The sad reality is that most household bathrooms are absolutely filthy. Even if you occasionally give your bathroom a wipe down, you’re probably ignoring at least some important cleaning areas – and fostering massive colonies of bacteria and fungi.
The good news is that your bathroom doesn’t need to be sterile to be safe, and if you’re cleaning on a regular schedule, you’re doing better than many households. But there are a few practices that can help you stay even more hygienic – and potentially promote better health.
1. Plan for Both Surface-Level and Deep Cleaning
For starters, you should plan on designating time for both surface-level and deep cleaning.
Surface cleaning is relatively easy; it isn’t particularly demanding in terms of time, money, or effort. It’s a set of practices that you can use on a daily basis, and reliably so, but it’s going to neglect certain aspects of your bathroom and it’s not going to be especially thorough.
Deep cleaning is much more effort intensive and much more thorough. It’s more demanding, but it also yields much better results, allowing you to clean and disinfect the entire room.
For most people, the best approach is to do a round of surface cleaning every day, with a round of deep cleaning every week or every other week (depending on how many people use the bathroom and how frequently they use it). This way, you can keep up with daily messes and keep your bathroom presentable, while simultaneously having time set aside for deeper, more exhaustive cleaning sessions.
2. Clean All Your Fixtures and Devices
It’s not just about wiping down the counter; you need to clean all your fixtures and devices, especially on your deep cleaning days. For example,bidets need to be cleaned regularly to remain hygienic. You should soak and scrub your shower heads. It’s important to clean all areas of your toilet, including the seat, the lid, and the surrounding area.
3. Use the Right Cleaning Products for the Job
Next, use the right cleaning products for the job. If you walk down the cleaning product aisle of your local supermarket, you’ll likely see hundreds, if not thousands of products available for purchase. It can be overwhelming at first, so search for products based on your needs. Certain products are designed for certain materials or certain kinds of surfaces, and they must be used in a specific way to be effective. Always read the label, especially safety advisories, before making purchases or using products in your bathroom.
4. Don’t Just Wipe Down. Disinfect.
Wiping down surfaces makes them look and feel cleaner, and it can play a role in reducing the spread of infectious illness. But if you want to greatly reduce the risk of spreading illness, a simple wipe down isn’t enough; you need disinfectants.
Disinfectants work by using specific materials that are engineered to destroy bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes that could present health risks to human beings exposed to them. There are many cleaning products with disinfectant properties, but disinfectant properties aren’t a guarantee – so again, read labels thoroughly before making any decisions.
5. Wash Your Towels and Mats Regularly
It’s easy to neglect your towels and bath mats, since you use them on a daily basis. There’s nothing wrong with using a towel to dry off after a shower more than once, but you should change your towel more frequently than once a week. Bath mat cleaning timelines are debatable, but you should have some kind of plan for keeping these elements clean.
6. Don’t Neglect Rarely Touched Surfaces
Nooks and crannies are also easy to neglect in a common bathroom. Most people clean doorknobs, faucet handles, and toilet levers – but they miss deep corners, rarely used cabinet handles, and undersides of surfaces. These areas need attention periodically.
7. Address the Grout
Grout is porous, making it especially vulnerable to bacteria and mildew growth. Whatever timeline and schedule you use for your bathroom cleaning, make sure you have some time set aside to disinfect your grout.
8. Clean Vents and Registers
Dust and dirt in your vents and registers can negatively impact the air quality in your bathroom. A vacuum cleaner attachment (or handheld vacuum) can make quick work of this.
9. Clean Your Cleaning Tools Too!
Finally, make sure you clean your cleaning tools. It’s easy to neglect all those brushes and sponges, but it’s important to clean them on a periodic basis and replace them when they’ve become too dirty or too degraded to conduct a reliable clean.
With these strategies, you can make sure your bathroom remains clean, hygienic, and supportive of good health. It does require some proactive planning and some genuine effort, but it’s worth the investment if it means making your home environment even marginally cleaner and healthier.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
