Hard water stains definitely aren’t easy to get rid of

When I moved into my apartment there were a couple of things that indicated it had definitely been lived in before. I blogged about a couple dark spots the previous tenant left on the carpet last week, and this week I tried to get rid of the hard water ring around the toilet bowl that has been there since I moved in. My mom has tried scrubbing, soaking and Kabooming the hard water stain off, but it’s still there.

The post I found on Pinterest was very simple. It said put 1/4 cup of borax and 1 cup of vinegar in the toilet bowl. Let it sit for 20 minutes, and when you come back it should scrub right off. I didn’t have borax so I tried using washing soda and vinegar first. Based on an ingredients comparison I didn’t think they were super different, so I was hopeful I’d get similar results. When I combined the ingredients there was a little fizzing and then nothing. I let it sit for 20 minutes and most of the discoloration wiped off, but none of the hard water crusty ring came off.

After scrubbing to no avail I decided maybe I needed to actually use borax. A friend let me borrow the 1/4 cup I needed to try doing the test again, but this time even less happened. I poured the borax and vinegar in, and there was zero fizzing. I let it sit for 20 minutes, and again couldn’t get the crusty hard water ring off.

Pinterest do or don’t? The only thing this vinegar and borax or washing soda mixture was good for was general cleaning. It did not even touch the hard water ring that has set up a permanent residence in my toilet bowl. It would have been nice to get rid of the hard water ring, but I’ve decided just because that’s there doesn’t mean my toilet is dirty; it just means my apartment building has hard water. Do you have a method that gets rid of hard water stains?

— Hannah

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