Pinterest Hits & Misses, Part 4

It's that time again! If you are new here, the title is pretty self-explanatory.  I try out popular pins on Pinterest, and let you know if the pins worked and were "Hits" or flopped and were "Misses".  I have written a Pinterest Hits & Misses Part 1, Pinterest Hits & Misses Part 2, and Pintrest Hits & Misses Part 3.  

So which Pins were Hits and which Pins were Misses?

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The Pin: Unshrink Your Clothes
The Claim: Use baby shampoo and stretching to unshrink your shrunken clothing.
The Verdict: A Hit! As you can see in the picture, my shrunk sweat pants are long again. However, I do wonder if I could get the same results from just doing the stretching method while it was wet, bypassing the baby shampoo step. Maybe I'll give it a try later.  Here's my Before:

And After: 

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The Pin: Baking Soda Shampoo and ACV Conditioner
The Claim: Use a mixture of baking soda and water as natural shampoo, and a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water as a natural conditioner.
The Verdict: Hit and a Miss. I had already been using ACV as a hair rinse, and had realized that I didn't need to use conditioner when I used it. Since then, I've been using ACV as a conditioner a lot. It works great! It works best if you only use it a few times a week. I'm not sure how effective it would be on dry hair (mine is fine and easily oily).  The baking soda shampoo was a new one for me, and I was nervous to try it.  And apparently, for good reason.  While my hair looked fine, it felt dense and heavy. Maybe I used too much baking soda? I followed the directions and made sure to rinse really well. But the worst part was, it ended up over-drying my scalp and causing it to peel. Yuck! I think I'm going to just stick with my Trader Joe's sodium laurel sulfate-free shampoo for now.  Update: I tried the BCS Shampoo again, and this time I used much, much less in my hair, and the result was much better.  When I tried it the first time, I had poured half a cup all over my hair.  This time I just did a few tablespoons. 

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The Pin: Olive Oil as a Stainless Steel Cleaner
The Claim: Use Olive Oil and a cloth to shine and buff your stainless steel appliances.
The Verdict: Miss. It did make my stainless steel appliances shiny (as oil often does), but it didn't buff out my kid's smudgy fingerprints, and it left a greasy residue every where. Maybe I used too much? Regardless, I'm in no hurry to try it again.  However....keep reading, and pay attention to the Homemade Pledge Cleaner pin I tried farther down on this page!

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The Pin: Home Remedy for Sore Throat
The Claim: This mixture of vinegar and spices will soothe a sore throat and clear up congestion.
The Verdict: A small Hit. I gave this one a try because I had been sick for nearly 2 weeks with a nasty cold, and was desperate for a solution. I feel like it gave me a small jolt of energy after taking it, and it maybe helped clear my sinuses a little, but I'm not sure it did anything really significant or long-term. But then again, my cold was so bad that even DayQuil and Mucinex wouldn't help, so I'm going to give it another try my next (hopefully weaker) cold.

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The Pin: Silkiest Legs Ever
The Claim: Use a combination of oil, sugar, and citrus, shave twice, and shave off a bunch of dry nasty skin to get the silkiest legs ever.
The Verdict: A Hit. I personally didn't have a bunch of dead skin coming off when I shaved a second time like the pin claimed I would; maybe because I already regularly exfoliate? But yes, my legs were crazy soft afterwards. I just added lime and lemon juice to my already existing Coconut Sugar Body Scrub to make my this shaving scrub, since I already had it on hand.  It didn't keep my legs any smoother any longer than normal, but then again, the pin never claimed to.  I'm just not sure the result is worth all that work?  Maybe if you're on the 4th date with a new beau (wink, wink).

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This is a picture of my actual "shoe" organizer hard at work 

The Pin: Organize Your Household Cleaners
The Claim: Use an over-the-door shoe organizer to organize and store your household cleaners.
The Verdict:  A Hit! It worked great, and all my cleaners fit in it perfectly.  It's so much easier to find my cleaners now! I no longer have to worry about accidentally purchasing something I already have two of, because it's super easy to see what I already have.  I also don't have to worry about cleaners getting knocked over and spilling every where.

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The Pin: Tile and Grout Cleaner
The Claim: A combo of vinegar, baking soda, ammonia, and water will create an amazing grout and tile cleaner.
The Verdict:  Mostly a Miss.  I saturated my tiled mudroom floor with the cleaner, let it sit for a few minutes, and then used a scrubbing brush.  I put a ton of elbow grease in, and barely saw a difference. I then mopped twice, and saw that the tile was a bit cleaner, but the grout looked exactly the same. This pin was not worth the effort for me.  Maybe I expected too much?

My Before:

My After:

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The Pin:  Homemade Natural Baby Shampoo & Wash
The Claim: Make your own natural baby shampoo that leaves your baby soft without chemicals
The Verdict: A Hit and a Miss. It is a Hit for the baby wash; it made my toddler's skin very soft, and I was happy knowing I was only putting natural ingredients on her delicate skin.  I did not like the smell, so I added 10 drops of lavender essential oil. However, it did not make a great baby shampoo for us.  My toddler inherited my fine, oily-prone hair, and her hair became pretty greasy looking from the oil in the shampoo, despite a thorough washing.  I might play around with the recipe to find a combination that will create a less-oily result, since I love the idea of a natural, cheap baby shampoo.

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The Pin:  Homemade Pledge 
The Claim:  This pin from Make Your Own Zone has a recipe to make your own natural dusting spray (aka Pledge) with olive oil, essential oil, vinegar and water.
The Verdict:  Hit!  I used it on my finicky (aka shows every spot of dust and leaves smudges easily even while cleaning) dining and bedroom furniture, and it worked fantastic.  According to the site, the essential lemon oil is for fragrance only, so you can skip that ingredient if you need to (and know that the vinegar smell will fade after a few minutes).  However, I actually had some on hand, so it smelled fantastic.  In fact, the cleaner worked so great, that on a whim, I decided to see how this cleaner would be as a stainless steel cleaner...Bonus Hit! It worked amazing! Make sure not too use to much or it'll be streaky, but if you do a light spray, it makes literally the best stainless steel cleaner I've ever tried.  I wish I had thought to do a before and after picture. Definitely give it a try it yourself!

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Well that's it for the 4th installment in my Pintrest Hits & Misses.  Do you have any pins that you'd like me to try for my next one?  Send ideas my way! As long as they aren't pricey (I'm cheap, duh), or too intensive (I'm lazy, natch), I'll give it a whirl.