some mayo and gently rub the whole surface with the condiment-filled cloth. In mere minutes, your silver goodies will start to glow.
You can also use this method on silver jewellery.
Note: Always do a patch test first.
10. Remove grime from piano keys
Piano keys get filled with grime fairly quickly. It’ll come as no surprise since the ivories are tinkled with (often) unwashed hands!
To spruce the keys up, give them a quick wipe down with a cloth that’s got a blob of mayo on it!
Sometimes, you can apply a tiny(!) blob of mayo to each key and then wipe them if they’re filthy. But this isn’t usually necessary, as the blob of mayonnaise on the cloth is usually more than enough.
There’s no need to slather the keys in mayo – less is best. And you must make sure you wipe the condiment off the surface properly before you move on to clean another section.
Note: You may have to repeat some of the methods above to clean/treat your item. In some cases, mainly if the blemishes are quite bad, you may have to choose an alternative treatment instead of the mayo one.
Can You Clean Furniture with Mayonnaise?
You can remove heat and water stains from wooden surfaces with mayonnaise. Follow the steps above to banish the horrible marks from your wooden piece.
To clean a wooden piece of furniture, dust it with a microfibre cloth, apply an official wood cleaner to the surface, and use a soft cloth to buff the area.
Wooden items shouldn’t get wet. And, ideally, they need to be treated with specialised solutions to protect them from wear and tear-related problems.
Bethan has a passion for exploring, reading, cooking and gardening! When she’s not creating culinary delights for her family, she’s concocting potions to keep her house clean!
