If there was a most-hated cleaning task list in my house, cleaning the shower would be near the top. And the problem is made worse by the fact we have well water – I hate cleaning well water stains in the tub. Even with a water treatment system that works quite well, we get yellowed stains on sinks, tubs and toilets over time.
Yuck, am I right?
Nothing tackles these stains. Nothing. Tackles. These. Stains. I’ve tried every single cleaning product that promises to clean my shower. And the daily shower sprays don’t work either.
But you can’t just let it go. Because if there’s one thing I know, it’s that a clean house is the first step in having a home you love. But I also am not going to let cleaning take over my life. I’m a card-carrying lazy girl.
CLEANING WELL WATER STAINS IN THE TUB
So I am only sharing this for YOU. Because I’m quite appalled that I’m sharing my dirty shower on the blog. Yuck, am I right?
I didn’t even brighten the photo, so it looks even worse than it should. But it only takes a few weeks to get this nasty yellow stain on the tub from the shower water. And I let it go even longer so that I could show you my super simple solution. (Just kidding. I’m just lazy and didn’t clean it.)
So, now onto the solution. The ONLY solution I’ve found for well water stains. And it takes only minutes and a few inexpensive supplies. My friend Camye told me about it and I was shocked at how well it worked.
Just two ingredients.
Blue Dawn and white vinegar. I fill an empty spray bottle with about 1/2 cup of dish soap and then top it off with vinegar. (P.S. This also works equally well for killing weeds. Go figure.)
Then, I just spray it liberally on the shower. LIBERALLY. You want every surface sprayed.
I didn’t take a photo of this because it’s nasty. But the soap/vinegar will begin to work immediately. I leave it be for a while. The tub will reward you if you forget about it for hours. (Ask me how I know.)
Then, just use a simple scrubber brush to get all the junk off the walls and tub. (I use this one- affiliate link.) It takes less than 5 minutes and very little elbow grease – the spray solution does all the work. Once I’ve touched everything, I spray the walls down with water and step back to admire my work.
It’s so easy, I almost don’t hate it. Just kidding. I still hate it. But I do it. Because a clean shower is a happy shower.
As a side note, this also works well on toilets and sinks.
Not today, well water stains. Not today.
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Tisha Allen says
I have read about this solution a lot. Do you know if it will keep for very long and still work well? I mean, should I use up everything that I mix on that same day or will I be able to use it next week, too? Thanks for the tip!
Kim says
This is a good question. I tend to use it all when I mix it up in a smaller spray bottle, but I think it would probably be fine for a while.
Donna Baker says
This combination is like a house keeping miracle. Besides the shower,I have used it on my glass stovetop, window blinds and now for all my cleaning! Simple jobs dont need as much dish soap – too many bubbles – but Ive adapted it to everything!! So glad you are spreadong the word!
Kim says
It’s really amazing how well it works! I’m a total convert – especially for the bathroom!
brit says
Thank you, omg I hate this job too! I have city water but it leaves all the yellow too, even with the softener. I gotta try this around my sinks too! I’m totally with you, I’m all about easy cleaning 😀 I feel like this shower-material (fiber glass?) is harder to clean, too, than tile or the porcelainy kind we had growing up; maybe just the wrong cleaner. Mine looks just like your before picture so don’t feel bad!
Gretchen@BoxyColonial says
I don’t have well water, but I wonder if this would also work on nasty rings left behind in tub by a house full of grubby boys? Can’t hurt to try, right?
Kim says
It will work. This is like cleaning magic.
Mary R says
I’m on well water, too. We have a low iron content, so we do not get the yellow staining, but we get a lot of calcium build up. And it is murder on our toilets, even though we don’t have boys with a questionable flushing history. 🙂 I have tried the Dawn/Vinegar blend on the toilets, and found that I would have to swish out the toilets almost daily to keep up with the hard water deposits. For me, I need a stronger acid than vinegar. I have found muriatic acid cleaners to be awesome for the toilet, and I exclusively use “The Works” cleaner on them. It’s really just a muriatic solution and blue coloring, and it dissolves the deposits so quickly and with comparatively little scrubbing. I can go about 2 weeks (3 if I stretch it) between toilet scrubbings now.
Muriatic acid can’t be used on stainless steel, so I do continue to use Dawn/Vinegar on the sinks and tubs on a weekly basis, and it seems to keep the worse of the staining at bay. But about once every 3 months, I have to use undiluted CLR cleaner, which has a different combination of acids that seem to do a deeper job, especially on my tile grout. CLR seems to be the only thing that gets the grout sparkling clean, especially when I use a Rubbermaid Power Scrubber.
Kim Woodward says
Thanks so much for sharing your experience! Well water stains can be a beast to deal with – I’m glad to hear that you’ve found another option. I hope this will be helpful for others who need something even heavier duty.
Julia at Home on 129 Acres says
Ugh. Well water stains. I completely feel your pain. Ours goes more orange because we have so much iron in our water (even with a bunch of giant filters in the basement). I recently started using a 50-50 dish soap-vinegar mix and was completely blown away by how well it did. I pair it with an abrasive scrubbie and it’s made my bathtub looks so much better. What a simple, effective solution. Thanks for sharing.
Kim says
I really didn’t expect it to work as well as it did. I was shocked that it did better than any commercial product I’ve tried (including pricy options).