Cleaning the bathroom shouldn’t be a dirty fight
Cleaning the bathroom might be the most fought over area of the house to clean. How often does it really need to be done? And what are the best ways to get it really clean?
To get the dirt on the proper way to clean a bathroom, Cole Butt, manager at Kings Janitorial Inc. in Coldbrook gave his top tips.
Kings Janitorial has been putting their professional polish to industrial, residential, cleaning and maintenance for more than 20 years, including cleaning floors, carpets, windows and, of course, bathrooms. Although the head office is in Coldbrook, they service all of Nova Scotia.
Butt says cleaning a bathroom in your house can be relatively fast and easy with regular maintenance. This is all dependent, of course, upon how many people are using the washroom.
“A good rule of thumb as to how often to clean a residential bathroom is once a week,” says Butt.
This is a run down of a cleaning routine for a home bathroom:
1. Spray down shower, tub,
faucet, sink and toilet.
2. Use a bowl cleaner —
cream or gel.
3. Wipe down shower/sink area, toilet, scrub bowl with toilet brush.
4. Clean glass and mirrors.
5. Empty garbage.
6. Sweep or vacuum floors
and mop.
7. Replenish paper products and hand towels.
To help organize the cleaning process and to avoid cross contamination, Butt suggests using different colours of microfibre cloths. Use a different colour cloth for sinks and showers, another for the toilet bowl and a third colour for glass.
For a washroom that has been neglected for a bit, it may take a bit more work. Butt offers the following suggestions.
• Use the product Scrubbing Bubbles and a Magic Eraser. These are great for getting rid of shower and sink scum.
• Comet can be great for rings in the toilet to remove build up. However, if the is hard water, CLR or Iron Out may be more helpful, says Butt.
• A buildup of grime around the rim of the toilet can be tackled with a pair of gloves, Comet, and a magic eraser, and lots of elbow grease. Scrub!
• If dust has built up, then first use a dry cloth or duster before adding water and spray cleaners. Doing this first will avoid making all the little dust bits an annoyance to remove.
• After this deeper clean, it's always a good idea to launder the cleaning cloths for the next cleaning.
SPRING CLEANING YOUR BATHROOM
A spring cleaning of your bathroom is always a good idea as well.
To do so, Butt says to
clean fan and air vents, wash shower curtain and floor mats, and wash walls with a microfibre damp mop and pole.
Light switches and fixtures, door handles, and baseboards are a good idea to wipe down as well.
Take time to use a cloth or disposable wipe for cleaning around the base of the toilet and the corners that a mop may miss.
PRODUCTS TO AVOID
Butt says to avoid bowl cleaners on chrome or stainless-steel surfaces as it can leave a chemical burn which looks bad.
Shower glass doors should not have abrasive cleaners used on them without a small test spot as this can scratch the surface.
And don’t forget, that if you need help keeping on top of all this cleaning, do not hesitate to bring in the professionals to help. After a long day, the last thing you might wish to do is clean the bathroom.