Your No-Stress Guide to Bathroom Cleaning: Bathtub, Shower & More Tips for Chicago Homes

If you live in Chicago, you know the struggle. Between work, the commute, and trying to enjoy everything this city has to offer, keeping your bathroom spotless can feel like a full-time job. And let’s be real—cleaning the bathtub and shower is often the most dreaded chore of all. But you don’t have to spend your whole weekend scrubbing soap scum and grout. Whether you need fast cleaning services or just want to be more efficient with your own elbow grease, we’ve got you covered with expert advice.

Why Bathroom Cleaning Feels So Hard

Bathrooms are small spaces, but they pack a punch when it comes to grime. Between soap scum, mold, mildew, and hard water deposits, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. The good news? You don’t need harsh chemicals or hours of free time to get your bathroom sparkling. With the right techniques, you can cut your cleaning time in half. And if you ever feel like you need a break, remember that professional home cleaning can handle the heavy lifting for you.

Tackling the Toilet: The Least Fun Job Made Easier

Start with the lid closed. Spray a general bathroom cleaner from the top of the tank down to the base. Let it sit for a few minutes—this is called pre-treating, and it gives the product time to work. Then, use paper towels (to avoid cross-contamination) and wipe from top to bottom. For the inside, use a quality toilet bowl cleaner under the rim. An enzyme cleaner sprayed around the base helps break down urine odors. Scrub the bowl like you’re brushing your teeth—swirl from top to bottom—and flush.

Don’t Forget the Toilet Brush

Your toilet brush works hard and deserves some love, too. Spray it with a disinfectant and let it sit for 30 minutes to a few hours. Wipe down the holder, rinse the brush under hot water, and let it drip dry. A clean brush means a cleaner bowl.

Shower Curtains and Liners: Wash, Don’t Replace

If your shower curtain or liner is plastic or vinyl, toss it in the washing machine with a couple of towels. Use cold water (hot water can melt plastic), and add a full cup of baking soda plus 20 drops of tea tree essential oil. The tea tree oil fights mold and mildew naturally. After the wash cycle, hang everything back up to drip dry. No dryer needed. If your curtain is fabric, check the care label before washing.

Bathroom Sink: The Quick Fix That Changes Everything

A clean sink makes the whole bathroom look better. Get into the habit of wiping down your sink after each use. Toothpaste globs harden fast, and leftover mud mask or makeup can stain. Use a tissue or microfiber cloth with a spritz of water to keep your sink fresh. If the drain gets clogged (we see you, long hair), remove the drain cover and use a plastic drain cleaning tool to pull out the gunk. Dispose of it in a bag, wipe the cover clean, and screw it back on. If it’s still slow, use an eco-friendly drain cleaner.

The Bathtub: The Ultimate Deep Clean

First, remove everything from the tub—bottles, toys, bath mats. Roll up your bath mat to protect your knees. Run your hand along the sides of the tub to feel where the soap scum is gritty. For light scum, use vinegar on a microfiber cloth. For tougher buildup, mix equal parts vinegar and water with 2 tablespoons of dish soap in a spray bottle. Spray liberally and let it sit for a few minutes. Scrub with a non-scratch sponge using an S pattern from top to bottom. Rinse with a jug of water if you don’t have a removable shower head, then buff dry with a super-absorbent microfiber cloth.

Grout Lines Looking Dingy?

Mix two parts baking soda with one part hydrogen peroxide to make a paste. Apply it to the grout and let it sit for 10–15 minutes, then scrub with a cleaning toothbrush and rinse. This whitens and brightens without harsh chemicals.

Shampoo Bottles and Soap Scum Traps

Those bottles sitting on the ledge of your shower are a mold and mildew trap. After you shower, move them down near the drain so they can drip dry. This prevents moisture from getting trapped underneath and helps keep your shower cleaner longer.

Tiles: Ceramic, Porcelain, and Delicate Surfaces

For ceramic and porcelain tiles, a DIY cleaner of equal parts dish soap and vinegar works wonders. Spray tiles and let sit for 5–10 minutes (don’t let it dry). Scrub with a non-scratch pad using an S pattern, rinse, and buff dry. For cement, glass, or natural stone tiles, avoid acidic or abrasive cleaners. A steam cleaner is ideal, but store-bought products designed for delicate surfaces also work well—just follow the label instructions.

The Squeegee Habit: Save Yourself Hours

A squeegee costs less than $10. Use it on your shower tiles and glass after every shower. This removes moisture and the residue that turns into soap scum. Seriously—if you squeegee regularly, you may never have to scrub your shower again. That’s a game changer for anyone looking for deep cleaning help between professional visits.

Towels: When to Wash and Replace

Washcloths: replace after every use. Hand towels: change twice a week. Bath towels: once or twice a week depending on how well they dry. Microfiber towels don’t trap bacteria the way cotton terry does, so they can last longer without smelling. Hang towels properly so they dry fully between uses.

Small Messes Add Up Fast

In a small bathroom, toothpaste splatters, soap residue, makeup powder, and stray hairs can make the space feel dirty right after you clean it. Wipe surfaces as you go—use a microfiber cloth, tissue, or even toilet paper to grab a quick spot clean. Staying on top of little messes keeps your bathroom fresher for longer.

DIY Toilet Bowl Cleaner Recipe

• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
• 1/4 cup dish soap
• 15 drops tea tree oil

Mix in a squeeze bottle, apply under the rim and around the bowl, let sit for a moment, scrub, and flush.

Garbage Cans Need Love Too

Bathroom trash cans get grimy, even with liners. Mix borax and water into a paste, apply inside the can, let sit for a minute, scrub, and rinse. It’s a gentle but effective way to keep things fresh.

When You Just Need a Break

Let’s be honest: sometimes the last thing you want to do after a long day is scrub a shower. That’s where cleaning services in Chicago come in. Whether you need someone to help with a deep clean of the bathroom or want someone to clean my apartment on a regular basis, apartment cleaning experts can make your life easier. You can schedule a cleaning that fits your schedule and budget.

If you’re looking for a cleaning service near me in Chicago, Jikas Cleaning offers reliable, professional help. Don’t let bathroom grime control your weekend. Whether you tackle it yourself with these tips or call in the pros, your home can feel fresh and clean without the stress.

Cleaning your bathroom, specifically cleaning your bathtub and your shower, is the most hated cleaning job in the cleaning world. Ew, ew, ew, and that’s why in this video, I want to share with you some of my top cleaning tips and tricks for dealing with soap scum and mildew and mold and all of the grime and gross stuff that you might encounter in these spaces. You’re going to learn all about how to deal with this in the least amount of time using the most efficient and effective techniques out there in the cleaning world. And by the way, if you’re new here, welcome to Clean My Space. My name is Melissa Maker. I’m an accidental cleaning expert, which means I hate to clean, but I love to find the most efficient and effective ways to get the job done right the first time. I’ve got almost two decades of professional cleaning experience and I’ve been sitting right here on YouTube since 2012 sharing this information with all of you. So, if you want to get all of that cleaning info sent to your YouTube inbox, make sure that you subscribe so you can stay current. All right, let’s roll up our sleeves, pick up our cleaning tools, get our products, and head to the bathroom. The bathroom, it’s a small space, but a lot of work is needed to make it sparkle and shine. Here’s the thing. I don’t want you to waste time, effort, money, energy, products, tools when you’re cleaning this space. So, I’ve strung together a whole bunch of tips, tricks, and ideas to help you be more efficient. And just a quick reminder, if you haven’t done so already to subscribe to the Clean My Space channel, and because I like a like, please give this video a thumbs up if you use toilet paper. So, I should get a lot of likes. All right, let’s talk about perhaps one of the least exciting jobs in a bathroom, cleaning a toilet. I always start with the toilet lid closed and a bottle of general bathroom cleaner. I start spraying from the top the lid of the tank, the flusher, the tank itself, the toilet lid, the area around the toilet base, and I start lifting up the lid, cleaning the seat or spraying the seat, under the seat, around the bowl, outside the bowl. I mean, stuff gets everywhere, so everything has to be sprayed. If you want to think about it like this, just visualize your whole toilet kind of dripping. Then you can put toilet bowl cleaner. You want it right under the rim of the toilet so it can start eating away at any of those hard water deposits. And then this is an enzyme cleaner. You can spray that around the base of the toilet. That’s going to help break down any urine odors um that have set in over time uh that might be bothering you. So, an enzyme cleaner is a great little tip. I like to use paper towel when I’m cleaning the toilet, and I just repeat my steps. So, I start right back up at the top, and I’ll change out the paper towel as it becomes saturated, and I work my way through each area that I have sprayed with the cleaner. If there’s particularly grimy areas, you might want to get in there with a bathroomspecific cleaning toothbrush. Cleaning the base and the area around the toilet. While it’s not the most exciting job to do, really does make a difference. So, I would encourage you if you haven’t done it in a while, just to get comfortable with the base of your toilet. You can even use a toothbrush to clean around the base if you notice it’s particularly grimy. Now, for that enzyme cleaner, again, I’m just using paper towel. I like using paper towel to clean the toilet. That way, I don’t have to worry about any crosscontamination. And then get your toilet bowl brush and use it. Think about like a toothbrush. You know, you’re trying to brush off plaque when you’re brushing your teeth. And it’s the same thing when you’re cleaning a toilet. You’re trying to scrape off any buildup, hard water, bacteria, grime that’s built up over time. So, you’re going to start around the top, work your way, swirl your way down to the bottom, shake it out. Then, I always close the lid down on the toilet bowl brush. You guys know if you have a shower curtain, you probably have a shower curtain liner as well. It’s generally a white or clear plastic liner that goes on the inside of the tub and its job is to prevent water from spilling outside the tub while you’re in there showering. Now, if your plastic sha if your shower curtain is plastic or vinyl and your shower curtain liner is plastic or vinyl, both of these items can actually be cleaned by simply placing them in the washing machine with a couple of towels. Now, you’ll know the frequency of needing to wash these by simply looking at them. If you notice that there’s a little bit of mold or mildew, if they’re turning kind of gray at the bottom, gray brown, that’s soap scum. And if they’ve got that kind of pinky orangey buildup, don’t freak out. That’s just a naturally occurring bacteria that lives here in your bathroom. It’s typically because it’s a really moist environment and that stuff can all come out in the wash. So, take everything, take those couple of towels, take your shower curtain and your shower curtain liner, put them into the washing machine, regular cycle. You want to use cold water here because remember, hot or warm water can actually melt plastic or vinyl. So, you want to avoid that. Also add in um a full cup of baking soda. And you want to put in 20 drops of tea tree essential oil because tea tree really helps to eliminate mold, mildew, and bacteria. So that way the towels will scrub in the wash. Your stuff will get nice and clean. It’ll come out without those stains. Hopefully, it really should. And then instead of putting them in the dryer, cuz that wouldn’t make any sense, you’re just going to hang them right back up on your shower curtain rings. and you’re going to let them drip dry into the tub. Now, if your shower curtain is not plastic or vinyl, it might be a fabric that’s machine washable, in which case, put it in with that load. If it’s dry clean only, then just wash your shower curtain liner, as we discussed, and take your shower curtain to a dry cleaner. I cannot think of a lesser desirable thing to clean in one’s home than a toilet bowl brush. But honestly, these things get grimy, grungy, and disgusting over time. So, every now and then, it is important to give them a little bit of TLC. After all, they are doing the dirtiest job in your house. So, you want to make sure that they are clean so they can actually clean your toilet. If your brush just needs a regular cleaning, here’s what you’re going to do. Take it and spray it with a disinfectant. You’re going to let that sit anywhere from 30 minutes up to a couple of hours, however long you feel your disinfectant needs to kill anything that’s going on in that brush. While that’s happening, you’re going to spray the toilet bowl brush container. You’re going to give that a wipe with paper towel, rinse the brush under hot water, and allow it to drip dry. When it’s all done, you can take the bowl brush container and the brush and pop it back in your bathroom with full confidence knowing it is clean. Therefore, your toilet will be clean. Can we just have a minute for shampoo bottles and body wash bottles and bars of soap? Because they sit in our showers after we’re done using them. And really, what happens after you squirt some stuff into your hands, there’s always that residual soap that kind of hangs out on that bottle that you know came out but didn’t make it into your hands. Over time, that mixes with water. it drips down and it creates those nasty ring marks on the base of wherever you’re keeping those bottles. So, a few things to consider to keep that mess clear. If you keep your bottles in the shower at all times, it is a mold or mildew trap. You’re just going to see it get dingy over time. And if you’re not properly airing out your shower or your bathroom after you use it, you’ll notice that that will start to get really gross pretty fast. So, a few tips to use. First, let everything drain close to the drain instead of sitting on the ledge or the shelf where you normally leave them. So, take all your bottles and put them right down by the drain. That’s just going to let everything drip dry and allow those surfaces that would otherwise be cluttered up by bottles, which are moisture traps, effectively dry, preventing that mold or mildew. A clean sink in a bathroom is kind of like a made bed in a bedroom. If you see it, the rest of the room looks really clean. So, having a clean sink in the bathroom is a good habit to get into. And all that means is a simple rinse and wipe of the sink whenever you’re done using it. Say, for example, after you brush your teeth, you might get a glob of toothpaste in the sink. If you don’t get rid of that right away, it’s going to harden onto the side of the sink and just sit there and look gross and probably attract stray hairs and then look even more gross. So, take a piece of tissue, give it a quick wipe, toss that, and your sink is going to look really good. Also, if you do mud masks or facials or anything like that, it’s also important to give your sink a quick wipe down before you move on with your day because if you don’t, your sink’s going to start to accumulate more discoloration and dirt as you go throughout the week. Prior to moving into this house, Chad and I each had our own bathrooms, and for me, it was bliss. But when we moved into this house, it wasn’t going to work. And we had to not only share a bathroom, but share a sink, which I know most people in the world do, and it is totally fine. That said, it is ripe for playing the blame game. Namely, who clogged the bathroom sink? I don’t think it was me. I know you’re looking at me and you’re like, you have long hair. It’s probably you. But really, I had no problems in our old house. So, I can only point a finger at this side of the bathroom, which happens to be Chad’s side. So, on that note, uh I’m very happy to clean a lot of things in our house, but I am actually going to call him in to clean the bathroom sink out because this is a really not only a dirty job, but it’s actually a bit of a gut-wrenching job and it’s something he’s done and he’s used to and he’s capable of. So, I will talk you through what he’s doing, but he will actually be doing the work. So, the first thing to do is to remove the drain cover. And oh gosh, you can just see that crusty grime in there. So, he’s using a paper towel to sort of swirl it around and pick out as much as he can. Yeah, you really got to get in there, Chad. Yeah. Mhm. One more go round. That’s good. Now, we have this plastic drain cleaning tool. And you can see to his right, he’s got a plastic bag. That way, he can just quickly dump whatever he pulls out right in there. The idea is those little hooks will grab onto things that you know shouldn’t be in the sink and you can quickly and easily remove them and pop them into the bag. You obviously want to be gentle so that you don’t get a bunch of splatters. Then following that, he’s using paper towel to give the drain cover a good wipe. You can see we’re not using microfiber here. It’s just Yeah, you just want to use a disposable product for this type of job. Now, following that, you can screw the drain cover back on and see how it runs. If it’s running well, great. And if it’s not, you can actually use a drain cleaning product. There are tons of great eco-friendly options on the market. I’m starting off with my ScotchBrite nonscratch scrub sponge, the blue on blue. And then the products here, I’ve got dish soap, baking soda, vinegar, and a spray bottle. Then I’ve got some microfiber cloths here, just some general purpose. And then my ultra plush. Now, what I’m doing is I’m just testing the scrubby side of the sponge on a hidden area of the tub to make sure that there’s no scratching. I’m feeling and I’m looking. And I’m going to do the same thing for baking soda. I’ve just dampened my cloth there. Put a bit of baking soda on. Getting rid of the excess. And I’m just going to test again in a hidden area because if I do notice by looking or feeling any scratching, I don’t want to use it. Now, I’m going to remove everything from the bathtub. So, in my house, that includes a lot of bath toys. A little pro tip here is to roll up your bath mat and use it as knee protection. Now, here’s a trick I learned years ago. I take my hand and I run it along the side of the tub. And you’ll see me do this around the full tub. Actually, a blind client taught me this trick. And by using my hand, I can feel the difference where the tub is smooth and where it’s gritty. That’s how I know where the soap scum is. Now, if you have just a little bit of soap scum, you can use some vinegar on a microfiber cloth and wipe it right off. But if you’ve got more, you’ll want to mix up a solution of equal parts vinegar and water. And then you can add about 2 tablespoons of dish soap. Shake that up and apply that to the surface by just spraying very liberally all over. You’ll want to let this sit for a couple of minutes so that it can start to do its work on the tub before you actually start cleaning. You guys know how I feel about products. They should do a lot of the heavy lifting so you don’t have to. Now, I’m wetting my sponge and I’ll start right at the top of the tub where that ledge is. Sometimes you get buildup from shampoo or soap bottles. And I’m using the scrubby side of the sponge just to rub in all of that product. I expect it’s done a lot of its work at this point, loosening and lifting the soap scum. So, by using the S pattern, working my way from back to forth, top to bottom on the tub, I’m doing my best to get rid of as much soap scum as I can. Don’t forget to get the base of the tub in that crazy little area around the drain. The outside of the tub is another area a lot of people forget about, but you will get soap scum buildup over time. So, just make sure that you remember to do it. Now, another thing you want to make sure you’re not doing is rinsing before your tub is entirely clean. So, what I’m doing here is I’m just feeling to see if all of that gritty soap scum is gone. And once it is, I know I can rinse. So, what I’m demonstrating here is the method that you can use if you don’t have a removable shower head to rinse your tub clean. I have one, but I decided I would demo this because in previous tub cleaning videos, we’ve been asked about that. So, this is a jug. Here in Canada, that’s where we put our milk. And I’m just using that jug to dump water all around the sides and the base of the tub. Then I’m using this ultra plush microfiber cloth, which is super absorbent to get rid of any excess moisture and that’s going to leave a really nice shine. I’m also finishing up by wiping the exterior of the tub with the same cloth. You shouldn’t have to suffer in your shower looking at dirty grout lines. There’s a quick and easy way to fix it. You make a paste of two parts baking soda, one part hydrogen peroxide. Apply that to your discolored grout, and then scrub it off with a cleaning toothbrush about 10 or 15 minutes later, and rinse it clean. Between the baking soda and the hydrogen peroxide, it whitens and brightens your grout lines, so it will look much better with just a little bit of effort. When I was young, I had a black plastic toothbrush holder. I suppose the black color was convenient because you could never actually see what was going on inside. And then when I grew up and got to pick my own bathroom accessories, I picked something a little bit more stylish. And I quickly learned why people choose black bathroom accessories. Toothbrush holders get horrendously disgusting. And the reason is your toothbrush is cleaning the bacteria out from your mouth. You put it in your toothbrush holder while your toothbrush is still wet. It’s got bacteria from your mouth. It dries. It’s in a dark, moist environment. What happens, guys? You know this. Bacteria builds up and it gets crusty and moldy and mildwy and gross over time. So, that really, really needs to be cleaned. You can soak it in a solution of dish soap and vinegar. Let it hang out there for even up to an hour. Then, get a little sponge or a scrub brush and give it a really good swish. Rinse it out. Make sure there’s nothing crusty left behind and let it air dry. When it comes to cleaning ceramic or porcelain tiles, these are the most durable and they can handle just about any product that’s appropriate for tub and tile cleaning, whether it’s something that you make or something that you buy. And yes, there are plenty of great store-bought products that you can use. I always like starting off with something simple, something that I make at home. And then if that’s not working, like if I were in a professional cleaning situation or I hadn’t cleaned my shower in a really long time and the soap scum was really bad, perhaps I’d buy a store-bought product and try something a little bit more powerful. That said, we have amazing DIY recipes, and I would always start there first. I’ll put a link to our 50 DIY cleaning product recipes down below for you to check out. So, for the tub and tile cleaner, it’s just equal parts dish soap and vinegar. I would use a half cup of each. You can add 10 drops of your favorite essential oil just to make it a little bit more fun. And the technique that you’re using here is you’re spraying the product on the tile. And you’re going to let it sit for a few minutes, 5 minutes if it’s, you know, a relatively clean shower. And if it’s sort of dirty, you can let it sit for up to 10 minutes. The idea here is you don’t want to spray it on and let it dry. You want to spray it on and let it sit while it’s soaking wet. So, really hose those tiles down. A wet product is a product that works. Now, after that time has elapsed, you can go in there using a non-scratch scrub pad and use the S pattern to go from top to bottom and scrub those tiles clean. What you should see or feel, if you can’t visually see it, is the soap scum starting to come off. The way you’ll know it’s coming off if you’re touching it is you’ll notice the tiles feel smooth and not that gritty sensation that you would feel if you felt soap scum on there before you started cleaning. By the time that’s done, you’re going to rinse everything down and then you can buff it dry. Now, there are a few different ways you can buff it dry. You can use a squeegee, but I find after I clean the shower, I think using like a large microfiber cloth like our utility cloth is a great way just to put that extra polish on a shower. And if you have high tiles like I do, you can actually use a mop, stick the microfiber cloth on there, and work your way up and down that way just to save your arms and your shoulders from doing some extra work. If you’re looking for a store-bought cleaning product, you can consider something like a Barkeeper’s Friend, cream cleaners like Vim, something that’s a spray-on tub and tile cleaner. There are plenty of options out there. Even a steam cleaner is actually great at getting your tiles clean. I’m going to treat cement, glass, and natural stone tiles all with the same type of product and tool recommendations because they’re much more delicate than your ceramic and porcelain tiles. So, we’re just going to use the same products for all of them. Now, as I said, if you have a steam cleaner, that’s a perfect thing for you to use. You want to stay away from anything that’s acidic and anything that’s abrasive. There are fabulous store-bought products that are specifically designed to melt away soap scum, and I will link those for you down below. And the way that you want to apply them is to follow the package instructions. Everybody’s a little bit different, but essentially, you’re going to put them on the tiles, let them sit for a period of time. You’re going to use a non-abbrasive scrub pad like the one I was showing you before. You’re going to scrub it off and give it a good rinse. There are three different types of towels that you’ll find in a bathroom. There’s your washcloth, your hand towel, and your body towel. Let’s start off with the washcloth. I replace my washcloth after every use. I don’t see any point in reusing a washcloth. It’s not comfortable. And also, when I use it, I typically use it to take makeup off. so there’s lots of makeup left behind. I think it comes out better in the wash and it saves me from having to scrub it under a running faucet. I also find that washcloths provide a nice level of exfoliation and I never want to redeposit dead skin cells or old makeup back onto my face. So my general rule is one and done with a washcloth. When it comes to a hand towel, these to me, like when I go to someone’s house and I don’t see a fresh hand towel, I’d rather wipe my hands on my jeans than use their gross hand towel. I don’t know what it is, but these have always sort of freaked me out. I think these are important to change out very regularly. In our house, we change them out twice a week. Uh we have multiple on hand. When you think about it, you know, you’re doing stuff in the bathroom. You’re using the hand towel. Maybe you did wash your hands or maybe someone, who knows who it was, did wash their hands. Maybe they didn’t. We don’t know why they were touching it. We don’t know how they were touching it. One of the things I love about our Makers Clean hand towels is that they’re made out of microfiber, so they actually don’t trap bacteria the same way that a cotton terry towel does. So, if you’re interested in that, I will put a link to our hand towels down below. And that brings me to towels. just your regular bath towels. I change mine out depending on uh how I feel. I change them out either once or twice a week, but I find if you hang a towel to dry and it dries properly and it’s not smelling, and of course our towels don’t smell, the makers uh clean towels, I’ll link those down below for you as well. Um I don’t see a reason to change them out more frequently. But if you’re using a cotton terry towel and it’s not drying properly, it’ll get smelly and it won’t feel good. So, you might want to change a terry towel more frequently, maybe twice a week, but typically microfiber towel can last you about a week. And I’d love to know in the comments down below, how frequently do you change out your bath towel? And don’t be shy. Everybody’s got a different opinion on this. I just think based on what I know about bacteria and odors, the timelines that I’ve set out, they feel right to me. Bathrooms are small spaces, and that means that little messes really add up quickly. So, keeping an eye on those small little messes and managing them will help your bathroom stay fresher for longer. A few things that really are problematic, toothpaste. Whether you get splatters on your mirror or chunks in your sink, it looks gross and it compounds. So, make sure that you’re staying on top of that by wiping your mirror or your sink as it happens. The next thing is soap. If you pump some soap and it gets on the counter or gets onto your sink area and it doesn’t quite rinse, you get this cakey kind of buildup and that because it’s sticky can attract more dirt. So, you get these patchy disgusting spots. Look, I’m talking about all the gross stuff in your bathroom. If you see any, make sure you give it a good rinse just by flicking some water on it and getting it down your sink. And then things like makeup. And ladies, if you have long hair, oh my gosh, that gets everywhere. So, make sure that you’re staying on top of any makeup powders or any other sort of makeup that you have and any hair that gets on your counter. I don’t know about you guys, but when I see one hair, even if it’s mine, it’s really disgusting. So, I like to stay on top of the entire bathroom mess situation by either using a microfiber cloth and a little spritz of water to give it a quick wipe, or if I’m in a pinch, I’ll use some toilet paper, a tissue, or if I have one handy, a disposable cloth. I’ve been talking about this for years, but I do realize there are about 8 billion people on this planet that I have to convince. When you use a product on a surface that’s dirty, spray that surface first and let the product sit for five, 7, 10 minutes or so before you go back to clean it. That’s called pre-treating or marinating in barbecue terms. And what it does is it allows the product to do the work it’s designed to do. It actually saves you from having to work as hard. So, let the product do the thing by pre-treating your surface first. If one of the things you love about this channel is all of the DIY products, well, of course, I’m going to include our DIY toilet bowl cleaner for you. This is a tried, tested, and true recipe. We love it. We use it. You need a good quality squeeze bottle. You can either reuse a condiment bottle or just pick up one of those plastic condiment bottles that you only use for toilet bowl cleaner and not ketchup. Either way, here’s that recipe. 1/2 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide, 14 cup dish soap, and 15 drops of tea tree oil. You’ll mix this all together in a bottle, shake it up, and then apply it into the toilet bowl, making sure you get under the rim. and of course around the bowl. Let it sit for a moment or so and then give it a good scrub and flush and you’re done. A squeegee costs less than 10 bucks. Sometimes it’s even a dollar if you can find it at the dollar store. But this little tool and the habit of using the squeegee on your shower after each shower means you basically don’t ever have to scrub your shower again. Let me explain why this works. Your body lets off dead skin cells, oils. You use soap that has, you know, soapy film. Then you got hard water. And then this melange of liquid gets all over the tiles in the glass of your shower. Now you go out, you go on your way. But that water then evaporates, leaving behind all the residue from that schmutz we just talked about. And that, my friends, is soap scum. So guess what? If you squeegee your shower, you see I’m squeegeeing my shower here. All that does is remove the moisture from the surface and all of the stuff that goes along with it. So that way you actually never get soap scum and you’ll never have to scrub your shower. Pretty good habit, huh? I’ve had these garbage cans for many years. They used to be in my old bathroom and then when we moved into this house, they became our garbage cans. What I like about them is one is garbage and one is recycling. The thing is, any bathroom or kitchen garbage or recycling can gets dirty, especially if you don’t put a plastic liner in, but even if you do, they need to be cleaned out. These, they need a cleaning. The easiest way to do this is to use a paste of borax and water. So, I’ll mix equal parts together. Then, I’m going to apply it generously on the inside. I’ll give it a minute or two, and then scrub it and rinse and dry. The reason I like borax, it’s a pretty powerful cleaner, but it’s still relatively gentle. It’s a step up from baking soda, but I’m not bringing out the big guns. That’s why I went for borax. It’s a pretty easy thing to do, and it does make a big difference. I think the last time I did this, honestly, I don’t remember. And that’s why I’m doing it now. So, my hope and my wish for you is the next time you go to the bathroom to clean, of course, things go a lot smoother for you. And that brings me to this week’s comment question, which is, how do you feel about showering or bathing in a hotel? Are you the kind of person that just waltzes right into the shower and doesn’t care? Or do you kind of think about who’s been in there before? Do you feel a little sketchy about taking a bath in a hotel bathroom? Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. If spending less time cleaning and more time living your best life appeals to you, you are going to love my email newsletter. It’s called the Dirty Dish. And all it does is teach you how to clean quicker and more effectively. And if you want to get that email sent right to your inbox, there’s a link for you down below. And by the way, if you liked watching this video and learning how to tackle that shower and bath cleaning a little bit better, you are going to love this video, which teaches you how to cut your bathroom cleaning time in half. Yeah, it’s proven. So, check it out. And if you haven’t done so already, make sure that you subscribe to the Clean MySpace channel. Thanks so much for watching and we’ll see you next time.