Pool Care with Common Household Cleaners

Well, spring seemingly blew in like summer, to a break for Blackberry Winter and then gave way to summer.
When it gets hot here there is one question on everyones lips, "Can we swim?"
Just a few weeks ago, knowing that April was busy and May would be swimming time, I began thinking of how in the world was I going to get rid of that green scum water in our pool that was home to all kinds of swimming creatures? The fact of the matter is that in years past opening of the pool was a very expensive trip to the pool store. This year I just did not have the resources to go dump 300 dollars in our pool! I had heard for years that you could treat your pool with common household bleach and baking soda. I was so scared, but after one time of spending 200 dollars and having the water remain the same and then having to spend 150 more I was willing to give it a try.

Of course, the first place I went was Google. There are a multitude of very helpful sites that teach the method known as BBB. BBB stands for Bleach, Borax, Baking soda. The forums are hopping with people so knowledgeable about caring for your pool this way. They get a big skip in their step by beating the system, so to speak, of the pool store breaking your bank.

So, I studied and went to Dollar General. After 20 gallons of bleach, 6 boxes of baking soda and 2 boxes of Borax, this is what we have:

I do need to vacuum this pool, but the water is all sparkly! Yippee! It only took about 4 days.
Here is a link to where I got most of my information.
BBB for Beginners

This has been the easiest pool opening I have done. I spent the most time just brushing the pool daily to keep the algae stirred up so that the BBB could do its work. I spent 60 dollars on the cleaners. I did buy a good pool testing kit and added some stabilizer that I already had.
 

Happy swimming!
PS, maintenance has been 1-2 gallons of plain bleach per week. That is it. :)