Let's face it...we all pretty much hate cleaning. I know there are a few of you out there who like it...but I'm definitely not a part of that club. Although it would make keeping my house clean much easier probably. I know if I hear or see an idea that's supposed to make cleaning easier or quicker, I'm all over that. So I was a little disappointed to see that this wasn't a magic cleaner...but it wasn't a total flop either.
The Original Pin
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| http://lifehackery.com/2008/07/22/home-4/ |
Pinner Carolyn says "So the original pin says to 'add a cup of baking soda to the toilet & let it soak for an hour than flush. It will clean the toilet & absorb the odor.'" Sounds pretty simple to me, I would have tried it too!
The Pinstrosity
Ok...we all know what a dirty toilet looks like. Carolyn says "No picture of my toilet because, well, let's face it...no one is going to take a picture of their toilet unless
a) their kid flushed a weird object down the toilet and they think it is funny
b) your toilet is really clean, and your trying to show how a cleaning technique works
or c) you are trying to sell a toilet.
Since I am not doing any of the above I am not going to share a picture of a dirty toilet."
So my first thought was, "I will!" but then I decided I didn't really want to broadcast my lack of cleaning skills and motivation across to the whole world. So I googled dirty toilets and that was a mistake...man I 'bout lost my lunch. So no dirty toilet picture. I'm sure we've all seen a dirty toilet.
Anyway, Carolyn reported back to us and said that this cleaning technique "did absorb the smell well, but my toilet is not any cleaner than it started out. Even though it didn't clean the toilet, the baking powder did work well to make scrubbing it super dooper easy!"
What Went Wrong?
I'm no expert here (especially when it comes to cleaning), but I can give you a few good guesses as to why this didn't quite work as Carolyn had hoped it would. Baking Soda will definitely help neutralize odors...that's one of the things it's known for. But it's not really abrasive enough to do much scrubbing by itself. For those people who clean their toilets every other day, baking soda might do the trick to keep the bowl clean, but for those of us who unfortunately are not as tidy and on the ball, the baking soda just can't do the job to scrub the gunk off. But, as Carolyn mentioned, it would help to change the pH and break the gunk down a big to make scrubbing the toilet easier. But by the time you've let your toilet sit for an hour, you might have well just spent the 5 minutes scrubbing it normally anyway.
I had not seen this, but I may actually try it this weekend, nonetheless. I usually squirt my toilet bowl cleaner in when I first start cleaning the bathroom, and then the actual scrubbing is the last thing I do so that the gel has time to work. The 10-15 minutes I spend on the rest of the bathroom might be long enough for that baking soda to work, and at least I've used something far less caustic and expensive than some blue goo from a squirty bottle. :)
ReplyDeleteI tried this with no success. What DID work was a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, vinager and baking soda... Like a charm! It made my toilet so clean, I used it in my sink too! I didn't measure, I just did a good amount of each and left them for about an hour. This is my favorite method of stain removal now.
ReplyDeleteI used this method last night, and I thought it was great! I will tell you, too, that my toilet was in an embarrassingly dirty (like, shameful dirty) state. Although, I will also say that I scrubbed it with a brush, instead of just flushing, and it sat in there while myself and my hubby watched a movie, so, well over 2 hours. But, I did think that it did an amazing job breaking down the disgusting stains and 'gunk.'
ReplyDeleteI have been reading this blog for a couple hours now because I am addicted to Pinterest (and hope to submit my pins soon!) and I just had to comment on the googling of dirty toilet mistake. The way I read that sentence in my head made me giggle for about 20 minutes straight. I didn't do it but, man, your response was funny. Cheers! - JB
ReplyDeleteFor Marquette-Remember when we were in college and we had a roommate that loved to clean...ahh those were the days. :)Remember when someone left a toilet on our front door step...with something on the inside, and then what we did with it in the desert...hehe. Strangely we have a lot of toilet memories, remember when someone put dry ice in our toilet. Good ol plum hut days. You know I still have the sign you made, i'm trying to figure out what to do with it. I like your blog, very ambitious..i'm sure there are a lot of pins that don't work out. I was curious to see if this was the same blog as yours because a friend of mine from colorado repinned it on pinterest..I will definitely have to look on here before I attempt a pin.
ReplyDeleteIf you look back at Carolyn's remarks, she says "baking powder" Maybe she used the wrong product!!
ReplyDeleteI have tried this using baking soda, and it really didn't do anything other than help with the odor. I most definitely would NOT suggest this toilet cleaning "tip."
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