removing hard water spots

Let's talk about my guest bathroom. It's not updated (although I actually kind of dig those old-school seashell sinks), and it's in need of some repairs.

I never use it, but I'm motivated to fix it up so that I can use it while updating the master bathroom.

I figured it would be a quick project; just replace the gross caulk, clean it, and seal it.

I did not know that it would be a huge pain in the ass. When I started, I discovered that whoever put down the new caulk did a horrible job. Not only did they use the wrong kind of caulk, they caulked right over the old caulk. So I pulled up the newest layer of caulk, then had to pull up the older layer, which was practically mummified and black from mildew. Gross. It took a lot of elbow grease but I finally got it clean and applied the new caulk, properly.

Then I cleaned the tiles. Except... they weren't clean. They looked fine if you looked at them straight-on.

However, if you looked at them from an angle, for example if you were sitting in the tub, you saw all the hard water spots and old soap scum residue.

Now, it's not a huge deal. If I was just cleaning it for routine use, I would have moved on.

Except, I plan to seal the tiles and grout, and anything left on the tiles gets sealed in. I don't want to seal this grungyness on the tiles, I want to seal CLEAN tiles so that they don't get dirty like that. That's the point.

So began my crusade.

I'll make a long story short and tell you what didn't work at all:

Kaboom (did not touch the spots and smelled terrible)
Comet (My faithful standby couldn't get the job done)
Bleach (I wasn't optimistic, but it did get the grout clean)
Vinegar (I think this would have to soak on the tiles to make a difference)
Dryer sheets (I've used them before but this is way too labor-intensive to be practical)
Soft Scrub (again, good for the grout, bad for the hard water spots)
Full strength CLR (how disappointing)
Magic eraser (what a joke)
Borax (nope.)

Scouring stick got an honorable mention. It did a decent job but still could not clean some of the grimier tiles, and it required SO MUCH SCRUBBING.

What finally worked?

Good Old Bar Keeper's Friend. I use it all the time on the sinks, but I've never used it in the bathroom. I saw it in the cupboard, thought, "Well that might work," and tried it.

Well, it worked like a dream. I thoroughly rubbed some on with one of those green scrubby pads, rinsed it off, and now the tiles are all shiny and clean and I am SO SATISFIED.

You could eat off these things, they're so clean.