DIY: How To Get Rid of Water Marks

Whether you rent a flat or own your own home, housekeeping chores are a regular part of making your home is comfortable to live in, and of course, lovely to look at when you come home from work at the end of the day, or are hosting guests.

Part of those chores includes cleaning the water marks off the bathroom mirror as well as your glass shower screen. Some people might be able to live with the stains for longer periods of time than others, but the fact remains: these water marks are nothing less than hard water stains (aka ‘limescale’), and they’re unsightly and challenging enough to remove when there are just a few.

But if allowed to build up over time, you’ll find yourself truly struggling to get rid of them. So, as always, regular cleaning is key to keeping these water marks to a minimum.

Cleaning Glass

There are many name brands of cleaners specifically formulated to clean limescale and hard water stains off glass, but believe it or not, one of the best formulas you can use is a homemade mixture of equal parts water and white vinegar. Vinegar may not be the most pleasant of smells for some, but it’s a lot less toxic. In any case, you can always open a window, or run your bathroom’s exhaust fan, if you have one.

Once you have the vinegar and water mixed up, put it into an empty spray bottle. It is best, of course, if there were no previous contents in the bottle, except perhaps for water.

Spray all affected areas with the mixture, ensuring that all water marks are completely covered. Then, grab a cotton cloth and wipe the mixture away. If there are stains that won’t come off right away, you can either continue using the mixture of water and vinegar, but spraying it directly onto the cloth, or you can try the following:

• ½ of a lemon
• Salt granules (the ones you might use in a salt grinder will work best)

All you do is cut a lemon in half, then dip it into salt granules that have been poured into a bowl or on a plate. Rub the lemon-and-salt combination onto the water marks, using a bit more ‘elbow grease’ than you did with the water-vinegar mixture. This should get those water stains off your shower screen with little trouble. If not, then it might be time to turn to a commercial limescale remover. But again, you’ll likely want to keep such a chemical for a last resort.

Cleaning Mirrors

Cleaning mirrors can be a bit trickier, as they not only can collect water marks, but lots of other things land on your mirrors, affecting the way they look over time. You or someone else might have tried commercial cleaners before, but they might actually make any marks worse instead of better.

The following is a non-toxic way to help you get that mirror back up to its shiny potential:

• Rinse your mirror., ridding your mirror of any dirt or particles that may currently be on the surface. Dry it thoroughly in order to prevent any new water stains from forming.
• Next, grab a non-toxic cleaner, or some white vinegar, and a large dry cloth, and cover the cloth in the cleaner or vinegar. Rub the cloth over the water marks and the rest of the mirror with a good bit of pressure.
• Repeat the process as often as necessary to get the water stains completely off the mirror. Just be sure to clean the whole mirror, or your clean spot will stick out quite noticeably.
• If some water marks remain in specific areas, try using cotton wool with your cleaning agent or vinegar, and rub at the spots till they disappear. Only do this if the water stain is proving to be stubborn.
• Last, when the mirror is cleaned sufficiently, wipe down the mirror with some glass cleaner and a clean dusting cloth. If you need to, open a window, switch on the bathroom’s fan, or spray a bit of air freshener in order to get rid of the vinegar smell.

These tips should help you keep up your glass and mirrors so that you don’t have to constantly do a lot of work to make your bathroom look not just presentable but beautiful.