Freckle Face Girl: Tips for Living #2: Getting Rid of Hard Water Spots ORGANICALLY

Since today is my window cleaning day, I thought I would share a REALLY AWESOME secret to removing hard water spots on windows. For less than $2. AND using products you have in your home.

We have really hard water where I live. It tastes terrible, and it makes me insane when I have to clean my tubs and glass shower doors. But, what really makes me crazy - like, pull your hair out, say a few naughty words, sprinting to the sprinkler box to shut. it. down., kind of crazy is our irrigation water, hitting our windows every time the wind blows (which is every day).

Why?

Irrigation water is full of who knows what (other than calcium and lime scale) and as soon as it hits your glass, you have to move if you ever expect to have nice sparkly windows again. This stuff leaves white, thick crusty scales on your windows. I'm not kidding. If you have irrigation water hitting your car and windows, you know what I mean. It eventually "etches" the glass...whatever that means. All I know, is that the damage can become permanent after sitting in 100 degree sun, baking on all summer. The only good part is that no one can see you inside anymore (privacy screen?).

As soon as we bought this house, we turned on the irrigation, the wind blew, and our lower level windows were ruined forever. I have tried CLR, Spot-X, Lime scale removers, and who knows what other chemicals and none have worked. I have scrubbed until my muscles were sore with a magic eraser. I have purchased specialty chemicals from the chemical supply store. Nothing worked.

Ready to have nice clean windows? Me too...let's go.

Gather your supplies:

One lemon, cut in half (or more, depending on how many windows you have to clean this gunk off of).

One bottle of window cleaner (homemade or store bought - doesn't matter).

Paper towels or a lint free cloth.

Next, find your offender. In this case, the hard water deposits had accumulated on my sliding glass door on the deck. I have tried everything. Hard to take a picture of a window. This is a "clean" window.

Rub the cut side of your lemon all over the hard water spots. You want the cut side to stay moist, but it doesn't need to drip the juice. Scrub the spots with the lemon, focusing on the biggest areas of build up. I try to do the windows while they are in the shade so the lemon juice has time to eat away the deposits.

After you have scrubbed it with the lemon, wipe it down as you would normally with your window cleaner.

It's a MIRACLE! They are G.O.N.E. Let's go find a nastier window.

This one has been pretty bad for a long time. You can feel the scales. Ready?

With the lemon rubbed all over, doing it's organic magic...

And after. VOILA! (looking out this time).

I've saved the worst for last. These windows are sprayed and then beaten by the sun for 4 years people. FOUR YEARS. I have done it all and have been so disappointed with all of the expensive cleaners I've bought that are so harsh for my home.

These are our office windows. When the sun shines through, you can't see out the window at all because of the scales. It's embarrassing and frustrating.