I clean my sink with ajax every day after washing the dishes, but that doesn't prevent this nasty build up. I have very stubborn Utah hard water. Yes, I could just get a water softener, but my DH doesn't support me on that idea. It would be too much work for him to have to buy salt pellets, haul them home and put them in the soft water tank all of the time. So I get to deal with hard water.
I have tried all of the hard water products out there. I have saturated my faucets and soaked my fridge tray overnight. All I have gotten from my efforts are deadly fumes from the toxic chemicals in the cleaners. A couple of years ago I learned the cleaning power of VINEGAR. I used it to clean my kids humidifiers because the instructions said to. It took off the hard water like it was nothing! I started using vinegar on my faucets and everything else and it was amazing!!! I now buy vinegar in bulk at Costco and use it for my heavy duty cleaning needs. Vinegar is cheap and non toxic. Here is how I used it to get rid of my hard water:
For the refrigerator in-door dish I just poured a little vinegar in the dish and let it sit for about 20 minutes. I took an old toothbrush and the hard water just wiped off without any scrubbing.
To clean my faucets I had to get a little more creative. I soaked some paper towels in vinegar and placed them on the areas with hard water. I took a spray bottle filled with vinegar and sprayed the towels every time I walked past. After about 20 minutes I took the towels off and scrubbed off the hard water with an old toothbrush. Some areas had thick hard water and I had to put the towels back on and wait another hour and repeat. I didn't have to scrub really hard, the hard water came off easily after soaking in vinegar.
I also use vinegar on my shower heads to unclog all of the holes. One of my shower heads detaches from the base and is easily soaked in a bucket. For the other one I have to tie a bag filled with vinegar to it.
We have the same issue with the water tray in the fridge. Ours just pops out and I fill it with vinegar. I'm not sure where I heard about vinegar, actually, it could have been my mom, but it is the best solution to Utah hard water. I wish the previous owner of our home had known about vinegar trick. They used something sharp to scrape it away from the kitchen faucet and scratched the sink around it. I will definately be trying the paper towel trick.
ReplyDeleteGreat tips! I use vinegar and baking soda with boiling water to keep my drains clear, and mop my tile floors with just vinegar and hot water. Love the stuff!
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas kimm! I love vinegar and baking soda together, it's almost like a science experiment watching them interact.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea!!!
ReplyDeleteGood tips, thanks.
ReplyDeleteWill be putting this one to the test, I've got a lot of hard water build-up around here!!!!
ReplyDeleteI use vinegar too to combat the hard water found here in Arizona.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Love your blog! Some of those before and after pictures are pretty impressive. Thanks for the ideas.
ReplyDeleteGreat Idea and post! Happy Saturday Sharefest from SITS!!
ReplyDeleteI make my own cleaning products too.
ReplyDeleteHappy Saturday Sharefest!
Great tip!
ReplyDeleteI'll buy vinegar and start rubbing away on our faucets here in Spain.
Happy Saturday Sharefest!
I'm cleaning my shower tommorow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip!
I found out about you on "Today's Creative Blog"- THANK YOU for the hard water tip. I have hard west texas well water and I have spent a small fortune buying cleaners and my house still looks like your before pictures- I can't wait to give this a try.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this with pictures. I have used vinger for many cleaning needs, such as tile floors and grout but never thought about hard water. Now I know what I am doing now this weekend. My bathroom faucet is getting the vinger treatmeant and so is that little tray on the fridge.
ReplyDeleteHi Jen thanks for the tip, it sounds fabby.. I also have seen this method of descaling on 'How Clean is Your House' but I was wondering is it a particular vinegar? Here in the UK we have white vinegar, pickling vinegar, malt vinegar? I wonder which vinegar it is? I am assuming white vinegar?
ReplyDeleteThank you Thank you Thank you THANK YOU!! You have no idea how many hours I've spend trying to clean that stupid tray in my frig door.
ReplyDeletewow! that's actually a great tip! thank you!
ReplyDeletethank you
ReplyDeleteYes, thank you, although I've known about using vinegar for hard water deposits, but it helps to see the before and after pics. What I'd really like to know is how do you get rid of the hard water spots on shower doors? Do you just spray the vinegar on the doors? Someone said we should soak paper towels and plaster them on the doors, but they slide off. Any great tricks for this? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI've used vinegar to get rid of hard water deposits, but never thought to soak paper towels with it and use a squirt bottle--great idea! Thanks for the tip. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing, we're know for hard water in the Bahamas. I'll be using this trick going forward.
ReplyDeletevinegar is the BEST window cleaner !!! 1/4c in a bucket of water....
ReplyDeleteJust wondering if the vinegar smell gets too overwhelming? Not a fan of vinegar smell, but from your pictures it seems to do the trick!
ReplyDeleteI do the same thing since i have hard water too. (imo....water softeners add just enough salt to your water it makes it not reccomended for those on no salt diets for medical reasons & its not reccomended to water your plants with the water because of the added salt, and its more expensive than vinegar to maintain). One more thing i do is add a cup of vinegar to my dishwasher, every load, so buildup does not happen in there. Works like a charm
ReplyDeleteOh and fill the tea kettle with 1cup vinegar then top off with water,soak overnight.....beautiful teakettle!
ReplyDelete***another tip to help keep the little refrigerator tray clean is to apply furniture polish to it now and then.
ReplyDeleteMine is ten years old and is still as shinny as it was when it was brand new. :)
Just FYI to everyone-don't use vinegar on anything marble (so if you have any marble countertops or tile) it will etch the marble and ruin it.
ReplyDeleteLove vinegar for many cleaning jobs. Super stuff! Even clean out the dishwasher w/it! (Hard water in Texas)
ReplyDeleteAmazing, I'm trying this!
ReplyDelete