Soap scum is the bane of my existence. I have tried so many things to get rid of it, and nothing worked that well. For years I just lived with the stubborn soap scum build-up, surrendering to its unsightly apprearance… until now. I have finally found the answer to getting rid of soap scum.
I tried 8 different methods to try and get rid of the soap scum that had been building up on my shower doors. Eight! I’ll start by sharing everything I tried that didn’t really work too well, and then we’ll get into what actually worked. There is a caveat, however. The method that worked best cannot be used on every type of shower door, so we’ll discuss what to do in that case as well.
What I Have Tried to Remove Soap Scum… That Did Not Work
Let me quickly share everything I tried to get rid of some very stubborn soap scum that was building up on my shower doors.
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Dryer Sheets Did Not Clean Soap Scum– Have you seen this trick? You are supposed to wet down a dryer sheet and rub it on the soap scum, making it magically disappear. I tried this hack and it was a fail.
Lemon Did Not Get Rid of Soap Scum– Have you seen an image of someone wiping half a lemon on their faucet, making it look shiny and new? If you know me, then you know I love a good cleaning hack, preferably using all-natural ingredients. I was so excited to try out this lemon trick: cut a lemon in half and rub it on the soap scum. The acid in the lemon is supposed to break down the soap scum and reveal a shiny faucet. When I started rubbing the lemon on the shower handle, I was excited; it immediately looked shiny and scum-free, but after I rinsed it and let it dry, it looked no different… fail.
Lemon Essential Oil Did A Pretty Good Job, But…– Honestly, lemon essential oil did a pretty good job removing soap scum, but it would take so much oil to clean the shower doors, the cost would be ridiculous!
Vinegar Did Not Remove Soap Scum– I love vinegar. It did wonders at removing hard water/mineral deposits on my faucet, so I thought it might do well on the soap scum too. Wrong. I sprayed it all over the shower doors and faucet, and allowed it to sit for an hour, then rinsed and scrubbed. Nothing. Total fail.
Magic Eraser Did Reduce Soap Scum– I bought a Magic Eraser specifically designed to work on soap scum. Everything looked amazing while I was scrubbing. Once I rinsed and dry, the soap scum was minimized. I cannot say it was completely gone, but it was better than when I started.
Shadazzle Did Not Clean Soap Scum– I had high hopes for this natural cleaner, but I’ve tried it in multiple places without much luck… the soap scum on my shower door is no exception. It did nothing.
Fine Steel Wool Reduced Soap Scum– I recently saw someone use fine steel wool to clean soap scum. I was so excited to give this a try… and while there was some improvement, it was not the results I’d hoped for. I also tried the steel wood with a little added Bar Keeper’s Friend. I didn’t notice a huge difference with the addition.
With absolutely none of these methods working great for me, I tried one more thing…
What Finally Worked to Get Rid of Soap Scum
What You Need to Remove Soap Scum From Tempered Glass Shower Doors
- DIY Shower Cleaner
- Pumice Stone– The pumice stone is fast becoming my favorite tool for cleaning glass surfaces. I have used it on my glass stove top and my glass oven door. The results were so impressive, I thought I’d give it a try on my shower door to see if it could be the answer to removing soap scum as well.
How to Clean Soap Scum
Warning: Pumice stones should not be used on plastic, acrylic, or fiberglass surfaces! It also isn’t recommended on glass surfaces unless it is tempered glass. Before using a pumice stone on shower doors, it is highly recommend you test on a small, inconspicuous area first. Please see our disclaimer for more information.
Let’s start this whole how-to with a disclaimer: I am sharing what worked for me! I had already tried seven things that didn’t work, and in my desperation, tried a hack that some may not want to attempt because pumice used on the wrong surface will scratch it. I was willing to accept this risk, and it turned out great for me, but that may not be your experience. You have been warned 🙂
Let me show you my glass shower doors before I started cleaning them…
And here’s a close-up from inside the shower. You can see the thick, cloudy appearance, mainly at the bottom…
Start by cleaning the shower with a DIY Shower Cleaner. While this shower cleaner does well cleaning shower walls, it doesn’t seem very effective at removing soap scum from the glass shower doors. However, I still start with this to remove anything that can easily wash off.
Once cleaned, rinse well and keep the shower doors wet. Then wet down a pumice stone and start gently rubbing it on the soap scum. It is important that both the glass surface, as well as the pumice stone, are kept wet throughout the entire process as this reduces the likelihood of scratching the glass surface.
The pumice stone will create a white residue as it cleans the soap scum, so rinse this away periodically to see what still needs to be cleaned.
When all the soap scum has been removed, thoroughly rinse the doors and allow them to dry. For added benefit, use a glass cleaner and window cleaning cloth to spruce up the outside of the shower doors as well.
Ready for the results?
And a close up from inside…
I was so pleased with these results… finally, something that worked!
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Common Questions About Removing Soap Scum
What is the Best Method to Get Rid of Soap Scum If I Cannot Use A Pumice Stone?
As I have mentioned many times throughout this post, a pumice stone should work well on tempered glass shower doors as long as you wet both the glass doors and the pumice stone itself. But not everyone has tempered glass doors, so what should you use instead? If you have glass shower doors (that aren’t tempered), I would try the fine steel wool. This actually did a pretty good job on some of the lighter soap scum areas. Fine steel wool (grade 0000) is said to not scratch glass, but again, always test on a small area first just to be sure. If you have fiberglass doors, try the Magic Eraser. This is still mildly abrasive and it has worked wonders for me on our fiberglass surround. Again, test a small area as a Magic Eraser can dull the finish if you scrub too harshly. If you have acrylic shower doors, no abrasive material should be used, so I would go with a DIY Shower Cleaner (1:1 ratio of dish soap and vinegar) applied with a sponge.
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What about the tile? Been working on tile that probably has 15 yrs of soap scum an dead skin cells. Pumice with foaming bleach spray works best so far, but it’s slow. My roommate (the one who’s been here 15 yrs) asked what the white spots were. He thought we’d splattered paint. No…..that’s the color of the tub dude. And before you jump on me for the bleach…I’m just starting this greener adventure 😉
Hi Amy-
My favorite thing to try when cleaning anything white (which is what I’m understanding as the color of the tile, but correct me if I’m wrong) is a combination of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. It’s amazing! I use it to clean grout and our porcelain sink. You simply make a paste with the two and start scrubbing… and you will never hear judgment from me on what products you use. While I like going as naturally as possible, it’s been a journey for me as well (and I still haven’t found a good replacement for some things). Hope that helps!
Blue Dawn dish soap and ammonia in hot water!!
I also use a yellow sponge with the green scrubby on the other side.
Stainless Steel Cleaner!!!
I have literally tried eeeeeverythig. I started cleaning houses professionally and have not been able to find a great product. The Mr Clean Soap Scum Magic Eraser worked best…after trying tons of products and cleaning hacks/tricks. But when I was much younger I worked for a professional cleaning company and we used some lemon oil stuff the company provided. It was awesome! But now I needed to figure this out on my own. I was cleaning a clients home and they had built up soap scum that wasn’t budging…so with the lemon oil in mind I tried my aerosol spray can of stainless steel cleaner that I had purchased at Smart & Final (their brand) It came off immediately. NO SCRUBBING!! I told my client what I did…just incase it was actually a fail after they used the shower. But much to my delight, he reported it was awesome as well!! Yay!! And because of the oil…it created a shield of sorts that made the water bead off and actually hindering the soap scum from easily binding to the glass. This saves SO much time and energy allowing me to continue on without burning out so quickly. I haven’t tried any other brands just the First Street. Hope it helps!
I too go for the home made cleaners however if you need to get the soap scum off plastic or glass shower doors use liquid gold furniture polish!! I’ve done house cleaning for people for many years and learned few things along the way! It comes in arosol can with red cap. Just spray on wipe off you’ll have clear doors takes all scum and cloudy off doors
What I use to clean soap scum in my shower is to take a dish cloth that has a scrubby side, pour any cheap hair shampoo on the cloth and start scrubbing. The cheap hair shampoo dissolves the old soap scum. Rinse and done!
I have never heard of this trick before. I will absolutely try it out. Thanks for sharing.
Baking soda-water paste, damp sponge, elbow grease. Rinse well, baking soda does film. Probably why older toothpastes are said to work.
My favorite is Norwex’s descaler!! Spray it on, leave for 10 minutes, wipe down with the bathroom scrub mitt and clean!!!
I LOVE my Norwex cleaning rags. I didn’t realize they had anything for soap scum. I’ll have to check it out. Thank you!
I don’t know about soap scum on shower doors……. don’t have a shower therefore no shower door, lol! But I’ve found that magic erasers really are magic and have used them on all kinds of things when my “green” methods failed. Magic erasers and SOS pads, Dawn and the small bottle of emergency bleach are the only non “green” cleaners I have in the house any more.
Tub, toilet and sink get spayed down with 6 to 1 mix of white vinegar and Dawn every night after the last bath is taken and wiped down with a rag and the toilet bowl (which also got sprayed) swished with the toilet brush. Takes 3 or 4 minutes, tops. I never have to scrub or do a deep clean because nothing has a chance to build up. I think that once you can get rid of the scum, this might help to keep it from building up again? Again, I don’t have a shower door so this is just conjecture on my part!
I use almost exclusively homemade cleaners, so this was a rare exception. I think you are correct, however: Maintaining the cleaning in key in not allowing it to get out of hand.
Aw, sheesh! I didn’t mean to sound like I thought you were going nuts with heavy duty commercial chemical artillery, lol! I know you’re pretty green! Nor did I mean to imply that you don’t do maintenance cleaning!
My daughter and I were talking about shower doors (hers) today. I remember reading, a long time ago, that toothpaste would clean soap scum off shower doors. But I think it had to be an old school toothpaste like Pepsodent and not a gel paste. Perhaps that’s worth a try? A tube of Pepsodent is under a dollar. Some people swear by using Turtle car wax on the inside of the door once it’s good and clean to help keep the soap residue from building up again. I have a couple of people that I know who swear by Rain X ( the stuff for car windshields that repels water). Daughter’s shower doors are new so we had nothing to test the Pepsodent on. But she’s going to try the Rain X to see if it works as a preventative.
Interesting. I’ll have to try some of your ideas 🙂
We successfully used traditional paste toothpaste and a buffing pad attached to my husbands drill. Be CAREFUL with the tooth paste and how much you use or it will be slung all over the bathroom!!! But it works. It still takes elbow grease to hold the drill in place while it does the hard work.