Sunday, January 22, 2012

Polly's Using T-Cut To Clean Her Bath?

As you may already be aware, my home is about 70 years old. Originally built as a land commission cottage, it was extended some time during the 1970's.

The intervening years saw a number of people living in this house. The original occupants sold the house to a family whose children I went to school with. They sold it to another family who let it out to other local families most of whom I also know.
What I don't know  is who mixed cement in the bath?!!!

Over the years I've tried pretty much every product on the market, none of which really did the trick! On the surface it was clean, but deep down I always knew that there had to be a solution. I even tried filling the tub with biological washing products, which were very disappointing.

Natural products like lemon juice, baking powder, white vinegar and salt all gave reasonable results, but not the ones I Was hoping for. I've even used a cut potato before now...

Bizarrely I was rudely awoken this morning by one of my neighbours calves staring in the window at me. Quite what this has to do with bath cleaning products will become clear, I promise! Indulge me for a moment longer and all will be revealed.

The calf looking in the window was soon joined by one of its friends, who took an unhealthy interest in the bird feeder. Then another came and joined the party, then another and another!

What followed is what led to me finally discovering the secret of bath restoration the hard way. Obviously I wasn't going to ignor the fact that I had cattle traipsing around my garden, so I hopped out of bed and raced around the side of the house brandishing a stick and became an early morning cattle herder.

I was dressed in my pyjamas and a pair of mock crocks complete with lots and lots of mud and cow poo! Pretty obviously I had to freshen up as a matter of urgency so treated myself to a nice hot shower using some Fenjal shower oil I'd been hanging onto for ages.

The reason I'd never actually used it was because it can make the tub lethally slippery - it actually comes with a warning! Now when it comes to cleaning the tub I can get a bit OCD. Not that it's ever really made much difference in the past...

Today was different! First it was Krud Kutter, which is probably the best of the lot to date. Then it was a magical scouring product from Lidl's W40 range. Then I found the formic acid kettle descalant & stain remover. After that the Ecover washing up liquid. Then came the brainwave - Sugar Soap, which actually was remarkably successful.

Still not satisfied I figured that I might be more successful if I used T-Cut. I mean, if you can use it on your car's paint to renew the shine surely it'd be okay to use it on the bathtub!

Of course the major product that I haven't mentioned yet is elbow grease. I was scrubbing forever and ever. And then some more! The good news is that I do actually finally have lovely clean, gleaming white bath now. I'm actually quite thrilled with the result.

Unfortunately I also now have ecrutiating pain in my right arm, hand and particularly in my shoulder!!! All I can say is now that I've finally made that tub shiny & bright I'll be less than impressed if the rest of the family don't scrub it out after their showers or baths...

No comments: