For The Love Of Tins!

I find myself elbow deep in butter on a daily basis. Not literally, of course. But whipping it every day has made me somewhat of a pro at cleaning it, too. Which in turn gets my inner hippie riled up because, you know... cleaning products. I chose to be a massage therapist BECAUSE I wanted to help - not because I wanted to unleash the harsh toxins the major corporations have secretly (or not so secretly) slipped into our household products that are supposed to make things better!

I digress... I really just wanted to clean my bowls and tins in a way that soothed my inner-tree-hugger and did a good job at the same time. Of course there are many, MANY fun recipes online that do this. And if you haven't yet guessed, I'm about to offer the same. This is for YOU my fellow earth-loving-whole-health-believing-warriors!

For those of you who have bravely and supportively taken a shot at my Deep Tissue Body Butter, you may already have a handful of tins laying around that you are not sure what to do with. Below, I will walk you through a step-by-step process of how to remove the butter and sticker residue and leave you with shiny, like-new tins that you can use to, oh I don't know, fill with more butter! You can also make candles, fill them with mints, create pop art, have a tower building contest. The tin world is your oyster! But if you did not already know (get ready for a little self-promotion) my butters come in 1, 2 and even 5 pound portions that you can get (TODAY! - ACT NOW!) and keep those recycled tins around for your re-filling pleasure.

Onto the previously referred to steps....

You will need:

Well used tins

1 lemon (large)

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Hot water

Wool scrubber

1 micro-fiber cloth

Step 1:

Over the sink, lightly dust the inside and sticker surface of your tin with baking soda. This acts as a mild abrasive and absorbs odors. Fun fact: Ancient Egyptians used baking soda to clean and de-odorize bodies before mummification! Didn't see that coming, did you?

Step 2:

Repeat the same process with salt. As a more aggressive scrubbing agent, the salt will be especially helpful with the stickers. Those damn stickers...

Step 3:

The fun part! Squeeze the lemon onto the dusty tin and get a quick throw back to those elementary school homemade volcano days!

Step 4:

​Use your lemon wedge as a sponge and start scrubbing! Lemon sponge - all natural and smells good, too! Optional bonus step - add a little more salt to your lemon sponge before the scrubbing begins for added friction.

Step 5:

Submerge your tin into a hot water bath and give it a nice soak. At this point, the labels should be easy to remove. You can always recruit the help of your handy dandy wool scrubber to work smarter not harder. Cause, you know, body mechanics.

Step 6:

Towel dry your tin with a micro-fiber cloth. Why micro-fiber you ask? Good question! it doesn't shed, it absorbs any and all moisture and it doubles as a polishing cloth. Why isn't everything this efficient?

Step 7:

Pour yourself a drink! You're done! You've given yourself a batch of happy tins AND saved the earth. Marvel should make a movie about you. Happy cleaning and repurposing!