Bathroom cleaning tips and tricks you NEED (if you want to make your life easier. And less disgusting.)

Day in and day out bathrooms get the worst of us.

They get the dirt. The grime. The germs. The smells. 

…so it only makes sense to make sure you clean your bathroom REALLY good and don’t skimp out.

However, even though keeping on top of your bathroom is important, cleaning the bathroom definitely isn’t the most glamorous job in the world.

In fact, it ranks pretty low on the scale of household duties. (It’s teetering somewhere around cleaning out the litter box.)

Even though cleaning the bathroom isn’t necessarily a chore that your kids will be jumping up and down with their hands in the air begging you to pick them to do, it’s important to get it done. A clean bathroom plays a big role in a clean, tidy, organized, and bacteria-free home.

(THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE. YOU CAN READ OUR DISCLOSURE POLICY HERE.)

 

How to Clean a Bathroom Step by Step

There are simple rules to follow when you clean ANY room in your house (are the other rooms a disaster, too? Learn how to quickly clean EVERY room in your house here). These rules (or, pointers) are:

  • Always clean from the top of the room to the bottom
  • Take everything out of the room BEFORE you start cleaning
  • Spray cleaner on everything before you start cleaning
  • Don’t skip any places (that’s how you end up having to go back and clean again, right after you finished cleaning)

But, those are the everyday cleaning tips that everyone knows. What you need is something different. Something that will help make cleaning your bathroom less of a daunting and terrifying task. 

You need some bathroom cleaning tips and tricks that will speed up the process, make it a whole lot less gross, and encourage you to keep on top of the cleaning week after week.

But, before we get to those little-known bathroom cleaning hacks, we’re going to address a few questions many people have when it comes to cleaning the bathroom. 

Quickly before we get to the questions, here’s a quick bathroom cleaning supply list to ensure you have the right bathroom cleaning products on hand before you start. (Keep in mind that there are many more products that could be used for cleaning your bathroom, the products below are simply the bare minimum that you want to have – throughout the post I’ll point out a couple other bathroom cleaning tools that aren’t necessities but do make the job easier.)

Bathroom cleaning supplies

  • Gloves. Gloves gloves gloves. DON’T forget the gloves. I always thought you had to use those typical long yellow gloves for housework. Turns out these cute gloves work just as well (plus they’re cute).
  • Clorox disinfecting wipes. If you’re potty training or live with males in the house, these wipes are a MUST HAVE (I’ll show you why in a bit – but trust me, you’re going to want them.)
  • Clorox toilet wand. While you can use a regular toilet brush for cleaning your toilet, if you want less mess + to not have to deal with cleaning the toilet brush after cleaning the toilet, the wand is a good choice.
  • Toilet bowl cleaner. If you use the toilet wand you won’t need toilet bowl cleaner, but if you’re using a regular toilet brush then you’ll need a good, hardy toilet bowl cleaner.
  • Shower cleaner. I use this stuff – I spray it on and let it sit while I clean the rest of the bathroom, then when I clean the shower I am able to wipe it with my cleaning rag and all the soap scum, grease, and the ring at the bottom of the tub wipe right off with no scrubbing.
  • OXO scrub brush. Sometimes soap scum and the tub ring won’t come off of your shower no matter how hard you scrub at it with a rag. That’s when this brush is a necessity. 
  • Squeegee. If you have glass or tile in your shower, a squeegee will be your saving grace (use it after every shower and you’ll eliminate those pesky water stains and streaks).
  • All-purpose bathroom cleaner. This stuff is some of the best all-purpose bathroom cleaners out there… plus it’s natural and safe for kids.
  • Microfiber rags. This is a cleaning product I ALWAYS use. Microfiber rags are the best type of rags to use for cleaning, particularly bathroom cleaning, since these cloths are great for removing bacteria from surfaces – which is important in a bathroom. These are a bit more expensive, but I personally use these two rags for everything I clean.

What is the best way to clean a bathroom?

The best way to clean a bathroom is to keep it simple. The main reason so many people’s bathrooms are a mess is because they believe that to clean their bathroom, they have to have a well-thought-out plan of attack, they need all the special supplies, and they have to do a deep clean of their bathroom every single week.

Thinking that is enough to give yourself permission to skip cleaning the bathroom “just this week”.

But, when you skip it once, the job that would once have taken you just 10 minutes is now going to take you at least 30 minutes and a whole lot of scrubbing. 

So – the best way to clean your bathroom is to have a simple cleaning routine that you use week in and week out. 

The reason why so many people believe they need to have a big elaborate plan to clean their bathroom is because bathrooms harbor some of the worst bacteria and germs that come into a house – so it makes sense to want to clean it thoroughly.

However – the simpler you can keep your bathroom cleaning routine, the better off you’ll be. With a simple routine, you’ll find you clean your bathroom much more often. 

Here are the best ways to clean your bathroom quickly and efficiently…

  • Clean from top to bottom. As with any room in your house, you always want to clean your bathroom from the top of the room down to the floor. This way any dust or dirt that gets knocked off of surfaces higher up won’t get knocked onto the freshly-cleaned surfaces below.
  • Use a duster with an extendable arm. When you use this particular duster you’ll be able to reach into the corners of your bathroom without having to grab a step-stool OR getting on your hands and knees (and sticking your head near the toilet to reach the back corners). Cobwebs aren’t the only thing that will grow in your bathroom if not dusted regularly… since it’s such a moist and damp room, you’ll also likely get dust sticking to the hard-to-reach corners. The easiest way to get rid of the dust is to use a duster that can extend to reach tall places.
  • Remove everything from the bathroom before you start. Before you start cleaning the bathroom, take everything out of the shower, take the towels out and throw them into the laundry, remove toothbrushes, paste, hand soap, and lotion from the countertops – and take anything else you have on the counters/toilet/in the shower out before you start cleaning so you have an empty space to begin with.

How often should you clean your bathroom? 

Along with this list of bathroom cleaning tips and tricks comes the question that many people have, “how often should I clean my bathroom?” Or, “how long can I get away with not cleaning my bathroom?” (Not long, unfortunately.)

You don’t want to leave any room in your house uncleaned for too long, but bathrooms specifically should NOT be left uncleaned for long.

However, there is no simple answer to the question, “how often should you clean your bathroom?”.

How often you should clean your bathroom depends greatly on how often it is getting used. Is it the main bathroom in your house that gets used multiple times every day? Or is it just the guest bathroom that only gets used a handful of times a month?

For bathrooms that get used on a daily basis, you will want to clean them at least once a week – with a couple small “tidying sessions” in between. (This is where those Clorox wipes come in handy, for the small, everyday cleaning sessions, so you can quickly wipe surfaces down – particularly the toilet – without having to round up your cleaner and cleaning rags.)

Deep clean your main bathroom from top to bottom at least once a week, and then every evening, or every other evening, wipe down the countertops and mirror, stock the toilet paper, and give the base of the toilet a quick wipe.

Instead of dirtying your cleaning cloths every night, you can use disinfecting cloths to wipe down the toilet (these ones are especially important if you have men/boys in your house as drips and dribbles tend to collect quickly at the base of the toilet, and if left for too long will start giving your bathroom a bad smell.)

If you have a second, third, or fourth bathroom in your house that only gets used a couple times a month when you have company over, those bathrooms won’t need to be cleaned quite so much. 

You could get away with cleaning them every two weeks, but dusting it down every week as it will still collect dust even when it’s not in use.

If you don’t have time to dust every surface, this extendable arm duster will make dusting a lot quicker for you as you can simply run it around the entire room knocking dust off the surfaces far faster than using a rag.

To determine how often your bathroom(s) should be cleaned you will have to assess how often they get used.

(Keep in mind that when it comes to bathrooms, it’s better to OVER-clean them than to under-clean them.)

 

The best bathroom cleaning tips and tricks no one is talking about

Why aren’t people talking about these easy bathroom cleaning tricks? Because such few people know about them. They’re not “the norm” when it comes to cleaning your bathroom, and when people hear about these tips and tricks they are often too skeptical to give them a try.

Many people believe it’s better to stick to what they know works (even if they’re miserable) than to try something that might work better (because… it might work better, but it might not, so why take the chance… right?). 

If you’re ready to amp up your bathroom cleaning, to start cleaning smarter and keep your bathroom cleaner, let’s get right to it.

  1. Clean the shower while you’re in it

A while back I was talking to a friend of mine who was telling me how much she hates cleaning the shower. 

The feeling of water dripping down your arms and getting your clothes wet while you clean isn’t much fun – but it’s what so many people are still doing because it’s… “the norm”. 

But, if you hate cleaning your shower for that reason, why not try something totally different? 

Why not try cleaning your shower while you’re in it? 

Start by removing everything from the shower (excluding the curtain), then spray your shower cleaner from the top of the shower all the way to the bottom. 

Then wait.

Go and clean the rest of your bathroom first, then come back to your shower. 

Grab your cleaning cloth, soap, shampoo and conditioner and turn the shower on. Then, get on in.

While you’re washing yourself, wipe down the shower with your cleaning cloth. 

This is how you get two things done at one time (plus you don’t have to deal with soggy clothes after cleaning the shower).

When cleaning the shower while you’re in it, you’ll want to be mindful of the kind of cleaner you use (since it could get onto your skin).

Some people recommend using a bleach/water mix for getting scum rings out of the shower, but since you’re going to be cleaning the shower while you’re showering, using bleach isn’t a good idea. 

This is an all-natural and safe cleaner that would be a good option for anyone cleaning their shower while they’re showering.

  1. Remove grease stains with a paste

If your shower is the victim of grease stains and scum rings and despite your best efforts to scrub them off they won’t budge, you can make a paste out of baking soda, lemon juice, and Castile soap.

The lemon juice acts as a bleaching and whitening agent, which will help when it comes to getting rid of stains. The Castile soap and baking soda work together to degrease and gently scrub stains away.

This is the best way I’ve found to deep clean the shower to remove stains.

If you haven’t heard about Castile soap before, you need to. 

Castile soap is made completely natural and chemical-free, which makes it a popular choice in households, particularly with kids.

Here are 11 more everyday uses for Castile soap. 

  1. Got grout?

If you have grout (grout is a mixture of water/cement/sand that fills the gaps between tiles) in your bathroom, you’re going to need a way to clean it.

Unfortunately, simply wiping over the grout with your microfiber cleaning cloth won’t cut it. In this case, you need something more. 

Bacteria can often be found growing on the grout between bathroom tiles, and that’s the exact reason why using your regular cleaning cloth won’t work here – because the cleaning cloth can’t reach all the way into the grooves of the grout… a cloth will simply wipe the surface of the grout, but it won’t get deep in where the bacteria is living. 

The good news is there is a brush made specifically for this job. A grout brush gets deep down into the grout and scrubs it free of germs, bacteria, dirt, and grime. You can use a cleaning solution of 50/50 water and white vinegar for a gentler clean, or you can make your own DIY grout cleaning paste. All you have to do is mix together borax and lemon juice until a paste has formed.

Spray the tiles and grout with the vinegar/water cleaning solution, or rub the borax paste onto the grout and let it sit for a minute or two, then scrub it with your grout cleaner.

After you’ve scrubbed the grout, use a clean rag with warm water to wipe over the surface and remove all the dirt from the tiles. 

  1. Clean the curtain

Just because your curtain is starting to stink, doesn’t mean it’s time to throw it away.

Shower curtains collect all kinds of mold, mildew, soap scum, and slime over the month and they can even start to let off bad odors from harboring all that gunk.

But, instead of trying to wipe every side and fold of the curtain, simply remove it from the curtain rod and throw it in the washing machine.

Most types of shower curtains can be washed in the washing machine. The key is to put two bath towels in the machine with the curtain to keep it from sticking it itself or getting wrecked while it’s being washed.

  1. Unclog and shine showerheads and faucets

If you have hard water where you live, you may start to notice that over time your showerhead isn’t spraying as well as it used to.

This is from hard water deposits building up in the sprayer and creating blockages that the water can’t get passed, or can just leak past, causing your shower head to have far less pressure than it once did.

The good news is – this DOESN’T mean your showerhead is done-for. There’s still likely a lot of life left there, it just needs a little help getting rid of all the buildup.

There are two ways you can unclog your shower head:

  1. For removable showerheads – remove the showerhead and place it in a large baggie. Fill the bag with white vinegar and let it sit like that for at least 30 minutes, up to overnight. Then, remove the showerhead, rinse it thoroughly, and re-attach it to the shower.
  2. For showerheads that are NOT removable – fill a baggie with white vinegar, place the baggie over the showerhead so that it is fully submerged. Secure the baggie with an elastic and let sit for 30 minutes – overnight.

You can do the same with faucets that have those pesky hard water spots on them. Place a baggie of white vinegar over as much of the faucet as possible, then secure it with an elastic and let it sit.

  1. Clean the bathmat

If your bathmat isn’t machine washable, run down to the kitchen and grab the trusty baking soda. Sprinkle baking soda over the mat and let it sit for at least an hour (the longer it sits, the better).

The baking soda will work to remove odors from the mat and will whisp away moisture to eliminate mold from growing. 

After it has sat for anywhere from an hour – overnight, use a vacuum to vacuum the baking soda off the mat.

  1. Keep the toilet brush clean

A toilet brush’s job is to clean the toilet – but do you ever think about cleaning the brush that’s cleaning the toilet?

Do you ever stop and think of how disgusting that toilet bowl brush really is? 

It gets used on average once a week, then it sits in its germs the rest of the time.

Yuck. 

(This realization makes me want to throw it out after each use, and thanks to these disposable pads, it can be tossed.)

After you clean the toilet, you should always rinse the brush off in the bathtub. But that in itself isn’t enough.

After it’s rinsed, use this bleach-based cleaner and pour it on all sides of the brush before placing it back into the holder. 

This way it won’t be sitting in its own bacteria until the next time you use it. The bleach will work to kill off bacteria and keep the brush clean-ish while it’s being stored.

  1. Clean out the toilet tank

Water stains, dirt, slime, and grime all live in not only your toilet’s bowl, but also the toilet tank. This is where using vinegar comes in handy.

Vinegar is a natural cleaner and deodorizer, and the best – and easiest – way to clean the inner parts of your toilet is to let white vinegar do the work.

Add 3 cups of vinegar to the toilet tank and let it sit in there for 30 minutes to an hour. After it has been sitting for the appropriate amount of time, flush the toilet a time or two to run the vinegar through the lines and toilet bowl. 

This will flush all the dirt away and will make your toilet tank look like new again.

  1. Stop getting splashed when cleaning the toilet

Have you ever been scrubbing away at that pesky water ring in your toilet bowl when droplets of water splash up out of the bowl and land on you? 

It’s gross.

…which is exactly why I felt this smart bathroom hack needed to be added to the long list of bathroom cleaning tips and tricks.

To eliminate yourself from getting splashed in the face with toilet water ever again… use the toilet brush to push water down and out the drain in the toilet bowl.

Push the toilet brush against the drain in the toilet bowl and force the water to go down. After doing this a couple of times you should be able to notice the water level dropping in the toilet bowl.

Now you can scrub away at the stains without having to worry about getting splashed with toilet water.

  1. Remove toilet bowl stains

Speaking of toilet bowl stains…

If your toilet bowl has stains in it and no matter how hard you scrub, they just won’t come out, there are a couple different things you can try.

The first is to use a borax/vinegar paste to scrub stains away. All you have to do is use this particular borax and mix it with enough white vinegar to make a paste, then apply the paste (you’ll definitely want to use these) to the toilet stain, and let it sit for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes you can then use your toilet brush to effortlessly scrub the stain away.

The second thing you can do to remove toilet bowl stains is pour a can of Coca-Cola in the toilet bowl and let it sit for at least an hour. The acid in the coke will work to dissolve stains and make them easy to wipe off.

Bonus Tip: Keep a cloth or a roll of paper towels under the bathroom sink to quickly wipe up drips and dribbles as they happen. 

Bathroom cleaning tips and tricks 

Now that you know all 10 of these bathroom cleaning tips and tricks, you’re prepared and ready to go out and face your bathroom head on – no matter how dirty it is.

Do you have some easy bathroom cleaning tips and tricks that you’re hiding up your sleeve? We’d love to hear from you… feel free to share them with us below. 

Related Articles You May Like:

How to Clean Every Room in Your House
4 Ways to Make Your House Smell Good
How to Clean Your Kitchen in 15 Easy Steps