Tuesday, March 06, 2007

I Washed My Tiles With Cola: A Follow-Up Report


Last week, I wrote about unusual uses for cola. In that item, I mentioned how some people use cola to clean tiles, jewelery and toilet bowls. Well I poured a can of Diet Coke w/Splenda around my home. I accomplished a lot of with a 50-cent can of soda that someone had given us. Here are the results of my money-saving clean-up efforts:

1) Cola on glossy white tiles: Someone or something (maybe the dog) left sticky grease spots on our glossy white tile floor. No problem. I spilled cola on a sticky tile and let the fizzy drink sit for about 10 minutes.

Following the cola clean-up directions, I cleaned up the mess with soapy water and paper towels. It works. The area of the tile with cola came clean faster. The grease slid off the tile quite easily, but the cleanup required more effort on the sections that did not have cola.

On the uncola sections, the soapy paper towel slid around without picking up all of the dirt and the cleanup required more effort than the cola-soaked areas with the same amount of grime.

2. The Toilet Bowl: Worked pretty well. Let the cola sit for 40-60 minutes, then cleaned.

3. Jewelry: An old dangling earring (steel or nickel) from the 1980s actually looked shiny after soaking in cola for about 10 minutes. Likewise, a pair of gold post earrings also gleamed after a 10-minute dip in diet cola.
4. Rust stains: I was able to remove some, but not all, of the rust stains on an outdoor corian tabletop. I scrubbed the stains with a piece of aluminum foil dipped in diet coke. This routine also lifted a rust stain from a wrought iron outdoor chair.

1 comment:

mapgirl said...

Thank God I gave up soda again for Lent. I had another stabbing pain in my chest today to remind me that I should lay off coffee too. Reading about how well soda eats through greasy spots on the floor is enough to keep my willpower till Lent is over.