Not long ago I got a bunch of vases from Freecycle. Because I work with flowers for a home business (doing wedding flowers), vases often come in handy. I also like to have them to stick flowers from my garden in and give to a friend as a just for fun gift.
Two of the vases that came (she did offer to just throw them away but I said, "oh just leave them, I'll see if I can clean them") were pretty yucky looking. They had been sitting under a sink (I think it must have been drippy) for years and had a major calcium (I think) build-up as well as who knows what else.
I decided to try soaking them in some Vinegar water (about a cup of white vinegar in a sink half full) overnight and guess what? By morning everything scrubbed off very, very easily!
They aren't quite perfect but they are good enough for me. And they are ever so much better then they were!