Bathroom Cleaning Tips

These tips take cleaning the bathroom from a dreaded chore that you never want to do,  to one that is an effortless part of your daily routine.

I used to slave over cleaning the whole house every Saturday morning. Bathroom cleaning took up at least an hour of that time and I thoroughly detested it. But, not anymore since I discovered these simple cleaning tips that allow me to keep the bathroom(s) in my home clean and presentable for unexpected visitors at all times.

Who wants to spend an entire day or even half a day cleaning? No one, and if you follow these easy bathroom cleaning tips and think like a janitor, you won't be a slave to cleaning your bathroom anymore.

Simple, basic bathroom cleaning tips we'll be covering below:

•  Think like a janitor to save time and effort.
• Cleaning products. What to use and how to make it do the work for you.
• One of the most productive bathroom cleaning tips... Clean daily, or when things are dirty. Doesn't it make sense to clean when things are dirty and avoid nasty grim buildups?
• The best way to clean that toilet in and out.
• Sinks, showers, and tubs. How to clean and what works best.
• Mold and mildew. They're inevitable. How to fight back!

The basic key to cleaning anything is to think like a janitor.

Think like a janitor by...

• Cutting down on cleaners and using only basic cleaning products (use only what you need)
• Store these cleaning products where you clean in this case the bathroom (locked up if you have little ones) or in a portable caddy (like a janitor) and...
• Clean daily, or as needed (when things are dirty) whenever you have free time in the bathroom (no it's not as bad as it sounds and there is free time)

Cleaning Products - How to pick the right one(s) to save time and money

In my opinion, there are way too many cleaning products on the market.  I try to use as little cleaning products as possible now.  It just makes things so much easier.  I recently had to help my mom clean her house and she literally had over forty different cleaning products.  It was confusing and time consuming to gather what I needed.  She seems to buy the latest and greatest cleaner marketed and it's a terrible waste.  A waste of money, time, effort as most don't work.

I like to keep everything in life simple and the chore of cleaning the bathroom is no different.  The products I use to clean the bathroom, I use all over my home too.  

My preference of bathroom cleaning products is a mixture of green and non-green products listed below:

• Method Shower Spray (daily use)
• Squeegee tool for the shower (daily use)
• Clorox Clean Up to bleach stubborn mold away in tile grout
• Windex and doTerra OnGuard
• Toilet cleaner (use a squirt of soap or toilet bowl cleaner)
• Household disinfecting wipes (daily use)
• Microfiber rags 

I used to use a lot of different products to clean the bathroom.  I'd use comet, toilet bowl cleaner, scrubbing bubbles, a sponge, a toothbrush, etc.  It was exhausting thinking about rounding up all the products I needed to clean, then having to inhale the nasty chemical fumes for an hour or so as I scrubbed the bathroom down.

I recently came across doTerra OnGuard.  I mix it with water in a spray bottle and use it daily on pretty much everything in my home.  It's non toxic and smells wonderful.

One of the best bathroom cleaning tips is to learn 'how' to use your cleaning products so they work for you and you don't have to scrub so hard.  You also save money by not wasting so much product.  The secret is to let the product sit and work for a minute or so then wipe it up.  That's it, no big surprise, just give your cleaning products a little bit of time to do their job.

As I mentioned before, I used to use a lot of toxic cleaning products to clean, now that I have kids, I find it so much easier and a huge time saver to spray everything down with doTerra, let it sit for a minute then wipe it down.  Another great bathroom cleaning tip is to use every spare minute in the bathroom to do a quick clean up, which I do while the kids are using the toilet, washing their hands, brushing my teeth, etc. So, use whichever method works for you and gets your bath clean and you out of there in record time.

As mentioned before, I'm partial to certain bathroom cleaning products so, here's my method which also works great, but may take a minute or two longer. (Again, this is easier for me with kids under foot, do what works best for you).

One of the best bathroom cleaning tips to avoid the nasty buildup of dirt, grim, and hard water is to be proactive and clean daily. It takes less time than you're weekly clean because you're not going to be cleaning nasty buildup of dirt, grim, and hard water. Just a swipe here and there and you're done!

• Twice a week spray and wipe the mirror (with glass cleaner or doTerra) takes 30 seconds or less
• Daily - wipe the fixtures, sink, toilet, and floor surrounding toilet.  During cold and flu season I like to wipe down the door knobs and light switches too with either disinfecting wipes or doTerra and it only takes a takes a minute or less
• Once a week or more if needed - clean inside of the toilet bowl (see below for the correct way to do this) less than a minute
• Daily - after the last shower, squeegee and spray the shower down with a daily shower cleaner such as Method Shower Spray. Takes less than a minute

That's it and I'm done with my bathroom cleaning. I perform routine maintenance that cleans the bathroom avoiding buildup of nasty dirt, grim, and hard water. The overall result is a cleaner bathroom in a lot less time! You won't even have to worry about expensive deodorizers as the germs that cause a smelly bathroom are killed on a daily basis.

Some great bathroom cleaning tips mentioned before are to store a set of bathroom cleaning products and tools in each bathroom. You will save huge amounts of time as you won't be running back and forth to grab what you need.

Be sure to use any free time in your bathroom for quick bathroom cleaning. For example, the other night as my toddlers brushed their teeth, I grabbed some disinfecting wipes and wiped the toilet down including the floor surrounding it.

Prior to my shower, I spray the shower down with Clorox Clean Up and let it sit. Then before jumping in the shower, I lightly scrub (if needed), then rinse as I shower.

Before brushing my teeth I either spray the fixtures and sink down or wipe them down with a disinfecting wipe. These are just a few great bathroom cleaning tips on how to find extra time for bathroom cleaning.

Let's talk about the once or twice a year (depending on your usage) bathroom cleaning tips for your sink, shower, tub, and toilet. I'll teach you how to clean these quick and easy and with a lot less elbow grease.

Toilets…Inside

If you don't clean your toilet this way, you're wasting hard earned money on toilet cleaner and not getting your toilet clean.  Now, for daily cleaning while I'm waiting for a kid to finish up a bath, or whatever I'm in there for, I just squirt some hand soap in the toilet, swish it around with the brush and I'm done for the day.

I don't know why, but this isn't good enough for my master bathroom.  Maybe because it's not used as much, but it tends to collect mold by the end of the week.  I know, gross, and it's a new toilet.  To remedy this, I just use toilet bowl cleaner once a week. 

Now, whether you're doing a big clean or the weekly toilet clean you must first force the water out of the toilet bowl. You need to force the water out of the toilet bowl before your apply your cleanser, otherwise you're just diluting the cleanser in water and it won't work as well or at all.

To force the water out of the toilet, plunge the water with your bowl brush until all the water is out of the toilet bowl. Apply your cleanser and work it around the inside of the bowl and under the rim. Let the cleanser sit for a minute of two to work.

While you're waiting for the cleanser to work, go clean and wipe down something else so you get out of your bathroom sooner! Once you've waited and let the cleanser do its job, come back and scrub the bowl and under the rim once more. Flush the toilet and rinse out the bowl brush and you're done.

For the nasty ring in your toilet, you can either purchase a pumice stone and stick your hand in the toilet to scrub it out or you can go to the local janitorial supply store and buy an acid toilet bowl cleaner and use the method I mentioned above. Just ask the clerk at the store to point you in the right direction of acid toilet bowl cleaners.

Toilets…Outside

As mentioned before, clean daily with disinfecting wipes or spray with a disinfectant or doTerra OnGuard and wipe down. Clean the outside of the toilet working from top down making sure to clean the handle, lid, seat, under the seat, the rim, and finish up with the base and surrounding floor.

Sinks, Showers, and Tubs

Sinks along with fixtures are wiped down daily or as often as your time allows with disinfecting wipes. If you don't have time for this, you can also use Clorox Clean Up as needed, just spray on, let it sit to work, wipe up with a sponge, and rinse off for a great clean.

I don't know about you, but I can't stand scrubbing the shower or tub.  I used to spend so much time bent over the tub scrubbing with comet.  I can smell the fumes now!  Here's what I do now to get my tub and shower sparkling.  If I haven't mentioned it before, I clean up the shower and or tub daily after use.  Squeegee shower walls and floors, then spray with Method Shower Spray.  After a bath, I take some body soap, squirt on my wash cloth and wipe down the sides of the tub before getting out mixing with the bath water.  

This works pretty good for the shower, the tub gets and okay clean that's presentable should some nosey guest peek in my bathroom.  Otherwise, I spray the tub about once a week with Windex, let it sit while I'm wiping down the mirrors and counters.  I then wipe out the tub and surrounding tile with a microfiber wipe and it sparkles!

Mold and Mildew

Mold and mildew are inevitable in almost every bathroom and in this case, the best defense is offense. In other words, fight mold and mildew before they happen.

There's no exhaust fan in the bathroom of my old home. I fight the good fight against mold and mildew by doing the following:

• Everyone uses a squeegee and Method Shower Spray after showers
• Keep the door to the bathroom open to air it out
• Clorox Clean Up when mildew pops up

I've found Clorox Clean Up the best and easiest way to handle mildew in the shower.  I spray it on, open a window and let it sit.  I come back a bit later and thoroughly rinse and let it air dry.  If mold is really stubborn in your home, you can try soaking cotton balls in the Clorox Clean Up, then placing them on the tough mold spots to penetrate and soak, then scrubbing and rinsing.

There you have it, some great bathroom cleaning tips that show you how to clean your bathroom in very little time.

In addition to saving time, these bathroom cleaning tips save you elbow grease and money on cleaning products too.

Just remember to let cleaning products sit a little to soak in and work before scrubbing and rinsing (this saves both cleaning products $$$ and elbow grease).

And... clean a little at a time as you have time incorporating it into your daily routine(saves time by not having to clean nasty buildups of dirt and grim).

If you follow these easy bathroom cleaning tips, your bathroom will be sparkling in no time.

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