Our bathtub is gross. If you come to visit our house, I will send you to shower in the basement with the spiders and creepy crawlers before I let you step foot in the upstairs tub. It's been that way since we moved in, almost 9 years ago. Yes, you read that right. 9 YEARS. I don't know what the person who lived here before us did (or didn't do), but it resulted in some stubborn stains. I've tried every product on the market, and nothing has been able to get rid of them. There are stains on the sides that I think are from the hard water, and the textured bottom looks brown instead of white because of all the junk trapped in the grooves.
I happened to hear some coworkers talking about their tubs the other day. One just had her tub resurfaced because she had a problem with stains in the texture at the bottom of the tub. I was starting to think that was my only hope until someone suggested something MUCH cheaper: vinegar and water.
Now, I've seen posts on Pinterest and Twitter about the magic of vinegar and dish soap, but I didn't actually believe it. But before I called in a pro, I figured I may as well give it a shot. I was advised that it needs to be the blue Dawn dish soap and white vinegar. I was told to put half a cup of vinegar in a container and put it in the microwave for a minute. Then mix in a half cup of Dawn dish soap, spray it on the stains, and let sit for 30-45 minutes. Then rinse.
So, this morning I set out to give it a shot. Instead of spraying on the stains, I just dumped it onto the bottom of the tub and let it sit. After about a half hour I went in and gave it a once over with a rough cleansing pad and then rinsed it off. To my surprise, a bunch of the areas came totally clean and some other areas lightened up quite a bit. So I repeated the process, this time letting it sit for about 50 minutes. I again went in and did a little scrubbing and HOLY COW! I actually yelled downstairs for Robb to come and look at it. It was clean! It was white! It was beautiful! I probably sound nuts for getting so excited about a clean bathtub, but considering I never thought it would be clean, I am quite happy.
Vinegar and Dawn. Who knew?
Note: After doing this a few times today (I had to keep testing it, so I went after a spot in the downstairs washtub), it seems like the longer you let the mixture sit the better it works. Good luck!
