the bathroom that cleans itself!

**canadian gardener** · 12-07-2005, 10:37 AM

Welcome to the holidays. Don't you wish for a magic bathroom cleaning fairy?

You actually have one, but maybe you don't know her well yet. I'll introduce you.

It's you and your little habits.

To the tune of me and my shadow, lets get going.

Starting with the dreaded tub and shower. Maybe it's one or the other or both.

Buy or make a bath puff. Those soft little puffs for applying body wash are ideal.

Take cheap shampoo (the stuff you don't use up anymore but can't throw out) or liquid dish detergent that is kind to your hands.

When in the shower or tub, you the cleaning fairy, take a dab of the shampoo or detergent and at the end of your bath or shower, just run it over the wet walls and tub.

It peels the soap scum off beautifully. Take an empty cottage cheese container, and dump some rinse water and leave it. If you have a telephone style hand shower use that to rinse with and let it all drip dry.

I used to recommend a squeegee but no longer. This system is less work and works just as well-----

-----IF YOU DO IT EVERY TIME YOU SHOWER OR BATHE.

So the recipe is:
Body puff
Shampoo or detergent
repeat whenever you get into the tub or shower-- make it part of your routine.

**Early Bird** · 12-07-2005, 10:40 AM

Thank you!

**canadian gardener** · 12-07-2005, 10:47 AM

I purposefully broke these tips up.

Why?

Because when people see my system all at once, they think of it as work.

They don't see it as little bites that I do whenever I'm in the bathroom.

So that was the tub which is cleaned when I shower.

Here comes my morning brushing my teeth routine. It might happen first before the tub if I'm showering that day. Every other day I skip bathing as my skin is very dry. So here is the sink routine.

First get rid of all the clutter. Keep even daily stuff off the counters. I keep a bar of soap on a little spike pad, a pump bottle of good lotion and that is it. No toothbrushes or other junk. The handtowel sits on a towel rod attached to the wall. No standing towel rack here, space is at a premium and so is my cleaning time.

Brush your teeth first. NEXT take a spritz of Windex and the old hand towel (yesterdays, should still be ok for this task) and wipe the mirror and taps and faucet.

That polishes them, now spritz countertop and sink and wipe them.

They are now shiny clean and reasonably germ free as Windex has rubbing alcohol in it, and leaves a clean dry surface which germs can't live on easily.

Before you quit, wipe that door handle and now ditch the old handtowel and put out a fresh clean one.

If your herd thunders thru the bathroom after you brush your teeth, and messes it up then get sensible and do the sink clean on your NEXT bathroom visit, after the herd has been thru and left toothpaste and floss splatters everwhere.

The object is to leave a clean dry sink area, with a fresh handtowel after the family is thru messing up the sink with their morning routines.

**canadian gardener** · 12-07-2005, 10:56 AM

Ok so you've been thru the tub in recent living memory, and it's looking pretty good.

We got the sink thing down pat, attaching it to the brushing of the teeth in the morning.

BUT there sits that throne, in it's icy grip on grime and we wonder oh we wonder as we wander thru the day, when oh when do we clean that ton of ceramic hulking in the corner.

Well it's like this.

You visit it don't you? Several times a day hopefully, even if you work outside the home.

OK one of those visits you will flush, then attack the bowl with a little comet and a toilet brush you keep by the bowl for this purpose.

(I clean the holder with a bit of comet on occaision when I feel like it to keep it sanitary as well-- but you can spray it with Lysol or some such disinfectant too)

The comet has bleach in it, for disinfection so all you do is leave the brush in the bowl after using to let the bleach disinfect it. Leave about 3 to 5 minutes and flush again, rinsing the comet down the drain, and setting the brush in it's stand.

Another visit you grab some rubbing alcohol on a small toilet paper pad, and wipe the back and the flush handle and the rim and the seat. This picks up any stray comet powder and disinfects and polishes those areas.

On shower days when the porcelain is foggy and damp with condensation, you will wipe the outside of the toilet, the base and get the floors too, but that is another thread.

**canadian gardener** · 12-07-2005, 11:01 AM

I meant post. another post, not another thread.

OK I like to grab a paper towel after my shower but this can happen any time you like.

Floors, on my way out I like to spritz a little cleaner on the floors and wipe with a paper towel grabbing and catching any hairs, fuzz or dust. Toss. You can do this with the foot mat, and then send it to a disinfecting hot water plus bleach wash if you prefer.

Spritz a little cleaner on the outside of the toilet bowl, and around the base where it joins the floor, and especially in the back.

Wipe clean with a paper towel. toss.

This happens every second day and it keeps my bathroom sparkling clean.

it isn't perfect all at once, but bit by bit it just stays clean and company ready.

One less thing for me to worry about.

**canadian gardener** · 12-07-2005, 11:09 AM

there you go, the cleaning fairy at work.

the main thing is that you attach little cleaning bites to each of your visits, and the bathroom literally stays clean.

If one of the kids messes it up or dh leaves shaving cream, you don't stress, you just get it when you see it before it sets like cement.

I believe in having lots of little handtowels and changing them frequently. It takes a lot of them to fill up a wash load, so I don't worry.

I prefer to use them to clean and polish the sink and taps when I'm in there using the bathroom, and if that means tossing another handtowel, so be it.

I wash them in hot water, so I don't worry if they picked up a little oops that a kid left near the toilet, or if they wiped out a sink.

After those little tasks they hit the wash basket ready for tomorrows load of laundry.

**Michelle** · 12-07-2005, 11:26 AM

Originally posted by canadian gardener

When in the shower or tub, you the cleaning fairy, take a dab of the shampoo or detergent and at the end of your bath or shower, just run it over the wet walls and tub.

It peels the soap scum off beautifully. Take an empty cottage cheese container, and dump some rinse water and leave it. If you have a telephone style hand shower use that to rinse with and let it all drip dry.

Question, and I'm asking this seriously lol: how does soap get rid of soap scum--assuming they're the same soap?

The only thing I've found to work on soap scum in my shower is a DRY steel wool pad on a dry shower surface.

**canadian gardener** · 12-07-2005, 01:15 PM

It's not soap that I use to clean with. I use shampoo or dish liquid.

Shampoo is a dilute detergent, made to lift skin oil (one of the components of soap scum along with soap and minerals from water)

and dish liquid is detergent.

Detergents are chemically light years away from soap. They aren't the same thing at all.

Soap will work too, but only with a lot of scrubbing.

Detergents don't form the scum with minerals in water, and they cut thru skin oil and soap residue.

Which is why some soaps which are actually detergents (like Zest) aren't as bad at buildup as true soaps are, or highly fatted soaps like Dove.

HOWEVER that said, this little recipe is for maintenance.

If you have a huge deep pile up of gunk on the shower walls or tub surround I suggest getting down to bedrock first, THEN maintaining it as above.

For that, take some nylon net, cut a large rectangle so you can have a double or triple thickness of netting

and poke it into the finger holes of a swiffer sweeper (the mop handled sweeper one with dry cloths that fit onto the rectangle head)

And take CLR or Lime Away and squirt onto the damp walls (damp will help the CLR travel further and do more work)

dampen your netting that is stuck to your swiffer and scrub a LITTLE bit.

Just enough to distribute the now foaming mass of acid and scum.

Go for coffee.

Come back in 10 to 15 minutes and start scrubbing with a very wet netting on your Swiffer. Re wet as needed, as water helps the acid to work. It will peel off the tough stuff.

Rinse.

Then maintain by doing the little body puff and shampoo or body puff and dish liquid every time you shower or bathe.

BTW Bubble bath will work too, if it's the "no ring" kind.

**canadian gardener** · 12-07-2005, 01:24 PM

So I'm upstairs and I went to use the washroom. I washed my hands and took the damp handtowel, and tossed it on the floor after doing the clean the sink thing.

I pushed it around with my toes.

It isn't a full floor clean, but on the way to the laundry hamper I frequently do that little habit with the dead hand towel.

It's little habits like these that keep the place looking clean and company ready almost all the time.

I say almost because after a dh or a bunch of kids have gone thru, it will require a moment or two of attention

but even then it's easier if you didn't have a lot of stuff on the counter to get those gray dirty water spots on them, and it's faster to swipe a counter clean in one motion too.

**canadian gardener** · 12-07-2005, 01:42 PM

Michelle's question about soap was a good one, and she reminded me of another 2 points I should make.

#1: --Keeping your soap dry and up out of a puddle of goo is important in preventing the worst area of soap scum right where you keep the bar of soap.

some solve this by using body wash. I tried that stuff, and I didn't like the cost or the feel on my skin.

I solved the soap puddle by buying one of the little spiky things for soap to sit on, that look like a bed of nails only plastic.

Soap sits high and dry, and dries out between uses.

Saves the soap too.

I got mine several for a dollar at a dollar store. It works way better than the little suction cup device also sold nearby and a little better than the metal funnel that holds the soap in a V shaped trap.

#2: --Choose a different soap. Zest or something like it, that still leaves your skin feeling healthy, but doesnt' leave as much residue. (all bar soaps even detergent based soaps like Zest will leave some residue but detergent ones are less).

If you need extra moisturizing try this trick. sprinkle a few drops of veg oil or olive oil onto your hands just after stepping out onto the bath mat (I use the old handtowel for the bathmat too)

and slither it all over your still wet body BEFORE you towel dry.

You won't slip if you do this standing on the MAT, not in the tub, and then towel off.

It locks in the moisture way better than a super fatted and super expensive bar of soap and it just feels terrific.

Any oil on the towel will come out using HOT water wash (for all my towels always) and laundry detergent.

If you feel your detergent isn't up to the task throw a half cup of washing soda ALONG WITH THE DETERGENT into the machine when you do your laundry. It will take grease spots out and enhance the detergent's cleaning action and leave the wash smelling super fresh and clean.

**jzkitten** · 12-09-2005, 01:27 PM

Thank you so much for this thread. I did this yesterday and it looked great all day. Can't wait for your other room guides.

**cozyquilter** · 12-09-2005, 10:15 PM

Thanks so much! Lots of great pratical ideas....I

just wanted to share, I haven't tried shampoo, but I have tried laundry detergent..which has lots of water softners in it....cleans the shower/bath with ease...I'll have to try shampoo...after all its already there!

**SHOPGIRL** · 12-09-2005, 10:32 PM

Well, I hope I can do this. I'm the type of person that does it all at once. Or, half the bathroom at a time. I'll give your system a try. Again, it's all about organization.

**pip** · 12-10-2005, 12:03 AM

A body puff! What a great idea!

**canadian gardener** · 12-10-2005, 03:49 PM

You are welcome, and I'll be starting the Kitchen thread here soon, just not this weekend.

Shannon, you are very right, this isn't an all or nothing approach. In fact it's never really 100% perfect, but it's 80% perfect most of the time.

Housecleaning is like dancing a slow waltz, lots of swoops and swishes, a steady predictable rythm of little habits that keep you moving thru the day without really thinking about exactly where your feet are at any given point.

Practicing the habits till they become like dance steps to a waltz and pretty soon you are smooth and easy at it, without really thinking about it at all.

It just takes a little practice at the start, and a hit on the reset button on our need to see it perfect. To often we feel it has to be perfect for us to feel like we accomplished something. Push that mental reset button and set your "normal" below perfect and life will be much happier, and you will get more done.