Stinky Boys Bathroom Cleaner

– Hacked by Monique C. –

Here's what you need:

Baking Soda
White Vinegar
Hot Water
Spray Bottle

While Pinterest has assisted in the planning of many imaginary birthday parties, provided minutes of entertainment for my toddlers and introduced me to the disorganized hoarder’s heaven: the planner community, I have never been intrigued by the countless cleaning hacks. Anyone who knows me is not surprised by this; I live by “babies don’t keep”. I utter crazy words like “Sorry, there was no time to load the dishwasher but here’s a friendship bracelet!” frequently. Play Chores, but I begrudgingly dust and mop and launder because my fiance, Antonio, swears that we don’t need a housekeeper. I am excited to be delving into these cleaning tips and testing them out for all of you. Cleaning other crap in a snap, means there’s more time for pillow forts and binge watching Daniel Tiger.

The first hack I’ve chosen to try is supposed to help you conquer “boy” bathroom smells, but does it?

You can absolutely eyeball these ingredients, but note that you’ll have to mix the abrasive fresh every time. This is safe to use on linoleum or tile, if you have a carpeted bathroom and children; consider moving.

Step 1: Mix baking soda and hot water into a paste{this is the abrasive}. Every time I thought it was paste enough, I’d stir again only to have most of the baking soda dissolve. Get as close to a “paste” as possible.

Step 2: Fill the spray bottle with a 50/50 water and vin

Step 3: With a sponge, or cloth{I used a microfiber diaper insert}, scrub the entire toilet and surrounding area with the abrasive. Get into all the nooks and crannies, unscrew any screw-able bits, include the floor and, if you can, nearby walls.

Step 4: Allow the abrasive to sit for a few minutes,then spray the area down with the vinegar mixture. Saturate well, the combination will bubble, the baking soda will mostly dissolve and it will be easier to wipe away. This part takes some time and effort, I was interrupted part of the way through, but the process of wiping the bathroom free of baking soda took an hour on its own.

I expected an amazing difference, but only experienced the usual “so fresh, so clean” feeling that I get twice a week when I deep clean the bathrooms {not a bad thing, it felt and looked clean…that counted}. I decided I’d give it a few days time with my potty learning two year old, and newly standing-to-pee four year old, sons before I made any judgment calls, but Antonio noticed a difference immediately, which he addressed with a scowl and deep question: “Babe, why does the bathroom smell like a salad?”

And that just about sums up this hack – while it did lessen the smelly bathroom aromas, it didn’t completely neutralize them, wasn’t long lasting at all – by day 4 even the infrequently used bathroom stopped smelling fresh, and seemed at first, to just cover up any smells with the, apparently, “salad-y” scent of vinegar. Additionally, the process was tedious and there was a lot of abrasive wasted – since you can’t save it for next time, the only thing you can do is dump the remainder. It took so much trial and error to get the mixture of baking soda and water to a “paste” consistency, I felt a little peeved about having to get rid of so much of it after the bathrooms were scrubbed. It took significantly longer to clean them too, which defeats its purpose as a simplifying hack in my opinion.

Monique is a crunchy matriarch of a wildly blended family, photography hobbyist and mediocre blogger. Enjoy her hilarious tweets by following @starsalignedus