Let's Have Fun With Vinegar: A Cleaning Success Story

Friends, we're here today to talk dirty.

Or clean depending on your point of view.  This is the story of how our master bathroom went from looking shabby to spiffy thanks to a $3.79 investment in a gallon of distilled vinegar.

Warning: Vinegar is not appropriate for use on all surfaces.  Please research your own particular bathroom surface materials before having your own fun with vinegar.

I'm a simple gal with a simple mind who likes to save a buck, so naturally I'm drawn to very basic cleaning products.  Why throw money down the drain when you can throw baking soda and vinegar down there instead?

After years of experimentation, these have become my go-to products.

• Homemade all purpose counter cleaner: combine 2 cups of hot water, 1/2 teaspoon of washing soda, and a squirt of dishwashing soap - the purpose of the hot water is to dissolve the washing soda and soap, you mix it up once and you can continue to use it indefinitely like any other spray cleaner .  I got this recipe from a blog called The Simple Dollar that apparently doesn't exist anymore:-(
• SoftScrub for sinks and tubs
  
• Cinch glass cleaner
• Folex carpet cleaner

I've heard so many times that the only cleaning products that anyone ever needs are vinegar and baking soda, but my experiences have been mixed.  In a pinch I'll use a paste of baking soda if I'm out of SoftScrub, but overall I feel that keeping a clean house requires something more than these products plus elbow grease.

However lately our master bathroom wasn't looking so great.  There was a large stain near the drain that formed over the course of a few years and in recent months the scuff marks joined the party.  We had a host of other "sins" in the form of water stains on the glass shower door and rings around all of our bathroom sinks.

Thanks for asking, yes I clean the bathrooms every week, and until recently I had a good track record of them not looking like this.  Either my scrubbing skills have deteriorated or the formula for SoftScrub has changed - I report, you decide.

If there's one thing that I can't stand, it's putting effort into something and getting negative results.  Slaving away at cleaning our shower only to have it look like I hadn't cleaned the shower is not my style.  Guys, I was <this close> to (gasp!) paying someone to clean our bathrooms.  This is a story of how a crazy tip on the internet turned things around.

Past Successes with Vinegar

Vinegar is a rock star at removing hard water stains.  I don't know why anyone would use anything else to clean their shower head.  Here's the procedure:

Step 1: take a good look at your shower head and recoil in utter disgust.

Step 2: remove the shower head and soak it in a mixture of 50% vinegar and 50% water overnight.

Step 3: pull a sparkling clean shower head out of the solution and carry on with your life.

It's really that easy.  But the limitation of vinegar is that you can't soak your entire shower in it.  Take it from me, if you spray vinegar on your shower all that will happen is that it will drip off, accomplishing nothing.

Things That Haven't Worked

Over the years I've tried many bathroom cleaners that have not delivered.  Sometimes I use a homemade shower cleaner that is as mediocre as anything that I can buy.

One miracle that I've seen touted many times is to combine vinegar and Dawn soap in a spray bottle.  A few months ago I finally got around to trying the miracle.  The results:

1. It did diddly squat to improve the appearance of our shower.
2. It was not pleasant to work with.  Everyone is all "vinegar is natural" but if you put it in a spray bottle and let lose with it in an enclosed space like a bathroom, you're going to get hit with a waft of vinegar fumes.
   

A Crazy Google Result

I did a last ditch google search for miracle shower cleaners.  After I clicked past all of the "dawn and vinegar" results I saw something new: a crazy statement that water stains on ceramic tiles can be removed by applying a paper towel soaked with vinegar and letting it sit for a few hours.  Easy enough but if it works why have I never heard about this technique in my 48 years on this earth?

I knew it wouldn't work but since it didn't cost me anything to try I took a shot at it.  I covered the offending areas of the shower floor with paper towels and poured vinegar over them.

I kind of remembered that the tip said to leave the paper towels on for an hour, so about an hour later I came back.  I could see the stains through the paper towels mocking me.  Yep, I fell for another useless tip on the internet - what else is new?

I walked away for another hour.  When I came back I was befuddled that I didn't see the scuff marks anymore.  Huh...

Sure enough the scuff marks were gone.  The marks around the drain were still present, but I could see patches where the stain was coming off.  I scrubbed at it for a bit, applied fresh paper towels and vinegar, and walked away again for a few more hours.

End result:

In full transparency, there is still a very faint water mark at the edge of the stain that was around the drain.  But it's so faint as to be almost non-existent.

Over the course of the next few days I had more fun with vinegar.  Here is our bathroom sink before:

Here is a picture of a paper towel soaked in vinegar left to sit on the drain for a few hours:

And here is the "after".  There are some tiny patches of the stain remaining, but you can't see them when the drain stopper is in place so I've left them for now.  I'll get 'em next time.

Now let's check out the shower door before:

Here's the after on that.  The results are only partially due to vinegar.  I used a few vinegar soaked paper towels on the worst of the build up, but lining the entire glass surface was too labor intensive.  While I was doing my research I came across this product and decided to sink $10 into it.  After that I gave everything a good shine with Cinch.  Here is the end result:

IRL there is still the ghost of a water stain, but the worst of it is gone.

Any rate, that's what I've been doing for fun and excitement lately.  I've repeated the procedure on our other sinks and if the stains come back I'll know how to deal with them.

Any vinegar success stories to share?  What are your favorite cleaning products?  I'm still in search of  a product for our shower walls.