We love our kitchen counter and we love blueberries, but when we lifted up our blueberry carton and saw this, we weren’t too pleased with either of them at the moment.
Yes, one of the only reasons granite can be tricky is because it’s a porous stone, so it can absorb stains. And since our counters are not exactly the cheapest thing in our kitchen, the idea of a permanent pink square freaked us out in a major way. Especially when we realized that the blueberry carton had sat in that very spot for four whole days (!!!) before we picked it up and noticed the stain. We were 100% certain that we’d be stuck with that pink badge of honor for good.
But just for kicks we dug out the granite care card that came with our Stonemark slab back in January. Besides recommending that you wipe up any spills immediately (and we’re guessing that doesn’t mean four days later) it also mentioned that regular old household bleach can’t harm granite, and can actually be used to suck a stain right out of the stone.
Needless to say, we were intrigued. So we ran next door to borrow some bleach from our neighbor (since we make an effort to keep chemicals of that caliber out of our home). You see, major chemical concoctions can be granted temporary admittance on the grounds that they might save our stone (although I actually wore two layers of rubber gloves and opened all the windows to air things out). The care card suggested pouring bleach right over the stain and letting it sit overnight with some plastic wrap over it to keep the granite moist. We didn’t have any plastic wrap but we did have those big plastic freezer bags, which seemed to work just as well.
And we didn’t even have to wait til the next morning. Within about an hour the stain was nothing more than a dark shadow and in another two hours it was completely invisible. And today I couldn’t tell you where that pink square used to be if you pointed a gun at my head.
Of course, to thank the bleach for saving our counter we immediately exiled it from our home (read: returned it to the neighbor). But in this case it worked so effectively (and saved us at least one to three ulcers) so we definitely thought it was worth passing along as a possible granite saving solution for anyone else in a pinch.
And honestly, the experience has made me love our counter even more (there’s no love lost for blueberries either, which we now keep in a glass bowl on the counter instead of the hole-riddled plastic carton). The fact that a big hideous berry stain could sit there for days and completely dissappear in mere hours makes me a lot less nervous about the occasion oil or wine spill that used to make me break out in hives. The moral of the story: if you’re considering granite but are nervous about the stain-factor, it’s safe to say that it’s a lot more durable than ya think.
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