Barkeepers Friend: Pass or Fail?

So if you know me well, or just recently met me, you should know that I like to keep things clean and organized in my life. You come over to my place, you will always notice that it's clean (even if I just cleaned up right before you came over). I think this is something that I got from my mom. She taught my sibling and I that a clean home is a happy home. Not in those exact words but more or less the fact that you will probably be more comfortable and productive in a clean home.

I've been in my apartment for 9 month now. It doesn't seem like it has been that long but believe it or not, it has. I love my apartment. It's all mine, I can decorate (within reason) however I want, and the best part is I can organize it anyway that I want to! That is really the thing about living on my own. I know where everything is.

The only thing I can really complain about is the fact that is in an apartment and that it is an old apartment. Things are not perfect. The wood in some places is curled but not rotting (thankfully!) and tile is not the best looking, but those are things I can deal with.

The only thing that has been bugging me is my bathroom. Not only is it tiny but it collects so much dirt so fast, I can barely keep up! I've done the best that I can with what I've been given so it's functional for just me. Here's what it looks like now.

Isn't it just the cutest?

Now you're probably asking, what the heck is the point of this? Well calm down and I'll tell you. The point is that my beautiful bathroom has one major defect....the toilet.

I clean my bathroom almost every week. This means the tub, toilet, sink, mirror, and floors. My toilet is a constant source of trouble. I don't know if it's the hard water of San Bernardino or if it's just an old toilet but no matter what I do, I cannot get rid of this hideous black stuff on the inside of my toilet. Here's what I mean:

Gross huh? Don't get me wrong! I've already clean the toilet! This is what is looks like clean!!!

I've tried Cleanser, Bleach, CLR, toilet cleaner, and almost anything that claims to clean toilets but it just won't come off. I've sat there for 30mins or more scrubbing this toilet but nothing will do. So, I conceded to the fact that it may never be white but at least it would be clean. And that's when I came across Pinterest.

I know most of us use Pinterest. Some to plan weddings that won't happen for awhile, to look at clothes we may never be able to afford, decorating ideas only the rich and famous could pull of, and delicious recipes that would make us all fat. But wait! You could just go over to your motivation board and look at all the exercise ideas you pinned to work all that food off. Truth be told, I love Pinterest. I've made a bunch of recipes that I've found and have implanted some of the organization ideas into my home. I've also tried some of the exercises to much failure due to my lack of coordination. But I digress.

While looking at different organization and cleaning methods, I found something that a lot of other people claimed to be the miracle kitchen and bathroom cleaner. It's called Barkeeper's Friend. It claims on the bottle that once you use it, you will love it. So I decided to give it a try. I went to Home Depot and bought a bottle. It was about $4 for 26oz. That's a pretty good price for something that is supposed to be awesome. Here's what it looks like.

I followed the directions on the bottle and hoped for the best. To be honest, I was hoping that the black stain that had been plaguing me for 9 month would just go away. No such luck. So I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed, and cursed the heat, and scrubbed some more. Again, I sat there for about 30 min and scrubbed this stupid toilet. To my extreme disappointment, my toilet still is not white.

Here is the toilet after.

I will admit that it is a little better so this was not a complete failure. However, it will probably take me scrubbing twice a week before it will be gone completely. 

Side by side comparison.

While this product didn't do what it promised, I am glad that it began to make a dent....even if it was a tiny one. I'll probably try to continue and look for something that will clean this up but for now, I'll just continue to keep my bathroom clean and hope that one day, I will have a white toilet again.

I do want to say that while Barkeepers Friend did not make my toilet white again that it won't work on your tough stains. It could. I just wanted to give you my experience on the product.

Until next time.