Steps to ‘Clean and Clear’ Your Bathroom

To me, the bathroom is the *worst* room in the entire house. I struggle with getting this cleaned each and every time I do it but I have gotten it down to a simple science.

The steps I use when cleaning and clearing my bathroom are shown below. Do only as much as you can without feeling too stressed. You can finish up where you leave off later – although, I prefer to do this all at once and just get it over with. But … Don’t stress yourself out!

As I step into my bathroom, I usually notice several things … towels and clothes all over the floor, vanity top, and cabinet. I usually see drawers pulled out and doors left open. I see hair on the floor around all around – I honestly don’t know how any of us have any left on our heads! I see smudges all over the mirrors … and, this mess is just after one day.

I try to clean the bathroom every single day since it is so obvious that it needs it.

So, once again, we’ll do simple steps that will only take just a few measly minutes for each step. This is the other room that I don’t follow my usual ‘sweep and look’ technique. There are obvious ways to clean a bathroom (cleanest to dirtiest). I worked in a hospital for awhile so I’m a bit of a fanatic about this area.

I’ve found that getting this room cleaned is probably the room that gives me the most satisfaction after I clean it. There’s just something about taking a bath or shower in a freshly-cleaned bathroom. It just feels better!

So, enough said … these are the simple steps on how I go about cleaning a bathroom:

• I start with wiping down my bathroom mirrors. I have a full-length mirror on the back of my bathroom door and I have a typical lighted mirror above the vanity. I wipe all of these down using Windex because it leaves a streak-free shine. After that, while I’ve got my cleaning rag and Windex out, I wipe down the door handles (both sides). This is something that most people don’t do, but it only takes 1 minute so I do both handles.

• Next, I take everything off the vanity counter-top. This is a catch-all for toothpaste, deodorant, etc. It only takes a minute to put everything in it’s place.

• Then, I get out my faithful Scrubbing Bubbles and spray the entire counter-top and sink down. I let it set for just a minute before I wipe it all down with a clean cloth. Voile! One clean vanity area!!!

• I put my decorative knick-knacks (not really – more like necessities … toothbrush holder, soap dispenser, etc) back on the counter-top. I only have what we need on that counter-top. The rest of the items all have a place in a bathroom cabinet or vanity drawer. If they don’t, then I put them where they belong. Do not put anything back into your bathroom that does not belong here.

• Next, I go to the shower and tub area. I spray down the entire shower with Scrubbing Bubbles and let it soak for a minute. This is the part I hate most because I’ve purchased everything on the store shelves but I haven’t come across a product that actually helps me to eliminate the hard water minerals left on my shower walls. The best thing I’ve found to help is ‘The Works’ but that is so chemically-nasty, I try to only use it once a month. We even have a water softener but it doesn’t help much – our city water is just so hard and full of minerals. So, if anyone knows of a really good product to take away mineral deposits, I’d be very grateful and more than happy to try it! 🙂

• After the shower part is cleaned and rinsed, I start on the bathtub. I spray it down with Scrubbing Bubbles, let it set, and then wipe it down and rinse it out. This is a great product that works well on the soap build-up. No scrubbing … too bad it doesn’t work for mineral build-up, too!
• Next, comes my least favorite part of the bathroom … the toilet. I use Scrubbing Bubbles to spray this all down entirely and I go through several rags on the toilet, alone, because it is such a dirty thing. You should start at the top and work your way down – otherwise, you contaminate the cleaner part and it defeats the purpose of cleaning. So, the tank, is your starting point. I actually start with the handle first and then go to the top of the tank and work down. When you’re done with the tank, get a new rag and start on the toilet lid and then the seat. After that, get a new rag and do the outside of the bowl and base.
• When the outside of the toilet is all done, I work on the inside of the toilet. I shoot toilet bowl cleaner under the rim, scrub it around with the toilet brush, and let it stand for 10 minutes.
• While the toilet is getting sanitized, I wash my hands and move everything off of the bathroom floor.
• After everything is removed from the bathroom, I take a clean rag and use a disinfecting solution to clean the bathroom floor. My bathroom is only about 5’x 8′ so it’s very small and only takes me a few minutes to thoroughly clean it on my hands and knees.
• When that’s done, I simply re-scrub the toilet and flush, and shut the lid.
• After this, I take the garbage out of the garbage can and put a new liner in.
• My final touch is to add new bathroom towels to the towel holders.

Most bathrooms are not very large so this should be one of the fastest rooms to clean and clear. I have other detailed cleaning steps but I will get into those later.For now, just enjoy your accomplishment!

Take a nice long hot bubble bath and enjoy! 🙂