I love collecting mugs, and my current favourite is a cheerful chicken-patterned one I bought recently, but it has quickly become dirty-looking with stains that will not scrub off. I have washed it numerous times, and no matter how hard I scrub, there are still brown splatters and rings on the inside, which makes it look dirty despite just being cleaned. 

I do not like putting mugs in the dishwasher because I've had a few incidents where they became chipped or the design faded due to the heat. So, I decided to look online to find another way to get my mug spotless again. 

The most common suggestion online was to clean it with white vinegar, and while I did have some in my kitchen, it has a very powerful sour odour, which I was worried would transfer onto my mug and affect the taste of a cup of tea. 

Instead, after doing a little research, I discovered another way to clean cups is to mix a little lemon juice and baking soda together in the mug, and it would help loosen the stains. 

I had both lemon juice and baking soda at the back of my kitchen cupboard, so I decided to give it a try - and was surprised at how quickly it worked in just a few minutes. 

How to get stains out of your mugs without a dishwasher

All I did was add a little baking soda to my mug and then add a few squirts of lemon juice. 

The solution immediately began to fizz up and create a foam, so I recommend being careful about how much lemon juice you add, as I was a little worried it would overflow and create a mess. 

I then just let the solution bubble away until it fizzed out, which took less than two minutes. 

There were still stains in the mug, but I noticed it seemed much cleaner than it had been. I then simply ran my mug under some hot water, gave it a wipe with a cloth, and it was completely clean without any effort. 

How does lemon juice and baking soda remove mug stains? 

I was really impressed by how effortless it was to get my mug squeaky clean after trying for weeks to scrub away the stains. 

After looking online, I discovered that mugs become stained due to a compound called tannins found in tea and coffee. 

These tannins can stick to the porous surface of a mug and are difficult to remove if you regularly drink hot beverages from it.

However, lemon juice is acidic, which helps break down difficult tea stains and will react to baking soda to create a fizzing solution. 

The baking soda is abrasive to will physically help scrub it off the stains while the fizzing and bubbling help loosen the more stubborn stains, so all you have to do is wipe them away. 

This was a fast and simple way to clean my favorite mug, taking less than five minutes - plus, it left a pleasant lemon scent without altering the taste of my tea.