2 Weeks: The Bathroom(s)

So to kick off week two of our 2 Weeks project, I have decided to start with the bathrooms.  Bathrooms are the place we use to get the grime off ourselves each day, so it stands to reason that our grime might stick to some things in there.  Cleaning the bathroom is easier than it might seem, but you do need some "specialized" equipment to make it even easier.  Here's my list:

A few cloth baby wipes
Baking Soda
Vinegar
Lemon Juice
Kitchen Gloves
Window Cleaner
Scrubby Sponge
Peroxide/Water Spray
Broom/Dustpan
Bucket & Mop solution

Okay, to start I will tell you that if you mix equal portions of Hydrogen Peroxide and water in a spray bottle, you'll have a fantastic shower cleaner.  The rest of what we're doing is 1st grade science, and my kids are fascinated by it.

I always start in the bathroom by removing things like garbage cans, step stools, soap pumps, and bath mats and placing them outside the room.  Then I dump some baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice in the toilet and watching it fizz.  Now I wet my scrubby sponge in the sink and toss it into the shower, and then plug up the sink.  I do the "dumping" thing in there too, and then go spray the shower with shower cleaner.

Now I move back to the toilet.  I usually use a cloth baby wipe to clean the inside of the toilet, then flush, then use the clean water to rinse the cloth and wipe down the rim and underside of the toilet seat, and anywhere else on the toilet that's gotten dirty. 

Move back to the sink.  I use the same cloth (rinsed out again) to wash out the sink.  Then I rinse the sink and wipe down around the sink with the, yet again, rinsed out cloth.  Then clean the mirror using the window cleaner and a new cloth.  With that done, I move on to the shower and bathtub.

Here, I wipe down the shower walls with the scrubby sponge.  I rinse the walls, then work on the tub.  For the tub, I plug it up and do the "dumping" thing one more time.  I scrub all the tub surfaces with a scrubby sponge and the lemon "volcano" solution, then rinse really well.

Once everything is cleaned, I move on to the floors.  I sweep, then mop using the same mop solution we used on all the floors last week.  When the floor is dry, I go in and put up fresh towels, make sure things are put away properly and then leave the room, bringing any garbage and dirty laundry with me.

This whole project usually takes me about half an hour for 1 bathroom, so you should be able to do 2 in about an hour to an hour and a half.  You'll need to allot about a half hour to 45 minutes for each additional bathroom that needs to be cleaned.

I love the smell of my bathroom once it's clean!  How about you?

Good luck!


Kristin