Scrub a Dub Dub

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

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.