An Old Farmhouse, a New Home and a Filthy Fireplace

October 4, 2023

This post is about more than an old farmhouse, a new home, and a filthy fireplace. Everyone has stories and frustrations when it comes to moving into their first home. Whether the home-buying process was smooth sailing or a bit of a bumpy ride, an already stressful process can be worsened if the house is left a mess for those moving in. This was the case for me.

My home-buying process was one of many ups and downs – including a deal falling through two days before our closing date. When we found the house that checked off everything on our list, we jumped on the opportunity. 

Everything went as planned until move-in day. The sellers, after spending an extra 12 hours in the house, left the property a mess. Caked on gunk on the floors, trash in every room (and spread out across the property’s seven acres), and a wood-burning LOPI fireplace that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since it was installed. A True Story of Move-in Cleaning with BKF.

The Fireplace

Looking at the glass doors of this fireplace insert on any normal day, you might not recognize how dirty it really is. After wiping down the outside, however, it became obvious how much grime was actually going to come off.

Looking at the windows, it seemed to consist of intentionally fogged glass. Getting in deeper (literally) We came to the realization that these windows were meant to be crystal clear.

You might be wanting to ask at this point, what brought this realization to life? I mean how do you clean a filthy fireplace? 

Got a Filthy Fireplace to Clean? Bar Keepers Friend Powder and a little elbow grease, that’s what!

• Remove loose debris with a damp cloth
• Sprinkle  BKF Cleanser onto a damp sponge or mix a small amount with water to make a paste. Use the paste on hard-to-clean areas.
• After one minute, clean it off with a soft cloth
• Rinse with a damp sponge
• Buff glass dry with a microfiber cloth or paper towels

While the fireplace wasn’t the only neglected hidden treasure in this house, it definitely has its own WOW factor. Using Bar Keepers Friend on your hidden treasures, new or old brings them back to life. 

Every house has a WOW factor… some might just be buried a little deeper than others.

“Removing soot and stains from your glass fireplace door or insert is easy with Bar Keepers Friend. BKF has a few products you can use to clean your fireplace. For light soiling, our Soft Cleanser may suffice, but for tougher cleaning tasks, use our powdered Cleanser.

For tough jobs, we’d suggest making the powder into a paste and letting it sit on the surface for a full minute before giving it a scrub and then rinsing completely. Also, work over a small area at first other than the whole door at once.” — Clean Post — Cleaning Fireplace Glass with Bar Keepers Friend

Here’s more on How to Clean a Fireplace with Bar Keepers Friend.

If you have a filthy fireplace and use Bar Keepers Friend to shine it up please let us know. You can submit your before and after photos here, Before and After.