Spring Cleaning Enemy No. 1: Limescale

Ah, what a glamourous way to spend my Saturday - spring cleaning. Yep, it's bright and spring and time to tidy the house up. Okay, it's also bitterly cold here, but at least it's not raining. I have actual sunlight coming in the windows. I hope wherever you are, you're blessed with a warmer spring than I am.

I know it's not exciting, but I thought I'd share some of the cleaning I'm up to this weekend and would love to hear any of your tips too!

Enemy Number One this weekend is limescale.

If you live in a soft water area, and you've never experienced limescale residue, I am very envious of you. Consider yourself lucky! You can get away with things staying 'clean'-looking longer than us hard water folks. Limescale is a white mineral that is left behind when the hard water evaporates and so it's actually a residual from the water. So anywhere you have water, you can have limescale - kettles, washing machines, sinks, taps, drains, windows, shower doors, etc.

For me, I never experienced limescale until I moved to the UK, and when I did, I was just so shocked. This stuff is stubborn and everywhere. Unless you wipe down after every use, it builds up! So unless you have a professional cleaner following you around, or you are really OCD and have a lotta time and patience, you'll get limescale (if it's in your water, obviously)! So try as I might with various expensive products from everywhere from the supermarket to DIY specialist stores I have never found anything to actually take the pain out of removing limescale. Oh, they all promise, but they all require lots of scrubbing and scrapping still only removing little limescale.

... Until now.

The miracle limescale remover: your basic household vinegar

Yep, regular white distilled vinegar. Apparently it's just the most amazing product ever! Not only is it cheaper then all those other specialist products, it's not toxic and you can use it on yourself (it works as an antibacterial if you've cut yourself, for example). I left it on my taps in the bathroom, which were beyond horrible, and a couple hours later, the limescale just fell off! Amazing!

Oh yeah, I also defrosted the freezer. Another first for me. Funny, I've never had to do that with the freezers back home. I guess I was just lucky, or life really is easier in the USA. I am so bored of chores now!

Hope you're having a good weekend.