I’ve successfully avoided cleaning the bathroom on a regular basis until October 2017. I will literally do all other chores before having to clean the bathroom. But every busy season and especially now, I find myself taking 95% of the household chores. I needed to figure out some bathroom cleaning hacks to save time.
Growing up, my sister and I had a set list of chores. My main responsibilities would be vacuuming, mowing, and picking up the dog poop in the yard. It wasn’t until Hayden that I got him to stick to the edge of the woods to make my life easier. My parents eventually turned over all the floors to hardwood, but our entire house was carpet. All. Over. The. House. And mowing? While two acres doesn’t seem like a lot, it took up a large chunk of my Saturday. My sister and I shared all Hayden-specific chores, like feeding, walking, and other exercising (but it was mostly fell on me).
Sharing the chores is one of the secrets that help make our marriage work. All responsibilities do not fall on one or the other; we share all chores. Now, including all the bathroom cleaning.
Top Bathroom Cleaning Hacks
What made me stay away for so long is our beautiful subway tile. It’s daunting. There’s. So. Much. Tile. It’s literally on all four walls from the floor to the ceiling. Granted, we only get down and dirty with the tile in the shower, but the shower takes up a third of the bathroom! Fatima would scrub every tile in that shower. It would take at least two hours. I dreaded having to do it and I only did it twice up until this point. I needed to find a new way to clean the shower.
Go, go, Scrubbin’ Bubbles
It wasn’t until I tried Scrubbing’ Bubbles Mega Shower Foam. This shit is the real deal. I let the shower go two weeks without cleaning it. Allowing the soap scum and mildew to form (shudders). I needed to see if this product would work. *Looks to camera and winks*
After shaking the can, I sprayed down the shower (except for the glass), let the foam sit for a few minutes, and then wiped it down. It was gorgeous. Fatima came home after a weekend day at the office and was so impressed with my cleaning abilities.
But the can of Scrubbin’ Bubbles only lasted one and half shower cleanings. I needed something else to clean the shower on a regular basis. That’s when I discovered this blue foam (aka vinegar and Dawn dish soap). It foamed up like Scrubbin’ Bubbles, but it wasn’t as harsh on the grout. It cut through soap scum and cleaned the shower glass so beautifully.
Basically, you heat up Vinegar and add dawn. Shake it up until it foams in your empty spray bottle. Then spray. Leave for about 20 minutes and wipe away. If your bathroom is exceptionally dirty, then leave on for longer.
Homemade Shower Cleaner
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Like all homemade cleaning products, test this out in one place before using it everywhere.
Supplies:
Directions:
- Depending on the size of your bottle, you’ll want to measure out 1 part of Dawn and 2 parts of Vinegar.
- Add only the Dawn to the spray bottle.
- Heat up the vinegar in a small pot over low heat. Once it starts to simmer, remove from heat and pour into the spray bottle.
- Close up the spray bottle and shake.
- It will foam!
- Spray down your shower and let sit for about 20 minutes.
- Wipe away with a cloth or sponge and rinse with water.
Let’s Talk Shower Glass
The benefit of living in different style apartments is you see what finishes you like and what you dislike. Gas or electric? Gas. Open shelving? Hell no. Windows or no windows? Definitely windows. My first two apartments used shower curtains in the bathroom. Our current apartment is made up of two shower glass doors. This is will never get for my bathroom unless they make self-cleaning shower glass. Your bathroom could be clean, but if the shower glass has a bunch of soap scum on it, the bathroom seems dirty.
We used to use a multi surface Pledge on the doors. It was ok. The Dawn + vinegar did a great job. However, the Windex takes the cake. It’s a disinfectant and multi surface. That’s my new go-to shower glass cleaner. To help prolong the clean look all week, I got a squeegee. After each shower, we quickly squeegee the doors and they look just as clean as when we use the Windex.
A Schedule
Spreading out your cleaning throughout the week is key. I try to do this, but most of the time I fail. It’s after I actually stick to our schedule is when I realize that this schedule works. When one thing is out-of-place in this apartment, the whole apartment looks messy. I usually save bathroom cleanings for Thursdays or Sundays. Right now, I moved this to Saturdays since Fatima is usually working. But I like coming home on Friday after work to a clean apartment.
This is our schedule:
A Cleaning Playlist
With any cleaning schedule you need a good playlist. Sunday Funday Brunch on Pandora is always a good playlist for almost any occasion. But I use my gym playlists the most. Motivation on Spotify is great. I also started curating a playlist with Fatima so we could put it on our Apple Watches. Not only does it get me through a 30 minute cardio sesh, but it gets me to clean, clean, clean.
