The Bathroom

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/07/how-to-clean-your-bathroom-like-pro.html#more-1202

“How To Clean A Bathroom Like A Pro” by Denise in Ark….who, before beginning a well-deserved retirement, cleaned 15 to 20 bathrooms a week for 20 years!

Step 1. Swish the toilet with the toilet scrub brush, then prop the brush under the seat to drain. (Brilliant!)

Step 2. Spray the toilet (and brush) top to bottom with disinfectant. Let sit. (She doesn’t mention what kind of disinfectant…I personally use 1/2 water; 1/2 vinegar in a spray bottle. Vinegar is a great natural AND CHEAP disinfectant and deodorizer.)

Step 3. Using the same disinfectant, spray the sinks, faucets and counters.

Step 4: Spray the mirror and use a wet (but not drippy!) microfiber cloth and wash the mirror well. Leave it wet while wiping and rinsing the sinks and counters. (This is like the 3rd time this week someone has told me about cleaning with microfiber cloths! Must look into this further.)

Step 5: Wring the rag out really well and wipe up the excess water. First from the mirror, then from the sink. At this point everything should be dry enough that a wad of about 3 of the cheapest possible paper towels will buff a shine on everything (starting with the mirror and working down.)

Step 6: Go back to the toilet. Use some toilet paper to wipe anything crusty, nasty or hairy (her words! not mine!) and drop it back in the bowl. Then use the same now-damp paper towels to wipe the toilet, starting at the tank lid and moving down from “cleanest” to dirtiest. Flush. Drop the towels in the trash can and set the toilet brush down on top of them to let it drain some more.

Step 7: By the time you finish washing the shower (repeat steps 4 and 5), the brush will be dry enough that it won’t leave disgusting drippy water in the brush holder. (According to Denise, she has YET to clean even the *cleanest* house and not find a disgusting toilet brush holder. GUILTY!)

Denise from Ark wrote:

Couple of clarifications: I left out that I flush the toilet while brushing, prop the brush under the seat, and then when I'm spraying the disinfectant I spray the brush as well so it gets disinfected, and then it's basically dry by the time I put it back in the holder.

I spray all of the way down to the floor around the toilet because that's the dirtiest part of the floor. The entire floor may not need to be mopped daily but the toilet probably needs to be wiped around. (It didn't take long of having my nose down in people's toilets to become adamantly opposed to carpet around the toilet. Just sayin'.)

You absolutely can use no paper at all. However, I do prefer using some disposables for particularly germy cleanup. The only reason for using paper to polish the mirrors and chrome is that I'm going to be using them on the toilet anyway. If they're a little damp they polish the porcelain on the toilet instead of streaking on the places where the disinfectant has dried.

The kind of disinfectant would be whatever you want – I've used Scrubbing Bubbles forever but only because it's the best soap scum buster I've ever found, and using it on the toilet as well as the shower just makes sense. Since I keep my own shower wiped dry so it never needs scumbusting, the vinegar solution on the toilet is fine.

I love using microfiber for cleaning, but I still use a scumbusting cleaner with it for a very selfish reason: if a shower only gets cleaned every week or two, it takes WAY too much work to scrub that amount of scum off with just the microfiber cloth. After the SB has set on the walls for a few minutes, it dissolves right off just by rubbing the VERY WET microfiber cloth over it. Shower heads on a hose are godsends; after cleaning the scum, it's so easy to rinse soap pieces and hair to the floor and then scoop them up off of the drain with another little piece of toilet paper and flush them away.

Rather than hanging guest towels, I leave them stacked on the bed wrapped in a ribbon (just my little thing to do) and tell them what the other towel is for, so they won't use it. BONUS: a couple of times the guest has wiped their own shower dry!!!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/265635/tub-scrub


Body+Soul, Volume 11 July/August 2006

Here's a nontoxic but effective way to clean your tub: Add one teaspoon of liquid soap and several drops of an antibacterial essential oil (such as tea tree, eucalyptus, rosemary, or peppermint) to one cup of baking soda. Add just enough water to form a paste, and use it with a sponge or brush to scour bathtub surfaces.