Weird or wonderful? I tried cleaning my shower with a potato

I thought I had tried it all when it comes to cleaning my bathroom. I've tested cleaning with a dishwand, shaving foam, and even polished faucets with toothpaste. What I hadn't tried though, unsurprisingly, was cleaning my shower with a potato.

Yes, that familiar root vegetable we all know and love for cooking is a home hero in any kitchen. For cleaning? Not so much.

But, as I'm all for trying new cleaning tips, I decided to give this viral hack a go – so you don't have to.

I tried cleaning my shower with a potato

So, why would cleaning a shower with a potato even work in the first place, and where did this bizarre bathroom hack come about? Well, it turns out that potatoes contain a chemical called oxalic acid, which can help lift and loosen stubborn dust, dirt and grime. Sounds plausible, right?

If you're as intrigued as I was, you will need:

• A potato
• A cleaning cloth: I used a J-cloth, like the Scotch-Brite Multi-Purpose Cloth Wipes available at Amazon.
• A microfiber cloth or soft towel, such as the MR.SIGA Microfiber Cleaning Cloth available at Walmart.

1. Wipe your cut potato over your glass screen

First things first, I used a sharpened kitchen knife to cut my potato in half, before using it, one side at a time, to wipe over my shower screen.

Now, I'm not sure whether there was some residue on my screen from when I tried cleaning my shower with a refillable dish wand, but if there was, it certainly wasn't visible before. One thing is for sure: rubbing my shower with a potato certainly didn't make it look cleaner to begin with. In fact, it looked a whole lot worse.

2. Wait, rinse, and dry

With baited breath, there wasn't much to do but wait. Setting a timer for two minutes I sat and allowed the potato to work its magic (or not as it turned out).

After the timer was up, I used a wet cloth and water to attempt to wipe off the starchy residue. You could also spray your shower down with a removable showerhead, but as mine doesn't have one that wasn't an option.

Finally, all that was left to do was to dry off the glass. I used a soft microfiber cloth, such as these from Walmart, to do so, but a towel will work, too.

The verdict

I can't say I was particularly surprised to find that my shower did not look sparkling and spotless. Instead it was smudged, sticky and particularly lackluster, so, like cleaning limescale with a grapefruit, this is a bathroom cleaning hack I won't be trying again.

Instead, I will do what I did straight after seeing these results: cleaning my shower with a reliable, specifically-formulated spray. I love the Method Daily Shower Spray Cleaner available at Walmart for this, which uses plant-based cleaning power to make glass shine, with a streak-free finish a potato certainly can't achieve.

In fact, I love Method cleaning products for cleaning my whole bathroom, and certainly prefer them to any vegetable alternatives, or to the recently testing teabag bathroom cleaning method, for that matter!

Interested in finding out about more weird and wonderful cleaning hacks, like how to clean with white bread? For one that really works, I recently tried cleaning my mirror with shaving foam, and it was quick, affordable, and most importantly, truly effective. It’s also a brilliant way to stop condensation gathering on your mirror for around a week.