Cleaning the bathroom is the room that most people tend to shy away from. It’s not like the living room where a quick tidy, dust and hoover can make the room look really nice and clean, with the bathroom you’ve really got to scrub the place clean. In fact in Britain, the average person spends 11 days a year cleaning the bathroom! (Source)
Fortunately for you, there’s no longer any reason to hide away from the bathroom. With our 10 easy steps, we’ll guide you through some of the best tips and tricks to not only get your bathroom looking clean but to also maximise your cleaning productivity. Gone will be the days of spending hours cleaning your bathroom!
Contents
To make your cleaning bathrooms life easier, we’ve put together some great tips and tricks to make it as painless as possible. We’ll be covering:
- How to clean your bathroom in 10 easy steps
- Some useful life hacks to make cleaning even easier
- Things you need to look out for.
Without further ado, let’s jump into it!
Before You Get Started
There are several tools you’ll need to get your bathroom looking as clean as can be. Let’s look at some of the best tools to have and why.
- Latex gloves
- Means you can handle hot water and chemicals much more easily
- Scrubbing brush (and an old toothbrush)
- Allows you to scrub away at any grime or dirt with ease
- Microfibre cloths
- Fantastic for getting rid of stubborn dust
- An all-purpose cleaner (spray is the easiest to use)
- An all-round cleaner. This helps to make your cleaning much easier!
- Glass cleaning spray
- This allows you to get your mirrors looking sparkly and clean, removing any spots or marks.
- Sponge with a scourer
- The sponge is a fantastic way of getting up and dirt or mess, whilst the scourer helps to dig deep and really get grime gone.
- Sellotape
- This is used for when you soak the showerhead in white vinegar, allowing you to get a watertight seal.
- White vinegar
- Used for soaking the showerhead to get rid of any built-up limescale.
- Lemon
- A natural antiseptic and antibiotic, with a citrus scent.
- Bleach
- Fantastic tool for cleaning your toilet, helping to kill off any germs and keep your bathroom sanitised.
These are some tools that you’ll find are incredibly useful when it comes to cleaning.
Step 1 of 10
Get The Room Ready
You’ll have plenty of things in your bathroom that can be moved out of the way to make things quicker. Take away any shower bottles, any toothbrush holders, any aftershave or deodorant that lives on the side and move it out of the way for now. A really easy way of doing this would be to use a carrier bag or bin bag to allow you to put everything in the bag at once, saving you heading in and out of the room.
This saves time by allowing you to clean the room a lot more easily when it comes to the cleaning. You’ll not need to move things out of your way or clean around them, so you’ll get a much better clean all whilst saving yourself some time.
This usually takes around 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of your bathroom and how much you have in there. It’s always better to be careful and take the extra time to prevent accidentally dropping any bottles, as this could cause a smash or spill!
Step 2 of 10
Get Things Soaking
You’ll find that there are some bits you need to clean by letting them soak, so while they’re soaking away you’ll be able to crack on with other things. One example is getting the bath half-filled with hot water and cleaning chemicals to allow them to dig away at any soap marks on the sides of the bath. Mix some hot water, baking soda and white vinegar together and you’ve got a homemade and effective bath cleaner! Just make sure to rinse it out when you’re done.
Another thing to do is get a limescale cleaner sprayed onto any glass surfaces within your shower and/or bath, letting this sink in and start to do its job. One thing you can do the night before is to the showerhead and place it within an airtight bag of white vinegar. This will dig deep into the limescale, meaning the next morning you can simply wipe away any grime that was previously there, giving your shower head a new lease on life.
This saves time by tackling the dirt and grime whilst you’re busy cleaning something else. It’s essentially cleaning two things at once, doubling your productivity!
This usually takes around 10-20 minutes. This one can vary quite a lot as it depends on what you’re getting soaked, and it can be spread over two days. If you’re getting the shower head soaking in vinegar then you’ll spend 5-10 minutes the night before, and about 10 minutes the next day getting everything ready and soaking.
Step 3 of 10
Get Scrubbing That Loo
The best area to tackle first of all is the toilet bowl. Get this scrubbed down with a scrubbing brush, then flush away any grime that was previously left. Your toilet bowl will now look clean, but it’s not quite sanitised just yet. Use the bleach and get around the rim of the toilet and leave it to soak whilst you crack on with the next job. Make sure to leave a window open when it’s soaking!
This saves time by getting the toilet out of the way and letting it soak for as long as possible. People tend to put off cleaning the toilet, but this tactic gets it done quickly and lets your toilet sanitise for longer, so there’s less chance of any germs surviving the cleaning ordeal.
This usually takes around 5-10 minutes. It’s not the most fun job in the world, but it’s a quick and easy one you can get out of the way early on. There’s nothing worse than cleaning the bathroom and coming to clean the toilet last!
Step 4 of 10
Get a Plan of Action Ready
You’ve got the worst bit out of the way and you’re stood to look at a bathroom that’s soaking away, about to be cleaned. You’ll need to get a quick mental plan of what you’re going to tackle and how you’ll do it to ensure you don’t waste and extra time struggling to figure out what’s been cleaned and what hasn’t.
We like to work from left to right. Start with the door and go from the left, working your way around the room until you’re back at the door again. It’s a great way of keeping on top of what’s been done already and what still needs to be cleaned!
This saves you time by saving you worrying and thinking about what’s been cleaned already and what hasn’t been, making the task a lot easier for you.
This usually takes around 30 seconds or so. It really isn’t a long task, but it’s a crucial one to make sure you save as much time as possible with your cleaning.
Step 5 of 10
Start Dusting From Top to Bottom
Once you’ve got the ‘throne’ looking clean and it’s soaking away, you can start from the top of the room and give it a good dust, getting rid of any cobwebs and any dust that’s hanging around. The best way to do this is to slightly wet a microfibre cloth, ring it out and make sure it’s just barely damp. This is when it works at its best!
Move down to the next level, which typically is the top of the showerhead. Once you’ve done this level of the room, move down to the next, and then the next. You’ll eventually reach the floor where you’ll need to give it a good sweep and a good mop.
To mop the floor you’ll need some warm water mixed with your all-purpose cleaner, giving you a nice clean floor and no leftover dust.
This saves you time by preventing you from having to go over areas of the room more than once. If you start from the floor, by the time you’ve dusted up to the ceiling there’ll be dust that’s fallen to the floor, which you’ll have to double your efforts to clean. Make it super easy the first time!
This usually takes around 5-10 minutes to complete. It depends on how large your room is and how much dust you’ve got around the room. It doesn’t take too long but it’s important to take your time and not rush this step, making sure you do catch all the dust.
Step 6 of 10
Scrub-a-dub-dub!
Normally you’d be about to start scrubbing away at the bath, shower and sink, but with it being soaked in cleaning chemicals already this will have made a lot of the efforts for you. You’ll find that the majority of marks will wipe off, so make sure to rinse the area down with water and use a sponge to pull away and leftover marks.
This saves you time by giving the cleaning solution the hard work of scrubbing, letting you simply wipe away any leftover marks. Some marks may be stubborn and require some elbow grease, but the majority will come off with ease using this method.
This usually takes around 10-15 minutes and does require a lot of effort to do if there are any stubborn marks. The best way to do this is to get stuck in and just get it done. The sooner it’s finished the better!
Step 7 of 10
Finishing Wiping Down Your Belongings
Whilst you’ve got the sponge in your hand, wipe over the bottom of any bottles that you’ll be putting into your bathroom. Shower gel and conditioner, deodorant, aftershave are all common bottles that can get dirty underneath which ultimately will go onto your recently cleaned surfaces. Wipe them down and leave them in the bag, for now, to let them dry and avoid any rings on any surfaces.
This saves you time by keeping your bathroom looking cleaner for longer. You’ll not find anything hidden underneath these bottles if they’re kept clean, therefore there’s less reason and need to clean the bathroom as often.
This usually takes around 5 minutes, but it saves you massive amounts of time in the future. You’ll be prevented from having to take all your bottles off the side and wipe down the sides again in the future, so it’s a worthy time investment.
Step 8 of 10
Use The Opportunity For a Sort Through
Whilst you have each bottle away from it’s home and in an easy to reach place, take a look through each one to make sure that they’re in date and/or going to be used. One thing that can make the bathroom look messy is excessive bottles, so use the opportunity to find any that need to go into the bin or won’t be used.
This saves you time by giving you fewer bottles to clean around in future and keeping your bathroom looking tidy. Often people will clean a room when it looks messy when actually it just needs a good sort through. If it’s already sorted you’ll know when the room needs a good scrub.
This usually takes around 5 minutes, but it all depends on how much you have to sort through. Keep the essentials and the ones that you need, but avoid any nearly empty bottles. You can pour these into other bottles of the same kind, such as shampoo into another shampoo bottle. This means there’s less for you to put back into the bathroom, making your life that little bit easier.
Step 9 of 10
Let the Room Dry
Once you’ve cleaned all around the room, give it some time to settle and let the sides dry out. If you don’t you could leave some ring marks when you put the bottles back on the side, so let them dry and you’ll have cleaner looking sides for longer.
Whilst the room is drying, you can get to work on other tasks around the house. You could get the washing on or put out, or make a start scrubbing the kitchen. You’ll hardly notice the extra effort, but when you come to the next job you’ll find that it’s already half done.
This saves you time by both getting one job half done quickly as well as ensuring the bathroom stays cleaner for longer. Another win-win situation!
This usually takes around 10 minutes with a window open. However, if you’re getting stuck into another job then there’s no limit of how long this can take. As long as you’re getting something else done in the meantime that’s the important thing!
Step 10 of 10
Putting The Room Back Together
Once you’ve let the room dry and you’re happy that it’s now dry, you can start to get things back to the order they should be in. Firstly, start off by getting any furniture, such as drawers, moved back to where they should be. Once these are back in place then focus on getting the smaller things, such as ornaments and bottles back to their rightful place.
This saves you time by stopping you from risking knocking things over or spilling bottles, the risk is minimised and you’ll be able to crack on nice and quickly.
This usually takes around 10 minutes and is always a nice job. Seeing your bathroom look like new is a fantastic feeling and it’s great when you’re putting everything back where it belongs as you start to see your efforts come to life.
Cleaning Life Hacks
Cleaning the bathroom with our above steps will help you to get it done in record time, but some life hacks are out there to truly give yourself the edge in terms of time-saving. Some of them are included in the above and some are new. We’ve collated them in detail so you can use them in other areas of the home to help save as much time as possible!
Life Hack #1
Lemons Are Natures Cleaning Present
Lemons are a fantastic tool in your cleaning arsenal. There are several things that they offer to make for easy cleanings, such as:
- Being acidic
- Being naturally antibacterial and an antiseptic
- Smelling great
The acid in lemons is great for cutting through grease and stains, helping to dig deep and make for a deep clean. As well as this, it’s antiseptic and antibacterial properties kill off any germs that may be lurking in the background to give you a clean and sanitised surface. The best bit is it’ll smell great once you’re done!
Life Hack #2
Time is Effort
Sometimes you’ll spend 10 minutes scrubbing the bathtub to get rid of any marks that are there. However, you could get remove the effort of scrubbing for the most part and give yourself the ability to relax or crack on with another job. Let the soaking do the hard work!
We’ve included a great method on how to get things soaking in step 6 above, so be sure to check it out if you’ve not already!
Life Hack #3
Put Your Toothbrush Holder in The Dishwasher
Your toothbrush naturally has lots of toothpaste and water that drips down into the base of its holder. If you’ve ever tried to clean one out by hand, it’s not an easy task to do at all.
However, most toothbrush holders are dishwasher proof, so you can whack them in with your regular clean and let them turn like new with ease!
Life Hack #4
Water Stains vs Shaving Cream
That’s right, shaving cream has a fantastic hidden feature of removing any water stains on your shower glass. All you need to do is spray some shaving cream onto your hand and cover the area of the glass where you’re wanting to tackle and let it sit for around 15 minutes.
Rinse away the shaving cream and watch the stains disappear as well!
Life Hack #5
Open The Shower Curtain From Both Sides
If you have a shower curtain, you’ll leave the shower and drawback one side to let yourself out. Pull the other side away from the wall as well and you’ll create a much better airflow, allowing your shower curtain to dry much more quickly.
Mould is a nightmare on shower curtains and it thrives on those warm, wet conditions. Minimise its chance by using this handy tactic, and save yourself the fight to get rid of mould in the future!
Life Hack #6
Take Creased Clothes Into The Shower
Not literally of course, but if you’ve just got up and you’re wanting to wear your favourite shirt, don’t let a few creases ruin your morning.
Simply hang up the clothes in a place in the bathroom that they won’t get wet and shower as normal. The steam will help to pull the creases out of your clothes, making the ironing either extremely quick and easy, or non-existent!
Life Hack #8
Extra Storage Above the Door
There isn’t usually much room in a bathroom, and you’ll want to maximise the space that you have. Above your door is a fantastic space where you can put a shelf up and store lots of useful things that need to be in the bathroom, out of your way!
Life Hack #9
Drill That Grime
If you have some grime that’s resisting all your efforts, break out the big guns. Use a scrubbing brush and drill a home through it, then put a long screw through so the head of the screw is on the side with the bristles. Grab the other end of the screw with your drill and you’ve got a fantastic scrubbing tool!
It goes without saying, be extremely careful with this method to make sure you don’t do any damage. Use this gently, the fast-rotating bristles will do plenty of work on the grime for you so you’ll not need to press down very hard.
Side Hack, an old electric toothbrush is a more gentle version of this. The vibration helps to take away some of the elbow grease to get the grime gone.
Life Hack #10
Keep the Toilet Brush Clean
Your toilet brush is a fantastic tool to help keep your toilet clean, but in turn, it gets dirty itself. Save yourself the money of having to replace your toilet brush often by keeping the one you have nice and clean!
Use some latex gloves and a sponge, and in the toilet itself once it’s clean and flushed give it a good scrub in the toilet water. This will get rid of most of the grime and help to maximise the life of your toilet brush.
What Things Should I Look Out For?
There are a few things you’ll need to keep a close eye on to make sure they’re kept clean and tidy. A few things to look out for are:
Black Mould
If this stuff starts creeping in then tackle it as soon as possible. It’s a real pain once it’s grown and made it’s home, so make sure you tackle it as quickly as it comes.
Drain Blockage
When you’re in the shower next, take a look at the drain at the bottom of the shower. You may well find that the shower drain has lots of hair in there. Make sure to take a close look every now and again to make sure it’s not filling up too much, otherwise you could risk a drain getting blocked which can cause more problems down the line!
Steam Problems
Make sure that you have adequate steam removal, such as an extractor fan in your bathroom. Steam can get into the smallest of places, either causing cracks to appear or giving bacteria a nice warm home in the smallest of places. This can cause problems for you either way, so it’s important to prevent this from happening if you can.
Dry Your Shower and Bath!
After you’ve used them, make sure to use a window wiper to wipe away any water that lives on the glass and use a sponge or cloth to wipe away and water on the basin. This stops bacteria from growing as easily, meaning it’ll be more sanitised for longer.
Use Sanitiser
You’d be surprised how much bacteria lurks around your bathroom. Did you know:
- The average toilet bowl contains 295 bacteria per square inch
- Your toothbrush can contain up to 200,000 bacteria per square inch
- A plug hole can house over 100,000 bacteria per square inch
A lot of people put effort into cleaning the toilet to make sure it’s clean, but there are plenty of other areas that provide a home to bacteria. Make sure to keep these clean the bathroom using sanitising spray, and make sure to not cut corners! (Source)
