Eh, about half and half.

[jadesfire]

Today, I am not awesome. Today I am full of fail, there's no getting away from it.

On the other hand, I have done awesome things, mostly on the cleaning front. Vinegar is my new favourite cleaning item, especially in the bathroom. It got the cloudy marks off the shower glass, it cleaned the taps but most exciting was the shower. Seriously, it was NASTY and black and horrible and I hadn't got a clue what to do with it. So I balanced a bowl on my over-bath rack (the one I use for computing in the bath, shush), put the shower head in it and filled it with vinear until the entire face was covered. This morning? It just rinsed off! It was like getting a whole new shower \o/

...yes, okay, this is maybe only exciting to me, but it's VERY exciting to me. I cleaned something! Successfully! And while I do promise this journal won't just fill with cleaning tips, I am going to keep talking about it because it's something I'm actually ACHIEVING at the moment, which is something I'm conspicuously failing at in other areas of my life.

I'm going to be out of touch most of the weekend, so I'll drop in to see how you're awesome when I can.

Come on, folks. How are you awesome today?

Comments

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

What a brilliant idea! *applauds*

The water here is very hard, which causes tubs and showers to quickly develop a coat of hard, nasty-looking mineral-soap scum. I tried everything to get the tub clean but it never looked good. Then I had a brainstorm one day: White vinegar in a spray bottle, apply liberally, toss a couple of handfuls of salt in as a scouring powder and add a generous dollop of liquid dish soap. Let the vinegar stay on the surface for around 15 minutes (I usually clean the rest of the bathroom while the tub marinates) and then scrub in the salt and soap with a nylon scouring pad. The vinegar cuts through the mineral deposits, the salt softens the water so it cleans better, and the dish soap is a powerful degreaser.

When I explained this to my son, he said, "You Kim and Aggied it!"

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*giggle* That sounds about right! Our water's nowhere near that hard (thank goodness) so it's just on the glass that we have problems, but to be honest, I think the shower was pretty grim when we moved in. The only thing I'll do differently next time is to use white vinegar instead of malt so that the place doesn't smell so much like a fish and chip shop ;)

Vinegar really is magic, and I'm going to try your mixture on the scum round the tap and see if that shifts it. The vinegar didn't, so the next stop is a proper chemical descaler or something from J's work. What's the use of being married to a chemist if I don't take advantage of it?!

I so need some cleaning icons...

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

I'm always on the prowl for tips to remove mineral build-up. The antique office toilet was a real horror and one day on the show Kim used a pumice stone to clean a toilet that looked even worse. So I bought a pumice stone ($1), put on my faithful yellow rubber gloves and scrubbed the living daylights out of it. The improvement was amazing!

St. P's has no janitorial service for the office building, so if I want things clean I have to do it myself. This is pretty much par for the course in the diocese: I once attended a diocese-wide parish administrators' meeting where the facilitator asked, "Who here has plunged a toilet at work?" Every woman there raised her hand!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I've seen coke used in a similar way. Certainly puts you off drinking the stuff :S

Churches do tend to be like that, yes. Everyone's happy to help until something actually needs doing!

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Given the recent news that your showerhead may be able to kill you, cleaning tips are welcome! :)

I tend to use bleach for all cleaning, mostly because it makes me feel better about potential germs, but it doesn't actually do a good job of making things *look* nice. May have to try some vinegar! (Though I'll keep it far away from the bleach due to the toxic gasses...)

::hugs::

Hmm, I haven't really been awesome yet today, but I did actually hear my alarm and get myself out of bed roughly on time. So, more awesome than Tuesday. :)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

One thing The Cleaning Bible keeps saying is DO NOT MIX. You have to be really careful, especially with acids and alikilis. The vinegar is awsome, although I think the limescale around the tap may need something stronger - fortunately, we have J's lab to hand ;)

I saw that article about the showerhead! Yuk! It was definitely an incentive to get things done. And seriously, no germs are going to survive a strong vingar wash - it'll get things clean and sparkly, which is a great two for one ;)

Yay for getting up on time! It does make the day start more smoothly :)

[xwingace]

I'm having work training flashbacks. :-)

As part of getting to know how the database we use worked, we had to set up one about a particular brand of cleaning vinegar. It's sort of an injoke where I work...

XWA

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* I'm a total convert to the merits of cleaning with vinegar. Lemon juice never really cut it, but vinegar? Awesomesauce :D

[xwingace]

Apparently it works as a fabric softener, too, and refreshes the colours of your clothes. :-)

They smell like vinegar afterwards, though. Me, I can't really stand the smell of vinegar...

If you can't abide the smell of vinegar, try our new Lemon- or Lavender-scented varieties. Fresh and pleasant smells all round. But be careful: scented vinegar cannot be used for descaling kettles or coffee machines.

Ah, sorry, habit took over, there. ;-)

XWA

[wildcat88.livejournal.com]

*makes note of cleaning powers of vinegar*

I am awesome because I have finished my first draft of sga big bang even though I've been sick for a week. I am not awesome because I am woefully behind on my beta duties. Tomorrow I will be awesome because I will be caught up on my beta duties. :)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*waves pompoms* That's incredibly awesome! Grey and I...may get there. We'll see.

Go you! *\o/*

[blackmare-9.livejournal.com]

Corgigirl with her vinegar-and-salt mixture is making me crave potato chips. :-)

It, um, never occurred to me to unscrew the shower head to clean it. But when I lived in Florida I had that hard, hard Florida well water, and I filled a plastic sandwich bag with white vinegar and put that over the shower head, fastening it around the top with a rubber band. Left it overnight and it really did help. The bowl trick would've been a lot easier, though.

The hard part for me is just keeping enough vinegar in contact with the surfaces long enough to dissolve the scale. For faucets perhaps you could soak some rags/strips of cloth in the stuff and wrap them around the crusty bits? I'm not sure, never having tried it.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hee, I didn't actually unscrew it - just lifted it from its holder. It's not fixed to the wall, but is on a long expanding tube thingy so resting it in the bowl is easy. And totally worth it :)

Hmmm...I'll have a look into how you do the things like round the taps. Because that's bugging me as well...

[blackmare-9.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I almost forgot.

I am awesome because I:

Got up and out the door on time to make my business networking meeting today.

Started two ongoing conversations at said meeting with people who may be able to help me get more work.

Have got a great start on the book cover design I was hired to do (yeah, but don't get too excited -- this is for a small publisher and pays $100; still, I am doing it and doing it to a very high quality standard).

Have done my run to the bank.

Am going to another networking kind of thing at International Market Square this evening with a friend from one of the businesses there.

Wow. I do pretty much rock, don't I?

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Woot! That's lots of awesome :) The book cover sounds like fun. Is that the kind of thing that might lead to more work in the future?

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

*makes a note of the vinegar tip*

I am awesome today because I got to inventing lots of story facts for a new sci-fi universe I'm building from scratch.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Yay! That's so cool!

[2bluaeryn.livejournal.com]

Cool ideal! I wonder if this would work on rust stains?