Wednesday, September 26, 2012

In Which I Slay the Hard Water Stains



My one and only Pinterest-oriented blog post. I hope you enjoy it, because it more than likely won't happen again (seeing as how my last blog post of any kind was 8 months ago).

We cleaned out the garage on Saturday (again... will it ever just stay clean?), and I found the second box of glasses that we'd received as wedding presents. We were down to our last 4 out of the original box of 12, so I decided that it was time to have a few more matching glasses in the cupboard.

When I opened, washed, and set them next to the first batch, I saw this:




No, the original weren't frosted. They were gross. We have the nastiest water here in San Diego. You may have visited it while journeying 10 hours down the I-5 right next to the aquaduct that brings it to us. The open air aquaduct. Nice and refreshing, it is (pardon my Yoda).

I've heard that vinegar helps with hard water stains, so I filled up my dishwasher with vinegar instead of  Jet-Dry, which didn't do jack to improve it.

I'd also heard rumor that citric acid will help, and I was desperate and just happened to have some on hand for who knows what reason (I sure don't). I do know that I got it at Sprouts in the bulk spice section, so it wasn't expensive at all. The giant vinegar bottle came from Costco.



I filled up my freshly-scrubbed kitchen sink with hot tap water, about 2 cups of vinegar, and some citric acid. I didn't measure it, but my best guess is 3 tablespoons. I dumped all my ugly glasses in and let them soak for awhile while I fed the Spitfire, returned some emails, gave the Spitfire 3 different sippy cups of liquids, filled some work orders, cleaned up the floor around the Spitfire's chair, helped TS use the potty (successfully!), and then tried to convince TS to give me 5 more minutes of peace instead of screaming frantically. (She didn't.)

About 45 minutes after putting them in the water, I SCRUBBED the glasses with the hard side of my blue Costco sponge, rinsed them (ironically with my hard tap water), and let them dry. The were about 75% of the way there. So I soaked them again for around 2 hours in the same water, scrubbed them again, rinsed them again, and voila!



They're not perfect, but I'll take 95%.

My thoughts: soak longer rather than shorter - run some errands. Scrub them once in the middle of the soak. Invite people over for dinner afterward to brag, or at least to have one less thing to stress about with company on the way.

Pinterest post, done. Carry on.

Or, should I say, Keep Calm and Carry On.

Pin now, read later, ladies. Genius.

2 comments:

M said...

Well done! I love little victories like this! --Mindy

Farrah said...

You have a blog?! Found the link on your facebook profile when I was looking up your birthday. Keep it going! I'm sure I'll be reading everyday just like people read mine... hahahaha!!