I have a useful tip for you all today. Have you ever noticed that sometimes your glassware will come out of the dishwasher looking cloudy with a white film on it? Even if you hand wash your dishes, you might notice this same phenomenon. Let me share a (slightly) embarassing story…

The other day I had a play date over at my house. As I was taking some newly-washed glasses out of the dishwasher to serve the other moms a refreshing iced tea (my favorite ones are flavored iced teas, strawberry pineapple iced tea & Thai iced tea) I noticed the glasses were looking kinda dirty. I knew they were indeed clean, since they just came out of the dishwasher. But they didn’t look clean, and that was a problem! A big problem!

Here is what one looked like:

So I quickly threw those few glasses into the sink to hand-wash with a secret weapon that I knew would take care of this little issue:

Of course, white vinegar is the secret weapon, right? That thing can do almost everything. It’s such a useful, multi-purpose ingredient for all sorts of cleaning recipes.

The secret to sparkling clean glasses

This particular problem is caused by hard water. Whether your house gets public water or you’re connected to a private well, you may be dealing with the consequences of hard water. Too much Calcium or Magnesium in your water will create this white film on your glasses.

Even if your glasses are clean, they don’t look clean. And when you’re serving guests, you will notice it! Luckily, white vinegar is an easy solution that helps to dissolve the minerals and leave you with beautifully clear, sparkling glasses. Here is what the glass looked like after the vinegar!

Doesn’t it look so much better? (Please note it is really hard to capture dirt on glasses, so hopefully, you can see the difference well enough!) Here is how I did it! I simply soaked a yellow kitchen sponge with some undiluted white vinegar and then rubbed that all over the glasses (inside and out), applying some pressure. Then I simply rinsed the glasses with hot (as hot as you can tolerate) water to wash off the vinegar. Easy peasy. Hand-drying the glasses will help to ensure that no streaks dry on your glasses, but even if you let them air-dry, they’ll still look great after this vinegar treatment.

Oh, if you’re running a dishwasher, simply adding in some undiluted vinegar (I use about 1/2 cup) into the bottom of the dishwasher at the beginning of the cycle will result in equally great results.

If you’re looking for other great cleaning hacks, check out these great ideas below:
My Favorite Cleaning Posts

Daily and Weekly Cleaning Schedules

Essential Cleaning Tote Supplies

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