Most of my friends who have stainless steep appliances are endlessly complaining about streaks and finger marks, and how hard they are to remove from their stainless steel appliances.

What is the problem? Why so hard to clean? Like marble counter tops and no-wax floors, cleaning stainless steel appliances is complicated by the manufacturing process. New stainless steel is protected for a number of years by a chromium film that protects the metal from rusting, staining, and even tarnishing. But if you don’t keep up with the stains as you go along, the film can be broken.

My best DIY formula of all time, my softscrub, is also a stainless steel cleaner that works on streaks to stains to general cleanup:

Ingredients
½ cup baking soda
A few squirts of a green liquid soap or detergent.

Place the baking soda in a bowl and add enough liquid soap or detergent to make a texture like frosting. Scoop some of the mixture onto a sponge and scrub the stainless steel. Rinse well.