Grandma Shares Her Simple Trick to Remove Stains From Plastic Containers — It Works Like Magic

That towering heap of plastic containers or that phalanx of Tupperware boxes adds pops of color to the array of kitchen utensils gleaming otherwise in silver, gold, or coppery undertones. But when it comes to dishwashing these vessels, plastic containers are a bit more disappointing than the rest of them. It is annoying to unload a dishwasher and discover those stubborn, discolored stains sticking to the flaps and corners of some of these plastic containers, while their metallic counterparts seem to glint bright in the daylight.

That reddish blemish leftover from the sauce of tomato pasta or that yellowish blotch clinging to a Tupperware bowl from the curry’s turmeric- these irksome stains can leave the homemaker cheesed off. While soap and water alone are not enough to ink out these notorious stains, there’s another way. TikTok user, Arianna Clelline (@ariganja) shared a brilliant hack she learned from her friend’s grandma, on how to scrub off these mulish pigmented patches from plastic utensils. Her video has been viewed nearly 677,000 times. People likened the hack to the “witchcraft” of plastic cleaning.

“So I'm gonna teach you something that my friend's grandma taught me a long time ago. And it has to do with containers that look like this,” Clelline said and flashed a transparent plastic box on the camera. The base of the box was smudged with a layer of yellowish stain. “I just got this completely washed out, but it still has that stain,” she described. She then proceeded to share the hack to clean this pigmented plastic. “First, you take a piece of paper towel and I just like to rip off a couple of pieces,” she explained while her tattooed arms ripped off a white paper towel into smaller fragments. The next step, she said, was to fill the plastic box with a “little bit of hot water.”    

The homemaker then displayed the box filled almost to half with hot water. She brought in a bottle of green liquid soap and squeezed a few droplets inside the water sloshing inside the greasy-looking box. Within this soapy water, she threw in the ripped fragments of the paper towel and covered the box with the lid. “Make sure it’s on there tight, ‘cause you are gonna be shaking it,” she captioned the viewers. Once the box was secured tight with the lid, Clelline started shaking the box, while its watery contents made gurgling sounds.

“You just keep shaking it up. Just shake, shake, shake. And then you have a completely, totally clean,” she concluded and wrapped up the video with the caption, “Best hack I was ever taught!” At the end of the video, she showed the same plastic box on the screen. This time, there was no sign of the stubborn greasy stains. Rather, the container shone bright and clear with the soapy foam.

Hundreds of people jumped into the comments section and shared other recipes for erasing stains from the plastics. Some suggested using “bleach,” one woman, @jennyfromthesouth, shared, “Baking soda paste also works!” Others suggested that these stain-smeared plastic containers should ideally be thrown away. “You should throw those plastic containers away and buy glass,” said @grandmabettyoct58. @jess shared, “I usually just throw them away!” @dyanloup wrote, “I just throw mine in the garbage. No shaking involved!”

You can follow Arianna Clelline (@ariganja) on TikTok for lifestyle content and life hacks.