Scrub-a-dub-dub ….said no one today

I am on break from school so I have been using this time to catch up on some of my house work.  I took a crap load of stuff to the Goodwill, and I cleaned up and cleaned out.  The house is finally starting to look like a home!  One of the things that has really been bothering me is my shower head and the lime deposits on it.  I have tried water, bathroom cleaning stuff, scrubbing bubbles and lime-away…nothing worked so far and when I take a shower water only come out of half the holes.  I been reading on the Internet about using vinegar to clean it so I am trying it.  Can’t hurt…unless it rusts my shower head.

9:00 PM This is my shower head before:

as you see some of the holes are blocked.

I used plain vinegar.  I noticed when looking at the photo that it is reduced with water to 5% acidity.  I am not sure if that is good or bad.  This was the cheapest vinegar I could find.  (It was 99 cents) I put a microfiber cloth in a bowl and soaked it with about 1/2 a cup of vinegar.

I have a basket hanging off my shower rod and I used it to hold a piece of plastic wrap since I was doing this with no help.  Note it is not Saran Wrap, but a cheaper off brand. I will tell you why I mention that in a minute.  I cut off about 2′ or so off the roll.

I wrapped the plastic wrap around the cloth and the shower head, which I am here to tell you was not easy.  I actually had to wrap a piece of the plastic wrap first around the shower head base then around the actual shower head.  I had to use two pieces.  I kept fussing myself out because I know if I had actual Saran Wrap this would have been easier, since Saran Wrap is VERY clingy, whereas the off brand is not so  much.  After I wrapped it and had a sealed wrap I decided to pour some more vinegar in there.

To distribute it into the cloth I used some tape to tape it to the shower head good and tight.  I used the blue tape because I don’t want to tear my whole shower head down trying to get the tape off.  LOL that would be a disaster wouldn’t you think?  Interesting story yes, something I want to have to tell?  Heck no!!

I was up till 2 AM so I decided to check it out to see if it worked.  It was 5 hours later, in case you didn’t notice the time…. and yes I started this project late.  I was so exhausted I decided to sleep in today. I did not get out of bed till 4 this afternoon and the only reason I got up is because I had to get that stuff out of my car and get it to the Goodwill by 6 PM today or I would be toting it around yet another week because I am not going to go after work.   I already proved that this past week.  Don’t judge me…

hmmmm it looks a little better I admit.  I am all for no work cleaning.  I decided to wrap it up again…this time I soaked sponges taped them up first then wrapped it with the cheap plastic wrap and then taped over that.  Then I went to bed (2:43 AM)  I swear I should have something better to occupy my time on a Saturday night than lazily cleaning a shower head and blogging!

Of course the first thing on my mind when I woke up was the shower.  I decided to do my affirmations first and then check.  It was 7 hours later, which make a total soak time of 12 hours and more than enough time for a miracle to happen.

I take all the layers off and I find this

 

Although it was much better than when I started out it was not quite the miracle I was expecting.  I decided to get a scrub brush and put in some elbow grease (darn it).

Now it looks much better but if you look closely there are some holes still clogged.  I am leaving it as is.  Going to take a super hot shower and hope to blast out those deposits.  This is the price I pay for having free water.

As I was about to close out this post something told me to check the Internet to see if I followed the directions correctly.  uhhhh no…not in the least.  To my defense I know I read somewhere to tie vinegar soaked cloths to the shower head.  Let’s not dwell there okay?

Here are the Newest directions…

You can cure your shower head of its grimy blockage with a bag of vinegar. All you have to do is fill the bag, place it around the shower head so it’s submerged in the liquid, and tie it to the neck with a twist tie (or anything else, really). Leave it there overnight and the cleaning will be handled for you.

Bottom line is I did everything following several directions and guess what?  Nothing worked.  It made things better but did not work.  No miracles here.