Another Day of Pinterest Cleaning, Bathrooms, Stove Top

So, it takes me a while to get moving but I eventually did today...  I had a different agenda in my mind for what I wanted to get done today but sometimes I just have to do whatever happens.  My bathroom was in desperate need of a cleaning (and so is the bathroom in the basement, which someone is supposed to clean but conveniently has forgotten for the last six months...yeah it's gross, I usually get down there about once a month and clean it up so I really need to do that...).

On Pinterest I keep finding these great tips for cleaning and also for making cleaning products.  I tried cleaning the microfiber with rubbing alcohol and it worked magically!  Of course, my children have already spilled enough stuff on the recliner that when I clean the couches I will have to re clean the recliner, or at least re-spot clean it.  Anyway, I know it works and that's great for me.  Back to the bathroom.  I still have bathroom cleaner that we purchased and toilet bowl cleaner and Windex, and I don't like making stuff until I run out of other things but I did want to try out the tub and shower cleaner I found online.  And I figured while I was at it, I'll try cleaning the glass stove top because mine desperately needed it and other than a wipe down I haven't tried to really clean it.  Plus the other day I'm pretty sure I boiled over two pots, twice, so it really needed it.  (And by the way, the put a wooden spoon over a pot of boiling water and it won't boil over trick...only works sometimes, in my case only maybe 20% of the time so far). 

The first I wanted to try was cleaning the shower down with a fabric softener sheet.  First, I've been wanting to make my own but haven't got around to figuring out the sewing machine so that's on the back burner.  Which is really sad because I desperately want to make a baby blanket, which I have NO clue how, but I want to.  So, the pictures for the shower were not the greatest and when looking at them you can't really tell what they did, so I'm not even going to upload them, I'm just going to give my opinion.  The fabric softener well, it didn't really work.  I mean maybe if you're trying to combat soap scum and not hard water spots it'll work but it didnt' work on the hard water at all.  It left a residue on the shower that I had to wipe off with a rag. 

So, I moved on, to the 12 oz hot vinegar and the 12 oz Dawn Dish Soap.  Now this definitely made a huge difference.  I have started using vinegar anyway to clean my bathrooms, so this was the extra boost I guess it needed.  Plus it smelled way better than just vinegar water.  Now, it made everything really shiny and pretty much got rid of the hard water spots, HOWEVER, I kept having to go back and rinse the rag because it was really sudsy (obviously with all the Dawn dish soap).  Which, in turn, took twice as long because I had to go back and rinse the rag so often and wipe the shower again.   With all that, I will probably use it again, but only when the hard water gets as bad as it was.  I will probably just stick with vinegar water until then.  I will also probably not be able to use it regularly because I'll never be able to convince the other people in the house that clean the bathrooms the whole process of wiping, rinsing, wiping again.  So...like I said it'll be used when the hard water gets as bad as they did, but it won't be my everyday bathroom cleaner.  Also, I sort of wonder about what it'll happen when I take a shower, will the floor be super slippery from the soap?  And, lastly, it did leave a residue, albeit you couldn't really see it, but I could feel it.  I think if I had maybe wiped everything down with a paper town it would have went away, but that would have meant ANOTHER step in the process so I'll just let it be for now.

Also in the bathroom I soaked the shower head in vinegar/baking soda mixture.  A few weeks ago I had soaked it in vinegar because it was getting clogged and it worked fairly well, so this time I added the baking soda (which makes it bubbly) and I let it soak for probably an hour or so.

Here's before:

Here's after:

I'd say that was a pretty good success over all.  An hour or so after I took the bags off there seemed to be a little baking soda residue on it, but nothing that wouldn't have been fixed by just running the water for a minute. 

Now, onto the stove top.  I've never had a glass stove top before this house.  My parents always had gas ranges, and our last one was burners, not glass top.  It's supposed to be wiped down everyday (yeah, that doesn't usually happen) and no one really scrubs it but me.  I've used this amazing scrubber thing my husband's aunt makes and gives all of us at Christmas (however, I missed the last Christmas so I never got a new one).  I have no idea what it's made out of, but it doesn't scratch (I've used it on my glass shower doors before) and I can throw it in the dishwasher whenever it gets too yucky, I'm seriously sad I missed getting one or two this year.  But, I've never tried any "products" on it, so when I found the link for cleaning it I was pretty excited.  Here's what it looked like before (don't judge):

Now, it was super shiny but it definitely didn't clean as I had hoped.  There's a lot of burnt marks still on it.  I tried it again on the other front burner and had the exact same result.  And after about 15 minutes after everything dried up it looked like this:

Eek!  Sort of grossed me out more than the first picture, but I knew it wasn't really a big deal.  So, I grabbed my vinegar water, sprayed it down, put a little more baking soda on it and scrubbed it with the handy dandy homemade scouring pad and well, it wasn't much better than whatever else I did.  The hot soapy water was dirty when I was done and the rag was dirty when I rinsed it out, so it did clean SOMETHING, just not as good as I had hoped I suppose.

I did not put the "car wax" on it as another website had suggested to help "repel" the new stains, I'm just not sure how great of an idea this is.  Won't it like stink when it gets heated up?  But I would say it wasn't a complete fail but it wasn't a complete success either.

Those are my Pinterest Cleanings for today.  I want to try the one that I just found about how to get the white "hot plate" spots off of wood tables, she did do an update saying that not everyone was having success with it, but I'll try it.  I also still want to try the carpet cleaning, with the iron, yeah, maybe I'll get to that one this week.  However, I'm trying to remind myself that the daily cleaning tasks (laundry, vacuuming, dishes, etc) are just as important these days as "THE LIST!"  Because, let's be honest, you never know with my body when the baby decides it's time to make an appearance.  I've been talking to Kiwi about how I need to get Zoe's 2nd bday and Joshua's 13th bday parties out of the way, because if not I will sit in the hospital and worry about when I'm going to do it, and HOW I'm going to do it.  So, it's best to get those two things done before Kiwi makes an appearance.  Anytime after March 8th I feel okay about, that would be about 38 1/2 weeks, I think we can do that!!!  With all the cleaning I did today I am having an insane amount of Braxton Hicks and lower belly cramps (which honestly I attribute to the fact that my belly weighs a million pounds and I seriously need a belly bra to hold it up).

Here's to getting stuff done tomorrow.  I'm hoping the fridge, the basement bathroom and the kitchen floor desperately needs a mopping!  Oh and we have a pillow in our bedroom that's leaking stuffing I should probably take care of!  Oh the list, the never ending mommy list!