Bathroom Cleaning Tips, Guides & How To's

The shower door goes cloudy no matter how hard you scrub. A grey ring sits at the waterline of the toilet and is back within a week. Black specks creep along the grout nearest the shower head, and the drain runs slower every month. A bathroom is a humid box full of hard water and soap residue, so the same handful of problems turn up in every house.

Telling them apart is most of the job, because each one answers to different chemistry. Soap scum is a fatty film, so a mildly acidic cleaner cuts it where scrubbing only smears it around. Hard water spots and toilet bowl rings are mineral, which means acid and a pumice stone rather than more effort. Rust stains want an oxalic acid product, since bleach sets them permanently. Mold in grout and on a shower curtain liner is alive, so it returns unless the room actually dries between showers. After that it is order and tools. Work from the top down so the mirror, shower head and tile drain onto the floor you clean last, keep a stiff brush or a power scrubber for grout and shower pans, and deal with a slow drain before it becomes a clog.