How To Clean Soap Scum Tub Sealant

When all 3 messages landed in my inbox on the same mean solar day, the problem of soap scum, shower mildew, and hard h2o buildup grabbed my attending.

I've been told that if one person really writes to me with a trouble, that represents a thousand other readers with a similar situation. True or but slightly exaggerated, either way, three in one solar day tells me at that place's a lot of this problem going on!

A bunch of items that are on display

How do you remove soap scum from shower walls and floor—and the difficult water spots from shower doors? Diane

My shower mat has turned almost black. I have tried to clean information technology, but unsuccessfully. Tin can you help me?Ronnie

We recently remodeled our kitchen with stainless appliances. Nosotros have treated well water. The very starting time week we had a big water stain in the water dispenser area that I can't go off. It looks terrible! Is at that place whatsoever style to remove it? Help! Pat

Quite possibly one of the all-time tips to ever land my mailbox came from a guy who is a professional property manager. He handles rental apartments and lots of them. Every bit an apartment is vacated, his job is to run into that it is thoroughly cleaned and made ready for the adjacent occupants.

This reader told me that the biggest claiming is always the bathroom, specifically the tub and shower. He kindly left specific details to my imagination but let me know that "gross" is not strong enough to describe what he often finds.

And that's when he gave me his super magical potion—the only production he uses to render showers, tubs, tile, enclosures, faucets, and doors to their sparkling make clean and sanitized selves.

I gave his unbelievably simple recipe a try. In what has to exist more than than 25 years since I got that alphabetic character (we're talking pre-Internet, pre-Pinterest … maybe pre-historic), I've used zip else to clean tubs, showers, sinks, toilets, patio piece of furniture—only nigh anything that will stand up still long enough to get sprayed, and can exist rinsed easily. This must be rinsed off.

Ingredients

To make your own Tub Tile and Shower Cleaner y'all will need three things:

empty spray bottle
Blue Dawn dishwashing liquid
white vinegar

Shower and Bottle

To make

Pour one cup blue Dawn into a 32-ounce spray bottle; 1/2 loving cup Dawn if you are using a sixteen-ounce bottle. Fill the bottle the rest of the way with white vinegar. (Or i-function blue Dawn to iii-parts vinegar, regardless of the size of the spray bottle.) Apply sprayer top; shake gently to mix.

A bottle on a table

To use

Spray liberally on the surface area to be cleaned—shower and tub walls,* floors, doors and faucets. Allow to sit from thirty minutes up to overnight, depending on the severity of the trouble. All of the offensive gunk and grime will break downwardly and become soft and gooey. Just rinse it abroad. For especially challenging situations—or if this is the initial treatment—use a sponge or brush to gently scrub the surfaces earlier rinsing. To care for mildew

While this Tub, Tile and Shower Cleaner works to loosen and remove most mildew, if yous see a lot of black growth y'all will want to pretreat with full forcefulness liquid chlorine bleach* before proceeding as above.

More than: Elementary Solutions for 3 Mutual Laundry Bug

To maintain

Here's the best affair about this cleaner—if you lot use it weekly you will never have to scrub over again. Once each week I spray down the walls, doors, tracks, faucets, shampoo caddy—everything within achieve—with this magical cleaner while I am in the shower*. Before I pace out, I use the handheld sprayer to rinse it all away. No scrubbing required. Information technology dries sparkling clean without using a squeegee or wiping down with a towel. And non a watermark to be seen. But brilliant!

By the way, this bootleg product works in other areas of the house, also. I've used it to remove watermarks that show up on the fridge's in-door water dispenser area (letting information technology sit down for a while and so rinsing very well), the sink and faucets, also.

I can't wait to become your feedback once y'all requite this super simple cleaning and maintenance homemade product a try. Before and later pictures would be great!

RELATED: Some (But Non All) Spray Bottles are Designed to Fail

*And at present for iii important cautions …

CAUTION: Never, e'er allow chlorine bleach to come up in contact with other products, specially vinegar. This could produce chlorine gas, which is deadly. Don't panic. Simply make sure you rinse the chlorine bleach away completely before proceeding to clean with this awesome homemade tub, tile and shower cleaner.

CAUTION: Always make certain you are using a non-skid rubber mat in the shower or tub before attempting in-shower maintenance!

CAUTION: Never use this on granite shower walls or countertops every bit vinegar tin impairment the sealant that makes granite wait so beautiful. Granite needs to exist re-sealed annually. Don't forget! Alternatively, in this recipe, y'all can substitute rubbing alcohol for white vinegar. Just don't wait the same dramatic, magical results.

Get-go published: 3-xxx-xv; Updated 4-22-19