Target | Table for Five

Household Tip – How To Clean Glass Shower Doors

March 13, 2012 By Elizabeth

I have always lived in houses with a shower that is above a bathtub, with fabric shower curtains. When we moved into our current house, our main bathroom came with what is sometimes called a shower enclosure – you know, just a shower stall – with glass doors. Chris had no experience with them either, but fortunately when I mentioned it to my sister in law on the phone, she knew just what we needed to do to keep the doors soap scum free!

On her suggestion, we went to Target and bought a squeegee with a hook on a suction cup so it hangs on the shower wall. Whoever takes a shower, after they turn off the water, they take the squeegee and run it down the shower doors. It’s kept water spots and dried soap scum off the doors for 6 years!

Did you know that over time the surface of the glass door itself gets rough and even pitted from exposure to hard water (which we have), soap, and cleaning products? Minerals, scale, and soap scum get stuck in those pits (I know, ewww), which makes the glass look dirty. I still think my squeegee method is the best, especially for frameless shower doors which have even MORE glass to clean like the one in the photo at left, but there are ways to clean shower glass without scratching the glass.

If you want to use commercial cleaners, look for products that say they are safe to use on glass. For example, “Soft Scrub” brand cleanser specifically says it removes soap scum, hard water stains, and limescale, and that it is safe on glass. “Kaboom” has a specific line available just for cleaning showers.

To clean hard water stains or soap scum off of glass shower doors, try using the scrubbers called “Dobies” made by Scotch Brite, or the Brillo® Estracell® No Scratch Scrub Sponge With Wedge Edge®, found at most supermarkets. Get either one wet with some warm water, and use “elbow grease” to remove any soap scum or hard water stains.

If you are remodeling your bathroom and are thinking about installing glass shower doors, you can now get ones that are manufactured with a special process that seals the surface of the glass. Hard water, soap scum, and limescale won’t stick, and best of all, you can clean them with just a cloth or soft sponge! Contact a local glass company to see if they make those kinds of shower doors, and you can enjoy beautiful glass shower doors with minimal cleaning!

Filed Under: For the Home Tagged With: brillo, cleaning products, frameless shower doors, glass doors, glass shower doors, hard water stains, kaboom, limescale, scotch brite, scrubbers, shower enclosure, shower stall, target, water spots

Back to School Shopping: Walmart Vs. Target

September 2, 2010 By Elizabeth

: Image via CrunchBase

I realize school has already started for a lot of your kids, but here in Michigan, school doesn’t start until after Labor Day. I got an email about checking out the great prices on back-to-school supplies at Walmart, and since I’ve always bought school supplies at Target, I was curious to see what the differences were in price. Walmart offered to send me a gift card and a list of recommended school supplies so I could do some comparison shopping between the two.

WALMART:

I set off for Walmart with my list and the kids, and found the Back-to-School section right at the front of the store. There were multiple aisles filled with multiple blue cardboard boxes STUFFED with school supplies. We started at the top of the list and got shopping! This was the list Walmart sent me, I think it’s based on what the average shopper needs for kids of varying ages:

Avery Durable View Binder – 1 inch – $2.50
Big Brite Liner Highlighters – 5 pack – $1.50
Bic Mechanical Pencil (7mm) – 10 pack – $1.50
Black & White Composition Book – 100 sheets – $0.25 – SOLD OUT. Paid $2.00 for a patterned one.
Crayola Colored Pencils – 12 count – $1.00
Crayola Crayons – 24 count – $0.25
Crayola Marker Classic Broad – 10 count – $1.00
Crayola Marker Washable Broad – 9 count – $2.00
Dixon #2 Pencils – 24 count – $1.00 – Rang up at $0.88
Elmer’s School Glue – 4 oz. – $0.25
Elmer’s School Glue Stick twin pack – $0.25
Index Card 3×5 Ruled – 100 count – $0.44
Mead Reinforced Wide Ruled Filler Paper – 150 sheet – $2.50 – SOLD OUT. Norcom brand only $0.75 !
Pink Eraser by Peachtree Playthings – 2 pack – $1.00
School Backpack – $5.00 or $9.00
Spiral Notebook Wide Ruled – 70 sheet – $0.15
3-pack folders – $2.50 – Rang up at $2.00
10-Digit Desk Calculator – $3.00

The total for the 18 items came to just $26.28 before tax! Best of all, my kids can use everything on the list, and what we don’t need, their school is happy to take.

TARGET:

I took the shopping list to Target and looked for the same or similar items and jotted down the prices. Here’s what I found:

Avery Binder – $2.74 MORE
Bic Highlighters – didn’t have, Target Value Pack 5 highlighters – $1.74 MORE
Bic Mechanical Pencils – didn’t have 10 pack, 8 pack $1.20 SAME
Composition Book – Target had the Black & White ones for $0.25, same price as Walmart when the books were in stock SAME
Crayola 24 count crayons – $0.25 SAME
Crayola colored pencils – Target didn’t have 12 packs, 24 packs were $2.84. Walmart’s price is 8 cents each, Target’s is 11 cents each MORE
Crayola Classic markers – $1.00 SAME
Crayola Washable markers – $2.00 SAME
#2 Pencils – Target had Wood Barrel pencils, 24 count, $0.94 LESS
Elmer’s School Glue – $0.25 SAME
Glue Stick Twin Pack – $0.25 SAME
Index Cards 3×5 Ruled – $0.44 SAME
Wide Ruled Filler Paper – $0.75 LESS
2 pack Pink Erasers – $0.97 LESS
Backpacks – Target had a clearance section, there were a few marked $10.48 and one marked $6.98 MORE
Spiral Notebook Wide Ruled – $1.00 MORE
3-pack folders – the ones at Walmart are coated on the outside, heavy. Target has paper ones for $0.15, I didn’t see the nicer coated ones. I’ll call this “less” but I hesitate to do so since it isn’t the exact same thing, just so you know. LESS
Desk Calculator – Target had a space for a Sharp Basic Plastic Calculator for $2.99 but there were none hanging there, so I don’t know how many digits it would have calculated out to. I’m going to assume it would be the same. SAME

Total for that list, assuming you buy the 24 pack of colored pencils and three of their paper folders, your total would be $27.05.

I was surprised how close the totals were! Although I have to say, Walmart seemed to have more choices in the different categories, as far as patterns or designs go, and while Target was almost entirely cleaned out of backpacks, Walmart still had a good selection. I’d say if you still need to buy school supplies and you do your grocery shopping at Walmart, check out their back-to-school section for some great deals. Even if you already bought school supplies, you can always use more crayons, right?

Walmart provided me with a gift card and a recommended school supply shopping list for this review. All opinions, etc., are, as always, my own.

Back To School Shopping: Walmart Vs. Staples (forthemommas.com)
Back-to-School Shopping at Walmart (fromdatestodiapers.com)

Filed Under: Shopping Tagged With: Shopping, target, Walmart

How to Embarrass Your Kids in Three Easy Steps

April 16, 2009 By Elizabeth

Step One: While getting ready to go to Target, decide that since it’s a warm, sunny day, you’ll wear slip-on shoes with no socks. NEW slip-on shoes.

Step Two: Realize after twenty minutes of walking around at Target that the backs of the slip-on shoes are sliding up and down against your bare heels and raising painful blisters on both of them. Decide to shuffle over to the shoe department and buy the first pair of comfortable shoes you can find.

Step Three: Find the PERFECT pair of Champion slides, with footbeds filled with some kind of gel and covered with satiny fabric, so that each step you take feels like having pillows strapped to your feet. Take off the evil slip-on blistermakers and put on the slides. Which are attached to each other with a piece of white elastic string. Which you can’t take off because you don’t have scissors in your purse.

Step Three Continued: So you have to WALK THROUGH THE STORE with your shoes ATTACHED. Because there is no way you are putting the evil shoes of evil back on, and the slides are just so dang comfortable, and the elastic is long enough that you can walk normally. Except that Target employees keep walking by you and, well, LOOKING AT YOUR FEET.

And yet when I got to the register and took the slides off so the cashier could scan them, then asked if she had scissors in her drawer so I could cut the elastic, she didn’t even blink.

And also, these? Are the MOST COMFORTABLE SLIDES EVER.
champion-slides
And these?