How to Clean Door Hinges without Removing Them?

Your previous house-owner might have loved the door hinged all painted in white. But why would you pay for glossy and polished metal-looking hinges and get them painted in colors?

You might be thinking you are stuck with these painted and rusty hinges, right? If we say, you are not what would you do? Yes, we know removing the door and re-installing it just to clean the hinges seems a lot of effort.

But you can do it without removing it! All you need is to take a day off and we can tell you how to clean door hinges without removing them!

Cleaning Door Hinges with Magic Eraser

If you just got your whole house painted and see that there’s paint on the cabinet hinges, you might be annoyed already.

Removing the hinges and the door once again is a tough job to do. Well, we can show you how to remove paint from cabinet hinges without removing them! Take a look at the steps, they’re easy!

1. Gather the Ingredients

First of all, you have to get ready with all the ingredients needed for the job. Here, you will need a magic eraser. Yes, you might think that this little tool won’t do anything.

But trust us- it will work incredibly when it comes to cleaning the paint off the hinges. Also, this is highly inexpensive- why not give it a try? Go for the original Magic Eraser, it works the best.

You can also go for the other brands too. After you are ready with the Magic Eraser, you will need a plastic scraper. We are recommending a plastic scraper because it won’t scratch your hinges and the hinge will look all glossy even after scraping off the paint.

The scrapper will scrap off the larger parts of the paint on your hinges, but what about the tiny creases? Well, we have toothpicks to save you here! Yes, toothpicks will be a great option if you plan on taking out the tiny spots of paint as they are more disturbing to look at.

At this point, you will need a beverage.  Long story short, a beverage of adult persuasion will do the job best. Also, you can get your hands on coffee or cola when it comes to the beverage!

And finally, you will need elbow grease. If you don’t plan to clean them, you can check out the best soft close cabinet hinges– in a word, they are ideal!

• First of all, you have to get the magic eraser wet. Wet it completely and then you have to squeeze it. Make sure that you squeeze it properly, get the water out of the Magic Eraser.

• Now, that the Magic Eraser is wet, add some elbow grease on it. Do not add too much as the space is small and you have to be careful about the paint that is around the hinges.

• It’s time to start scrubbing. Rub that area with the magic eraser, the loose paint along with a bit more will come off easily.

• Here, you have to start the scrubbing part. Keep in mind that scrubbing will not be easy. So, make sure you are precise. Use a small-headed plastic scraper and scrub vigorously. But be sure to be careful about the outer edges of the hinge. Don’t forget to use the toothpick for cleaning the tiny locations.

• Now that the door hinge is clean, you can go for adding some coffee or cola! Any of these beverages will work for removing the rust from the hinge. Add some cola or coffee with the help of a cloth. Make sure that the beverage does not drip down. In short, make the hinge wet but not dripping wet.

• Let it rest for a while and then again, come back and add any of the beverages. Keep in mind that you have to keep it wet for as long as you can. If you were taking out the hinges, it was easy because you could have dipped the hinge inside a beverage for a longer period.
• As you cannot do it, you have to make sure you keep the area wet with the beverage and don’t let it dry. Keep on with your work for a few hours.

• And then, you can simply go for a little more of the magic eraser and clean it. Then you need to dip a piece of cloth into the soapy water and clean the whole hinge again. That’s it, you didn’t need to remove the door hinge, and yet you have cleaned and removed the paint!

Besides, you always have the chance of replacing the hinges with a new one if they are too rusty and ugly! Check out the best router for door hinges and you are free to add hinges to any door!

Cleaning Door Hinges with Water

So, if your plans are not removing the door, you can remove one-by-one hinges! Well, that’s the best way to clean the hinges without removing the door. No more worry about the rust and search for how to clean black from door hinges! Let’s get on with it.

• Firstly, you have to take off one hinge. For this, go for a screwdriver. Keep in mind that we are going for one hinge at a time. And so, the process will be longer if you have so many hinges added to the door.
• Get the screwdriver in the position and take off the screws of one hinge one by one. After you are done, make sure you keep the screws in a safe place as you need to add them back once you have cleaned the hinge. Now, the hinge will come off.

• Get the hinge and it’s time to heat it. The easiest way to do it is to get it inside a pot of water and get the pot to heat. You should settle for an old pot because you won’t be able to use the same pot afterward for any other job. Put the hinge inside the pot and bring it to heat.

• After an hour or two, you can take out the hinge from the water as the paint is softened already. It’s time to scrape off the paint from the hardware.
• Get a hold of a plastic scraper to remove it. Slowly, start scratching off the paint. You have to go for hard scrapping in this position if you want to remove all the old paint from the door hinge.

• While scrapping the hinge, you will see that some of the paint is not coming out anymore. It’s because the paint is hardened once again.
• And you have to repeat the same procedure for taking it off. Get it into the hot water and heat it for a while. And take it out, scratch, and scrape off the paint.

• Once you are sure that all the paint is gone and your door hinge is all glossy and polished, you can rinse off the hardware. Get a little lukewarm water and soak the hardware. Use dish soap in the water to clean it properly. Now take it out of the water.

• Some people will tell you that all you need is to dry it and add it back. But well, we will for two extra little steps to make sure that the hardware is better than before! Here, we recommend you apply a cleanser.
• Any good hardware cleanser will work. You have to use it on a wet surface so, do not let the hardware dry after the previous step. While applying, make sure you are going for a piece of cloth or sponge. Don’t apply this one directly.

• Scrub it with a magic cleanser or toothbrush. This will clean the tiny areas that still have paint or rust. And now, all you need is to clean it with lukewarm water. You are done cleaning this one!

If the paint or rust is still sticking to the door hinge, you can plan on adding some elbow grease and repeating the cleaning process.

This process is lengthy and you need to clean each hinge for a good amount of time. But well, you aren’t doing it every day, right? And if they are too rusty, get rid of them. Learn how to cut door hinges with a Dremel and add a new pair!

Wrap Up

We have come up with two different methods of cleaning. Keeping the hinge added to the door can be tougher when it comes to cleaning it. But who wants to remove the door and re-install it? If you want to skip this part, these two methods will work the best for you. Make sure you have enough time on your hands, pick up a weekend and spend the day with the hinges!