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8 DIY Bathroom Cleaners: From Tub Scrubs and Tile Grout Cleaners to Streak-Free Mirrors!

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Jonathon Engels, a long-time vegetarian turned vegan, is currently on a trip from Guatemala to... Read More

The bathroom is more often considered a place of business than one in which we might linger and lounge. We brush our teeth before going to bed. We take a shower then get dressed to go. We use the toilet and vacate as quickly as possible. With the rare occasion of bath salts, a glass of wine, and half-an-hour to kill, we don’t go into the bathroom to stay.

Nevertheless, the bathroom has to stay clean, and one of us—some of us—have to do it. While these spots—toilet seats, toothbrush holders, soap dishes—need to be hygienic, cleaning the bathroom is not the time to turn to harsh chemicals and expensive specialty products. Making your own bathroom cleaners is simple, inexpensive, and absolutely effective.

With just a handful of natural ingredients, we can keep the bathroom sparkling and our experiences there as pleasant as possible.

1. All-Purpose Cleaner

Source: eHow/Youtube

An all-purpose cleaner, as its name suggests, is the basic for everywhere. It can handle tiles, toilet bowls, showers, and almost anything on some level. We want something that subdues germs, corrodes scum, and smells pretty good while doing it.

Get a repurposed spray bottle, sprinkle in a tablespoon of baking soda, a couple of tablespoons of castile soap and essential oils (approx. 25 drops of tea tree and 25 drops of some type of citrus). Add a couple of cups of warm water and shake it up.

2. Bathroom Deodorizer

Source: Clean My Space/Youtube

The bathroom is often associate with disagreeable odors, so it only makes sense that we like to counteract that with something. Well, we needn’t use chemically concocted smells to do so.

A vase of eucalyptus branches on the toilet tank. These are available at flower shops.
Cotton balls lightly infused with nicely scented essential oil. Put it near the toilet roll.
Homemade potpourri can be made with clippings from the garden and stuff from the pantry.

4. Drain Cleaner

Source: Colorful Canary/Youtube

Cleaning the bathroom drain is perhaps one of the most disgusting tasks we take on in the bathroom. No one knows why an aged knot of hair soaked in days, perhaps weeks, of soap suds is so gross, but it undeniably is. Avoid it with simple drain maintenance!

Start by pushing some baking soda into the drain holes then pour white vinegar on top of it. This, of course, will start bubbling like mad.

5. Glass & Mirror Cleaner

Source: eHow/Youtube

The place we most often study in the bathroom would be the mirror. Whether we are just making faces at ourselves and searching for facial blemishes, we gaze at our own reflection regularly, so we don’t want flecks of last night’s toothpaste in the way of that.

Start with two cups of water, add a half-cup of white vinegar and top it off with a couple of drops of liquid dish soap. Old newspapers are great “cloths” for wiping this away.

6. Metal Polish

Source: Humader/Youtube

While shining up the chrome or brass on the bathroom fixtures isn’t an everyday task, from time to time it needs to be done. Clean, shiny fixtures make the bathroom seem so much nicer.

Squeeze the juice from a lemon (or just use vinegar) and wet the surface of the metal with it. Dust that surface with some baking soda. Let it rest for a bit and rub the fixture clean with a cloth.

7. Tile Grout Cleaner

Source: This Old House/Youtube

While an all-purpose cleaner can usually get the tiles adequately clean, every now and again the grout needs a sprucing up as well. That might call for something a little more abrasive and powerful…and maybe an old toothbrush (repurposing!) for scrubbing.

No surprise, we are again looking to vinegar, baking soda, and liquid soap as the solution. Put some vinegar along the grout seam, mix up some baking soda and soap, and use an old toothbrush to scrub the grub away.

8. Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Source: Our Oily House/Youtube

With all that (and what) goes into a toilet bowl, it’s no wonder we want a special cleaner just for it. An all-purpose cleaner is probably good enough, but for some extra, there is always the scrub-free, toilet-cleaning bomb!

A cup of baking soda, 1/4 cup of citric acid (powder), a tablespoon of liquid soap, and essential oil for scent. The idea is to make the mixture just moist enough with soap to hold together. Put them in a mold and toss one in the bowl once a week.

With this little collection of natural, all-green, DIY bathroom clean machines, it’s possible to have a sanitized inviting bathroom without funky smells and carcinogenic chemicals to foul things up. In a weird way, the bathroom suddenly seems inviting, doesn’t it? And, cleaning seems kind of interesting.