To most people, the bathroom is among the toughest areas to clean.

Like the kitchen, your bathroom and shower need frequent cleaning. Unlike your kitchen, the bathroom needs thorough cleaning on a more frequent basis owing to its nature and the frequency of use.

How To Clean A Bathroom Fast

The secret to a sparkling bathroom or shower is in having a checklist which entails all areas to be cleaned, what to clean with, and when to clean these areas.

If yours is a typical bathroom, you will have to clean the shower, the counters, the tub, the tiles, the mirrors, the toilets, and general air freshening.

Below, we show you how to handle each area mentioned. Start off the cleaning process by removing everything from the bathroom.

Toilets

Whether you are all adults in the house or you have children around, toilets can be kept clean through a once-a-week cleaning routine.

Most of us follow the old routine of pouring toilet cleaning agents under the bowl, waiting for a few minutes, brushing, then flushing.

This method may work but only for specific areas of the toilet (the bowl). However, other areas will be accumulating dirt and stains. With time, you will see stains and an unpleasant odor from your toilet even after cleaning.

Whether you use cleaning agents or a combination of baking soda and vinegar to clean your toilets, these are the areas to focus on:

The bowl
The rim of the toilet seat
The side of the toilet seat
The toilet floor
Toilet seat hinges
Toilet seat bolt caps

For every cleaning routine, ensure you have cleaned these specific areas. For areas such as hinges and bolt caps, it is best to remove them, clean them then bolt them back.

Chances are high that you rarely clean the brush you use in cleaning your toilet and its holding canister. This will only reintroduce germs back to the toilet bowl each time you clean it with a dirty brush.

To clean the brush, hold the handle then pour bleach on it. Wait for about 15 minutes then rinse it in cold clean water. For the canister, warm soapy water will do the trick. Pour it in the canister, wait for a while then rinse it clean.

Counters

When it comes to cleaning the counters, showers, and tiles, the best option is to use a combination of a cleaning agent and microfiber.

The focus is on eliminating scum from soap in these areas. If your counters are far from the wet areas, you will only need a sponge and cleaning agent to clean them off.

In this category are other areas such as doors, wall tiles and door knobs. Among the types of dirt to focus on are soap scum, gunk, grout and general dirt. For these, you will need the following cleaning agents:

Baking soda/hydrogen peroxide solution for cleaning grout. This can be done every six months to prevent the buildup of bacteria and stains.
Water/vinegar solution for cleaning soap scum.
Baking soda/water paste combination for cleaning gunk on the bathtub.

These are mostly homemade solutions to the dirt in your counters, tiles and other areas. However, there are detergents specific to each area. Rather than going for individual cleaners, get an all-purpose cleaner then follow these steps:

Spray the cleaner on all the surfaces you intend to clean.
Turn on the shower with the settings at the highest water temperature.
Wait for the steam to build up then turn off the water.
Leave the bathroom then lock it (plus windows) then wait for about 20 minutes.
Wipe all the areas finishing with the floor.

To avoid the unsightly water marks on the tiles (wall), apply some car wax on the wall tills once every year. This prevents the water from sticking and tying up on the wall.

For untiled walls, paint that is resistant to mildew will come in handy for the task.

Mirrors

Cleaning the mirrors and windows in your bathroom is quite easy once you know how to do it.

The simplest of methods is using microfiber. As stated before, you will not the right cleaning agent with the microfiber pieces.

The cleaning procedure is also simple:

Add the cleaning agent to one piece.
Clean the windows/mirrors.
Clean it with a dry piece of microfiber.

A solution of water and vinegar can act as a good cleaning agent if the commercial solutions are not available.

Freshening

Keeping the bathroom fresh can be as simple as using the right cleaning agents.

If you have to go for fresheners, avoid the ones with lots of chemicals such as Lysol and Febreeze. While they’ll give your bathroom a fresh smell, they will increase your risk of diseases.

Bathroom Vents

Yes. The vents too require cleaning and disinfection on a frequent basis.

This is due to their contact with germs in the bathroom air and exposure to moisture.

Follow these steps to clean them:

First, turn off the power to eliminate any risks of electrocution.
Remove the vent’s cover and dip it in warm soapy water.
With the nozzle attachment, remove the gunk from the blades of the fan.
Wipe it clean with a wet cloth afterwards.
Eliminate the dust found on the rest of the setup using a paintbrush.
Dry the parts then replace them.

Showers

Cleaning the shower can be quite complex given the large number of shower types and shapes. There is, however, a one-size-fits-all solution for all showers/shower heads. Again, vinegar comes in for this solution.

If you don’t clean your showers, you are likely to have a pulmonary disease owing to the buildup of the bacteria Mycobacterium avium.

Follow these steps to deep clean your shower:

Fill a nylon/plastic bag with vinegar.
Tie it around the shower head ensuring it is fully submerged.
Leave it overnight.
Remove the bag in the morning then run water through it.

You need to do this at least once every month.

Curtains, Liners And Blinds

For these items, you will have to wash them either by hand or in a washing machine. Keep an eye on the materials they are made of and the recommendations for washing them with your method of choice.

As a bonus, we advice adding a few old towels in the washing machine with the curtains. As the machine churns them around, they will scrub against the curtains thus removing the stubborn dirt.

Hand Towels

Owing to their moist nature and frequency of handling, hand towels easily soak up germs which could lead to infections.

As such, they need frequent disinfection and replacement every three days.

After washing them with a disinfectant, spread them on a bar and not hook as the latter may lead to folding and growth of germs. For this reason, the bar ought to be cleaned before hanging towels on them.

Tub

To get a gleaming bathtub, you need to follow these steps:

Fill the bathtub with hot boiling water. Wait for a quarter an hour.
Drain the water and apply a bathroom cleaning agent.
Wait for another 15 minutes then scrub it thoroughly.
Rinse it with clean water and let it dry before using it again.

Again, a weekly cleaning routine will do the trick.

Sinks

The bathroom sink (and all other sinks in the house) has a lot of bacteria due to its uses.

Wash the sink with the same carefulness you employ in washing the toilet given the high number of germs there. Start with the faucet handle, the faucet itself, the junction where it meets the sink, and finish off with the sink drain.

With these tips and directions, you are bound to be greeted with a clean and fresh bathroom each time you walk in. Make it a routine to clean these areas rather than cleaning when the dirt builds up and creates dark spots.