No More Nasty Bathrooms

Cleaning a bathroom regularly is a must. The dusting and polishing can go for a few days, and the vacuuming can wait until the weekend, but the bathroom?

One hour left unattended, and there are only two words that can describe it – pee yoo!
Every mom knows that children and clean bathrooms cannot easily coexist, so we must be the great go-between. And that means that eventually we throw our arms up into the air, amid hard-water stains and sopping wet towels on the floor, and ask, “What’s a mom to do?

Daily cleaning quickies
When we keep up with the little cleaning jobs, the big ones can often wait for another day. The canisters of cleaning wipes are a must to keep under the sink. If you practice daily wipe-ups, then there is no real down and dirty cleaning that needs to take place.
Every day, whether you see dirt or not, practice taking a few seconds to quickly wipe off the counter, the back of the toilet and seat, and then toss it on the ground and wipe around the bottom of the toilet and other messy spots with your foot. Yes, it’s unconventional. Yes, it works.

Another trick to keeping a clean toilet is to store your toilet brush by the toilet. Squirt some hand soap that you keep by the sink in the toilet every day and swish it around. By attacking the itty-bitty messes every day, you’re not facing the monster ones on a weekly basis.

Preventive maintenance
Usually, the best way to treat a huge mess is to prevent it. If you have a shower door, practice the post-shower nude squeegee. I hear it’s soon to be an Olympic event.
The daily wiping off will prevent mineral deposits and soap scum from accumulating. And mold and mildew is often a constant battle.

Make it easy on yourself by wiping up the floor of the bathroom after a shower or bath (especially a child’s bath, when water often suspiciously ends up out of the bathtub and onto the floor). A simple way to do this is to keep a towel folded up over the edge of the tub. Take if off before a bath or shower, wipe up the floor afterward, and place it back on the edge to dry off.

Easy cleaning
Don’t we moms have enough to do without trying to win the Cleanest Bathroom of the Year Award? Fortunately, we hardly have to break a sweat if we clean smart instead of hard.
If you have a shower curtain and liner, you already know that mold and mildew hath no greater love. Taking it off and washing it in the washing machine with hot water and bleach will make it look as good as new. You just have to deal with the mess of unraveling it and having water splash everywhere. You could also buy cheap liners and replace them once or twice a year with more cheap liners.

If you have tile in your bath with grout that gets mildewed minute-by-minute, may God have mercy on your soul. This is a pain to clean, but it’s nothing a grout brush and baking soda can’t take care of (or cleaner with bleach if it’s especially stubborn).

Because of the moisture and warmth, your bathroom loves to harbor germs and bacteria. And odor is a result of bacteria. Air fresheners are a nice touch to put in your bathroom, but regular cleaning will get rid of the odor instead of just masking it.

The children’s bathroom can get especially funky. If you have little ones who bathe in the tub with a collection of bath toys, then you are already aware that these can easily harbor their own form of pond scum. Every few weeks, you may want to throw them in the dishwasher to clean off the muck, and the heat of the water will kill off the germs.

If you have boys in the family, perhaps you could enroll them in archery lessons so they can develop a love of proper aiming technique. If not, then we’re back to the daily wiping around the toilet area.

But do your best to keep your bathroom as tidy as possible so that when you take a shower, you actually feel like you’re getting clean.