Clean Your Bathroom in Under 5 Minutes

Cleaning your bathroom does not have to be a real chore. The key here is maintenance and frequency with an overhaul every now and then. There are some things you can easily do, to limit your time in the bathroom for other than the necessary human tasks we all must do as contributing members of society. Here goes...


Each bathroom needs its own set of cleaning supplies that you don't have to cart around the house. I like to keep my supplies organized in one of those trays with a handle. Here's what you will need:

• Lysol-like wet wipes
• Papertowels
• Alka-Seltzer tablets
• Toilet brush (get a cheap one and not in an enclosed stand unless you want to farm bacteria)
• a used toothbrush
• Windex or other glass cleaner
• Lysol disinfectant spray
• Toilet bowl cleaner
  

Do these tasks once a week

• Put an Alka-Seltzer in the toilet and let it fizz
• Spray Lysol disinfectant on doorknobs, faucet handles, toilet handles and lightswitch
  
• With Wet Wipe #1, wipe rim of tub and base of toilet
• With Wet Wipe #2, wipe toilet seat, underneath seat, behind seat and where drips tend to run down toilet (those darn boys can't aim straight)
• Wash your hands
  
• With Wet Wipe #3, wipe around sink, faucet and inside your sink; use that used toothbrush to brush around faucet if dirt has collected there, then rinse and wipe dry with papertowel and glass cleaner
  
• Clean mirror, faucets and fixtures with glass cleaner and papertowel
• With Wet Wipe #4, wipe down the bathtub and shower; if you run out of liquid, just make it a little wet; I like to rinse with a pitcher of water (if you don't have a handheld showerhead)
• Use the toilet brush and wipe around inside the toilet bowl and don't forget under the rim. If you must, you can pour in some toilet bowl cleaner to help you along
  
• With Wet Wipe #5, clean floor, working your way towards the door, wiping everything into a pile if you have hair and debris on the floor (if you have a large floor, use something like a Swifter with a wet cleaning pad)
• You're done

Well, okay, that sounds simple enough...but what about my shower scum and bathtub ring you say! You're going to laugh, but we do the next few steps EVERY TIME we use the bath or shower. Our shower and bathtub have absolutely NO RING and NO SCUM because we take these few extra steps.

• Use shower gel instead of bar soap...it's as simple as that. No soap, no soap scum.
  

• After EVERY shower, use a squeegee to get excess water off the walls. You'd be amazed at how clean your shower will be! This is totally worth the few extra seconds and if you do it often enough, it will become habit, and you won't even think about it. I even have my kids and husband trained to do this! About once a month, I can take plain Windex and a papertowel to shine it up some more without any scrubbing!

• We keep a washcloth drying out over the rim of the bathtub. We use this special washcloth to wipe the inside of the tub, while still sitting in there, to tackle the ring. As the water is draining, all you have to do is keep the water moving, splash it up a bit on the sides...no more ring!

What do you do to keep your bathroom orderly? Oh, and BTW, my eight year old and ten year old, as well as our exchange student have been trained to clean their own bathroom. I've noticed they tend to keep it more orderly, knowing they have a hand in cleaning it. Do your kids clean their own bathroom?