Organizing Your Home: Bathrooms

I’m sure you would agree: to try and organize the entire house all at once is a sure recipe for failure. It is the equivalent of asking the old question “How do you eat an elephant?" with the answer being "One bite at a time!”

We have been looking at organizing areas of the house lately, and today we will be addressing the dreaded bathroom. If this sends shudders up and down your spine, take heart and stay with us; you will be glad you did.

To start off, let’s take a look at those countertops. Quite often they are not only dirty but cluttered with a variety of bathroom items. Let’s begin by removing everything off of one area of the counter and place it on the floor. Spray that one area with whatever you use for bathroom cleaner and wipe it down. Put the things you took off that area back and repeat the steps with the other areas of the countertop. Put the things that belong in drawers away, and the things that should stay on top (soap dispenser, etc.) should be wiped down. Don’t neglect the sink—use something that will break up toothpaste spit & soap scum and clean that baby out!

Now that you have won the battle with the countertop clutter monster and find it shiny and sparkling clean, let’s move on to the toilet. If your toilet is typical, you have things on the back of the toilet. Begin by taking those items off, placing them on the floor, and giving the back of the tank a good scrubbing. Replace the items and hit the area where the seat lifts—it’s a great collector of hair and dust. Lift the lid and wipe down the actual seat—you’ll be amazed at the collection of dead skin cells on it. Then clean underneath the seat as well. Next, scrub the inside of the bowl with whatever cleaner you choose and scrub it with a long-handled toilet brush. Flush and close the lid—this part is done! Finally, use your rag and cleaner to hit the bottom of the tank where it bolts to the floor. This is a prime spot for dust and hair and is often neglected.

Okay, that being accomplished, it’s time to move on to the shower and or tub area. As you will discover, even though shampoo and body wash are great things in that they remove grit and oil from our bodies, the grit and oil they remove from our bodies as well as the bubbles they produce tend to collect on the sides and bottoms of the shower. And when they dry, it’s a real grimy mess to clean. Grab a good soap-scum cleaner for this job and be prepared to use some elbow grease. Spray it down and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then use a non-abrasive (i.e., non-steel-wool) scrubbing pad and go to work. Keep scrubbing until you hit a smooth tub surface. Rinse when you’re all done—use a large cup or bowl to splash clean water on the back of the tub and get all the grime down the drain.

Next on the list to getting your bathroom organized and clean is to take a look at the floor. Are you finding dust and hair there? Use a broom or Swiffer ®-type sweeper to clean it up. Then go back with a damp mop and grab the dust that’s stuck to the floor from humidity and water.

One last thing to tackle is to get those bathroom mirrors cleaned. Grab your window cleaner and spray the mirrors. It is advised you do small sections at a time or else the cleaner will dry before you get to it, making it harder to clean. Once you have it wiped down, you can now smile, because you’re done in the bathroom!

Hooray!