Clean Your Showerhead Overnight With This Clever Paper Towel Hack

Hard water stains are some of the most difficult to remove from your bathroom, especially those on the showerhead, which is notoriously troublesome to clean. Luckily, there's a very easy overnight cleaning hack that tackles those stains right away, with no elbow grease required. With nothing but a paper towel and some distilled white vinegar from your pantry, hard water stains can be dissolved from your showerhead while you sleep.

Often there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to finish the housework in addition to everything else going on, much less have any down time for rest and relaxation. Given the arduous and time-consuming task housekeeping tends to be, employing a few cleaning hacks is a no-brainer. Vinegar, it just so happens, can be used in all sorts of ways around your home and garden to tidy up your space, be it a single showerhead or a large patio area. Knowing how to use vinegar as a cleanser is a surefire way to stay ahead of the cleaning game.

To remove those pesky hard water stains from showerheads, simply soak a paper towel in distilled white vinegar. Once it's sufficiently damp, place the paper towel around the showerhead, letting it stick to the surface of the showerhead with its moisture. Let it sit overnight. When you get up in the morning, simply wipe down the showerhead. With the hard water stains dissolved, it will shine again like new.

Vinegar has a strong scent, but it's possible to reduce that lingering smell by adding a small amount of essential oils to your vinegar, mixing a few drops in before you dip the paper towel in it. Peppermint and eucalyptus oils will add a fresh, cleansing scent, while lavender oil can add a relaxing aroma. Citrus peels placed nearby in the shower will also help mask the scent, which should fade on its own as it dries.

Vinegar is a natural, environmentally friendly, and chemical-free solution to a multitude of cleaning needs. Because of its acidic content, vinegar is ideally suited to break down dirt and grime, like the hard water stains on showerheads. For tough stains on submergible items like t-shirts or hand towels, items can be soaked in vinegar for 30 minutes or more, then rinsed off. For glass surfaces, chrome or stainless-steel appliances, or even walls, cabinets, and floors, a simple 1:1 mixture of vinegar and water spritz onto their surface will clean them right up.

However, vinegar is not a disinfectant on par with bleach or other chemical cleaners, so for raw-meat-contaminated items or other areas likely to have lots bacteria, use disinfectant sprays or wipes instead. These are powerful enough to kill germs outright, reducing the risk of the spread of disease. When the risk of bacterial contamination is not a factor, though, vinegar is just the thing to provide a fresh clean to your home at a very low cost.