Cleaning Tub & Toilet***help!!!

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser! If you use household cleaners, comet should also work. It is very abrasive and will rub stains off similar to using a pumic stone. I prefer the eraser, it really does work. Once I've removed the stains I just clean it the way I normally would. I'm not positive but I don't think the eraser is a cleaning product in that it removes germs.

Many bathroom cleaners give off pretty toxic fumes, so please follow directions, and VENTILATE. I know a lady who literally burned her lungs by too much exposure in a small space. She will never be the same again.

Vinegar is completely safe, though stinky. The acidity dissolves just about any mineral deposit, though it may take several applications. I saturate a paper towel, plaster it over the stain, let it sit till nearly dry, and wipe. Whatever is dissolved comes off without scrubbing. If there's still a deposit, resaturate and repeat. This might take more time, but considerably less elbow grease.

Cleanser and a Mr Clean Magic Eraser!

Use the Bar Keeper's Friend. I use this product to get mineral and rust deposits out of quartz clusters that I had mined a couple of years ago. I like to do lapidary work (rock cutting and polishing for jewelry etc) and this stuff is great to get out the iron and rust deposits as well as other unwanted mineral deposits.

I use Tub and Tile, from the store I shop at. It works AMAZING and doesn't have harmful chemicals that make your eyes burn or give you headaches like other cleaners, like Peg M. mentions- be careful with those other cleaners! It's pretty cheap too and much more effective.

Borox it the only thing that will get all the stains out of my tub. Cheap too and won't ruin the tub.

pumice stone for the toilet and it wont scratch the porcelain. pour salt in tub and rub with a fresh lemon

We use a product called The Works. It's the only thing that will work on my hard water stained toilet and shower. You can also use Iron Out. For the toilet, just dump it in, scrub and let sit overnight. Flush and you should have a nice white commode in the morning. :) You can use it on the shower and tub too. I think you make a solution out of it and put it on. If the stains are bad, you might have to let it sit for awhile. It STINKS though and is really h*** o* your hands, so wear gloves. I have to use The Works about twice a week or my shower turns yellow. :(

I have found letting some of those cleaners sit a while on the stains help....I love Bar Keepers Friend!

I cleaned my in-laws' with the CLR but had to let it soak and then it took me an hour or so to make it reasonably clean. Try venting the room and leaving it for a long time. They had to keep it up, too, or the build-up got worse. If any of it is nasty soap stains rather than hard water, you could mix a good baking soda and water paste and cake it on all over, let it sit a bit, and then scrub it off. That is the only way I can get my tub really clean.

It's important to know what your tub is made of. If it's porcelain you can use more abrasive cleaners but if it's fiberglass do not use anything abrasive on it. Abrasive cleaners will scratch both porcelain and fiberglass and so you do need to be careful. If it's an old tub, the surface has probably worn off on the porcelain and that is why you have stains. After cleaning it, wax it with car wax which will put a finish on the tub and make it easier to keep clean.

We have a very old porcelain tub and found that coating the surface with shampoo, letting it sit overnight before rinsing it off returns the porcelain to a brighter white color.

I haven't had a fiberglass tub but my daughter has. Her tub is stained. I wouldn't use anything abrasive on it without asking a dealer how to clean it.

As someone else said. Leaving a product on for longer, perhaps overnight, enables the cleaner to work better. I know c.l.r. works after it's left on for a couple of hours.

If the tub and toilet are porcelain, use steel wool. This is what I ultimately had to resort to with my toilets. Our house is pretty new, but the original owners only lived here for 6mo. then it stood vacant for 3yrs. before we bought it. The bank that owned it during that time winterized the house (turned off the water) but left water sitting in the toilets for three years. We have semi-hard water and the toilets were a disaster when we bought the house. Steel wool and some elbow grease took care of it within 15 minutes. The steel wool left a mark in some places, but the mark wore off in the fresh water within a few hours so it wasn't permanent.

If the tub is that plastic material, then I don't know what to do. I usually clean my plastic tubs with comet and a scrubbing sponge and it works well, but takes a while and a lot of elbow grease. I'm not sure if it would work for you though since I don't know how bad your stains are. You may have to just install a new tub. It might be worth it when tallied against all of the labor it would cost to fix the old one.

Best of luck!