How to Deep Clean a Bathroom

Dirt, grime, and everyday wear and tear can get a bathroom down. While it’s easy to take five minutes every day and pick up your bathroom, a bathroom deep cleaning guide can help you get your bathroom clean and keep it that way for longer amounts of time. We recommend taking thirty minutes to an hour every two weeks to clean your bathrooms. Each bathroom, depending on size, will take roughly thirty to forty-five minutes. You can alternate weeks if you have several bathrooms to clean. Keep a cleaning calendar in your cleaner cupboard to keep track of your cleaning schedule.

The Toilet

A deep cleaning of the toilet goes beyond pouring a little bit of Ajax in the bowl. We do recommend that you start by cleaning the bowl though, and then work your way to every area of the toilet. Use the same cleaner on the outside of your toilet as you do in the bowl or a cleaner in that same family. Mixing chemicals can be deadly, so be cautious. Once you’ve cleaned the bowl, the seat, the ring, and the outside, make sure to check the base and the caulking where the toilet attaches to the floor. This area tends to mold and become germy because it can be hard to see or reach.

Pro tip: To prolong the effects of toilet cleaning, add a leave-in toilet bowl cleaner to your toilet. These tabs can be found at any big box store.

The Shower

Once or twice a month, scrub down your shower with basic shower or tub cleaner. If you have a glass door in the shower attack those water buildup stains. If you wait too long, these deposits can become impossible to remove—so don’t let them get too bad. Most showers have tile, and tile has grout. Grout can mold quickly, especially in older homes. Clean your grout regularly, but if mold grows in between cleaning sessions, take a cotton ball covered in bleach and leave it on the moldy spot for four to eight hours.

Showerheads need love too. If you're seeing a decrease in water pressure, there’s likely a buildup in the showerhead. Take a quart-sized Ziploc bag of vinegar and tie it around the showerhead for 12 hours. Then simply remove the bag of vinegar and start the shower.

We also recommend you wash your shower curtain once or twice a month, and clean the shower curtain liner if you can’t wash it in the machine. Plastic shower curtain liners should be completely replaced once a year.

The Tub

Deep cleaning the tub requires a little scrubbing action. You may have to get down on your hands and knees to really scrub up and down the inside of the tub. After you’ve scrubbed down the inside of the tub, use hot water to wash the chemicals down the drain and give it a day or two before you take a bath.

Wash down the outside of the tub with a germ-killing cleaner and make sure to clean the caulk that seals the tub to the bathroom floor. You can shine the drain and faucet up with a little baking soda and lemon juice. Snaking the tub drains twice a month is also a good idea—it prevents buildup.

The Floor

Wash all your bathroom rugs while you deep clean, and make sure to pay attention to the floor and baseboards. Sweep and mop your bathroom floor and scrub anything that doesn’t come off with a mop with a rag. Baseboards can get covered in dust and lint, so don’t forget to wipe them down every time you deep clean. All flooring surfaces and baseboard materials are different, so make sure to choose a cleaning method that is safe for your bathroom.

The Walls and Door

Though you may not need to hit these hard every time you clean, make sure the walls and door in your bathroom get a little recognition at least once every three or four months. Take a bucket of warm water with a light squirt of dish soap and wash down the walls. Don't try to clean walls with flat paint with this method. After you wash walls, give the door a quick wash as well. Though you may not need to do more than spot treat doors and walls every month, the door handle does need to be shined, washed, and sanitized weekly.

As you enjoy your clean bathroom, consider revamping your bathroom or adding a little extra pizazz to those newly dusted bathroom shelves.