We tried Michelle Ogundehin’s citric acid cleaning trick and it’s genius

If you haven’t seen the hack, we’ll explain. It involves a simple shake of citric acid around the bowl, a short wait, a light scrub with the toilet brush, a quick flush and it’s like new.

Whether or not the toilet being cleaned on Instagram is actually Ogundehin’s isn’t confirmed, but what is strikingly clear is how quickly the toilet goes from grimy to gleaming with minimal effort.

If a grubby toilet can look that good, we wondered what else could benefit from the cleansing powers of citric acid?

While the powers of other kitchen cupboards staples such as bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar are well known, citric acid may have escaped your notice in the cleaning aisles. And, if you’ve always been concerned over the word acid, don’t be. It’s also found in food.

“The secret ingredient in lemons that makes them such powerful cleaning agents is citric acid,” explains Nigel Bearman, CEO of Daily Poppins. “It can be used to clean surfaces around the house, and aside from dissolving stains, citric acid also acts as a bactericide and fungicide, providing a gentle bleaching action.

“Citric acid is regarded as an environmentally friendly cleaning ingredient,” adds Bearman. “In addition to being food-safe, easily biodegradable, vegan-friendly, and renewable, your septic tank won’t be damaged by it either.

According to the experts at natural cleaning company Purdy & Figg, it’s a key tool in their arsenal of cleaning ingredients, as it can naturally whiten, disinfect and descale in many areas of the home.

I live in a hard water area, and it only takes a couple of showers before the shower screens are marked with tell-tale mineral deposits. The same goes for taps and the inside of kettles.

I’m a fan of a clean home and I’m easily annoyed when these marks appear, so armed with a newly purchased box of citric acid, warm water and my trusty rubber gloves, I tackled the following items in my home:

1. kettle
2. taps/shower
3. shower screen
4. mirror

Here’s what I found.

Despite living here for only five weeks, the kettle is already showing signs of limescale on the inside. The small floating deposits put me off my morning coffee – and if I don’t get coffee, the world is not a good place.

As per manufacturer instructions, I half-filled the kettle, boiled it, unplugged it and added a third of the 250g (9oz) box to the kettle, then left it for 15 minutes. When I returned, I was slightly sceptical, as there was a large amount of the citric acid crystals still remaining on the bottom.

However, it was an unnecessary concern, as after emptying the kettle and rinsing thoroughly with water a few times (this was needed to fully remove the crystals) the bottom of my kettle was restored to new.

Would I do this again? Absolutely. I always dislike using the kettle after removing limescale with chemical based products and tend to boil and empty it at least three to four times before using it again – something that isn’t great for the environment or my electricity bills. Although the instructions don’t say to boil it again after using citric acid, just rinse, I boiled and emptied it once and then felt perfectly comfortable with using it.

Chrome taps and shower fittings are a lovely way of adding shine and light to the bathroom, but they need to stay shiny to look great.

After adding 40g (one and half ounces) of citric acid to 500ml (one pint) of warm water in a spray bottle, I cleaned a sink tap and shower head and rail – all of which were showing water marks.

A short wait, a wipe-over with my trusty microfibre cloth, and once again, results were immediate. Marks were magically gone, and the chrome was glistening.

Even a stubborn mark on the mouth of the tap that I’ve been trying to get rid of for weeks almost disappeared. Success!

Although I love the size of the shower screens, I don’t love the fact that, as my eldest son showers at least twice a day, they go from sparkling to smeared in 24 hours. I have to spray and wipe them clean with a bathroom cleaning spray or glass cleaning product a few times a week.

The marks were quite bad when I ran the test, so I sprayed and left the solution on there for around five minutes before going back to wipe it clean. It was noticeably easier to wipe the screen than normal, when I can still feel the limescale underneath the cloth.

The citric acid solution appeared to cut through and dissolve the deposits far more efficiently than the products I normally use. After the first attempt the glass was much cleaner. I gave it a second spray and wipe, just because I wanted to make sure it was all gone. Another great result.

I was a little wary about this one and not overly convinced. The mirror wasn’t particularly dirty and because I want guaranteed results, I’d normally use a specific glass cleaning product for the job.

But, once again, citric acid more than effectively cleaned it. It wasn’t necessarily any better than any other product I’ve used, and I still needed to wipe it dry at the end to remove any cleaning smears, but being able to use one eco-friendly product to clean the whole bathroom from top to bottom is a huge positive in terms of cost, time and the environment.

Dig a bit deeper into the powers of citric acid, and it’s interesting to see just how many areas of the home can benefit from its hidden powers.