I spend way way too much time on Pinterest. It's one of those thoroughly enjoyable bottomless-pit time-sucks for me. I have probably pinned more DIY projects than any one person can complete in a lifetime.
It's funny, because I totally didn't get it at first. I signed up pretty early on, but didn't understand why someone would want to bother pinning something, so I never did anything with my account. Some time later, it finally clicked - this was a million times better than bookmarking a page on the Internet that I wanted to remember because I could not only categorize things, but I could also choose a photo to represent it. I'm big on visual organization - I'm way more likely to go back and do something when I have a pretty and inspirational photo to remind me why I wanted to go back in the first place!
So, I stumbled across this pin today:
Now my van was kind of a hand-me-down. It's a 2000 Plymouth Voyager SE, and the headlights...well, they suck. Big time. The lens covers are so cloudy that you can literally barely tell my lights are on - and that's with primo Sylvania Silverstar Ultra lights in them. I asked about replacing the covers and was told they'd have to replace the entire housing and it would not be cheap. I've used the aftermarket kits to clean the lenses a few times, but they can be kind of expensive and take a lot of elbow grease (or a power drill, which I don't currently have), plus, the results obviously do not last, seeing as I'm back to cloudy lenses again. But if I can get the same results in just a few minutes with something cheap that is already in my house? Sign me up! I'd totally be willing to make a dollar store run for toothpaste when the effect wears off.
So I grabbed one of those free samples of toothpaste from the dentist that seem to hang around in the linen closet forever and followed the directions on one of my headlights (I actually left part of the headlight uncovered so I could see if there was a difference). This is what I got.
Not really dramatic. At all. Maybe there's a tiny bit of improvement...but not much. (I did have a moment when I rinsed the toothpaste off that it looked crystal clear, and I almost jumped for joy - until I realized the cloudiness came back as it dried. Wah!) I'm willing to give this another try later, though. I want this to work!
Resigning myself that for now my headlights are going to remain dim and cloudy, I trekked back inside to clean up. And found that my husband had put two sharp knives - that I've told him many times had to be washed right away by hand and are not dishwasher safe - yup, into the dishwasher. That has been sitting since yesterday morning. Rust spots. Ugh.
I looked and saw that little tube of toothpaste and my old scrubby-cleaning-toothbrush by the sink and thought, hmm.
Worth a shot, right?
Well, I am pleased to say this worked a lot better than the headlight covers! (Sorry for the lousy photos of teensy rust spots. I tried it on a big spot first and of course forgot to take a before photo, so I had to make do with the couple spots left over afterwards!)
Awesome! Plus, I don't feel ooky using it on something that will be touching food because toothpaste goes in your mouth anyway, right? I mean, I know it's going to be washed first anyway, but still, I hate using harsh chemicals on food-contact items if I can help it. I was quite impressed. I'm going to remember this (because I'm sure if history tells me anything that those knives are going to end up back in the dishwasher again in the future)!
Enjoy!
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