Category Archives: How to Get out Stains … fast!

Remove Soap Scum with Dryer Sheets

Dryer sheets aren’t just for freshening your laundry. Add a couple of drops of water to one, and you can remove soap scum from your shower doors and tub.

Clean Your Mirrors with a Coffee Filter

Because coffee filters are lint-free, they are a great alternative to paper towels for shining up your bathroom mirrors and fixtures. Just grab your favorite glass cleaner and go.

Clean Your Toilet with Denture Tablets

Even if you don’t wear dentures, you should keep a box of denture cleaner around. Its effervescent power will clean a whole host of things in your house — like toilets, for one. Drop a couple of tablets into the bowl, and let them sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Follow up with a little scrubbing, and you’re done.

Machine Wash Your Shower Curtain

You can wash a plastic shower curtain or liner in the washing machine on the gentle cycle if you also throw a couple of towels or a bunch of rags in the load. Add 1/2 cup of baking soda to your detergent on the wash cycle and 1/2 cup of vinegar on the rinse cycle. Once it’s been washed, let the curtain drip dry, of course.

Shine Your Shower with Car Wax

Alkaline deposits from your water can cause a fiberglass shower to get spotty over time. Keep those spots away by applying car wax to the walls about every six months to seal the pores of the fiberglass. This little bit of maintenance will make the shower easier to clean on a regular basis as well. Do not wax the floor, though, as it will become slick and hazardous.

Clear Drains with Baking Soda and Vinegar

Just pour a cup of baking soda down the drain followed by one cup of vinegar. Put a damp washcloth or cover over the drain and let the mixture fizz away, blasting away built-up gunk to keep the water moving. Wait about 15 minutes, then pour a kettle’s worth of boiling hot water down the drain to flush.

Shine Your Faucets with Vinegar

Lime deposits can collect on your sink faucets and make a spotty mess that’s difficult to remove. Soak a paper towel in vinegar, wrap it around your faucet, and leave it for about 10 minutes. Then buff the faucet to a gleaming shine with a dry paper towel.

Polish Your Sink Faucet with Toothpaste

You can shine up the chrome of your faucet with something you already have on hand in the bathroom: Toothpaste! Just apply a light layer of non-gel toothpaste onto the chrome and polish it with a soft, dry cloth.

Remove Rust with Salt & Lemon

If rust has settled into and around the drain of your bathroom sink or tub, take a trip to the kitchen and grab the salt and half a lemon. Close the drain and squeeze some lemon juice around the rusted area. Then add enough salt to form a paste. Leave it for a few hours, and then come back and wipe the paste, and the rust, away.

Clean Your Countertops With Aspirin

Take the headache out of cleaning your counter tops! Aspirin can do more than relieve a headache. Dissolve 2 uncoated aspirin in a glass of warm water, and use the solution to clean your countertop. It works as a mild abrasive to break down soap scum, toothpaste, and other grit and grime.

Hydrogen Peroxide Cleanses Grout

You don’t have to use caustic store-bought solutions to get your grout clean. Instead, pour hydrogen peroxide onto your bathroom floor’s grout lines, and then cover that with baking soda. Allow it to sit, and then scrub with a stiff brush. Rinse and wipe it away for a very noticeable improvement.

Banish Mildew with Vinegar

Vinegar, in a spray bottle, can be your first defense against mildew in the bathroom. You can use it on any surface. For the hardest stains, use it full-strength. For lighter stains, and for preventative maintenance, dilute it 50/50 with water.