By Jennifer Parris
Of all the rooms in your home, the bathroom is probably the least fun to clean. Whether it’s scrubbing the toilet (gross!) or getting the mildew off of the shower curtain (eww!), the bathroom might not get the cleaning that it needs–or deserves. But in order to keep your space neat (and healthy), you do have to clean your bathroom frequently. That doesn’t mean that you have to spend hours washing and wiping, though. These eight bathroom cleaning hacks can help your bathroom sparkle and shine without spending too much time doing it.
Keep Your Shower Curtain Clean
Sure, your shower curtain helps prevent water from splashing all over your floors. But because it’s always inside the tub, (and therefore always wet), it has a greater chance of getting moldy. Try this trick especially for set-in mildew: add one-half cup baking soda at the start of your washing machine’s cycle, and then, before the rinse cycle, add a half cup of vinegar. Mildew gone!
Soak Your Shower Head
Shower heads can get just as grimy as other areas in your bathroom, like your toilet or sink. If you find that your shower head isn’t functioning like it used to (i.e. the water isn’t coming out of all the jets, or sprays the water in weird ways), it probably needs a good cleaning. But instead of breaking out a toothbrush and painstakingly cleaning each jet, there’s a faster solution—literally. Just take a plastic baggie and fill it with diluted white vinegar. Tie it around the shower head, and in the morning, your shower head will be shiny and clean.
Get That Grout Clean
White grout looks pretty when it’s clean, howeverwhen it starts to show signs of dirt or mold, well, it can make a bathroom look really bad. Don’t spend money on expensive cleaners—mix together hydrogen peroxide and baking soda, and apply it to the grout. After 10 minutes, scrub it clean with a toothbrush, and wipe it with a clean damp cloth. Your grout will look so good.
Use Tools To Clean Crevices
There are lots of little cracks and crevices in your bathroom, and most likely, they need to be cleaned. In lieu of using special brushes (or worse, your nails), you can look for small tools (think a flat head screwdriver wrapped in a cloth), to get in those hard-to-reach spots, like vents, faucets, and other bathroom fixtures.
Keep Your Bathroom Mirror Clear
There’s nothing like taking a steamy shower, but wiping the foggy mirror afterwards can be annoying. So take that shaving cream that’s in the cabinet and apply it to your mirror and then wipe it off. It even works on shower doors, too!
Use Cooking Spray To Remove Soap Scum
Scrubbing the soap scum from your tub can be so time consuming. That’s where cooking spray can help whip your bathroom back into shape.Cooking spray contains oils that can break down deposits and build up. As you might imagine, cooking spray can be super slippery, so be sure to clean your tub afterwards so you’re not slipping and sliding when you step into the shower.
Have Baking Soda In Your Bathroom—Always
By now, you’ve probably realized that baking soda is the champion when it comes to cleaning. You can mix it as a part of other cleaning solutions, or use it alone to get your grungy toilet sparkling again. You can shake it into your toilet, and since it acts as an odor absorber, but because it’s also abrasive, it can help clean your toilet without even having to break out the toilet brush.
Cleaning the bathroom might not be one of your favorite things to do—and it doesn’t have to be. With these time-saving hacks, you can have a shiny bathroom that doesn’t require too much effort.
