HOW TO CLEAN YOUR DIRTY BATHROOM FAST & KEEP IT CLEAN

Take care of her and she will take care of you. But if you don’t clean her from top to bottom on a regular basis, she will make you pay for it ten times over! Yep, I’m talking about your vindictive, dirty bathroom!

But I know how it is. You want to keep your bathroom clean but you’re already busy enough & it’s going to take you forever to do it. You simply don’t have that kind of time. Lucky for you, you’re in the right spot!

I’m going to show you how to clean your bathroom quickly (even if it’s disgusting) and prevent it from ever becoming a nightmare again!  It’s how I clean my bathroom at home & how I train my staff to clean.

And believe me, what I’m about to show you works in even the most disgusting bathrooms so you should be good to go after this!

STEP 1 | GET THE RIGHT BATHROOM CLEANING SUPPLIES

Before we do anything, we need to have the right tools so that we can clean the bathroom easily and quickly!  Not having the right cleaning products and materials is what turns a one-hour job into a three-hour job – and we ain’t got time for that!

I’m sure you’ve got most of the items below at home so feel so it should be fairly easy for you to buy or make whatever may be missing. But I seriously encourage you to make substitutions as you see fit!

Let’s use this list to make the perfect bathroom cleaning caddy!

MUST-HAVE CLEANING TOOLS, PRODUCTS & MATERIALS : 

• Cleaning Towels | Paper towel & microfiber towels clean & dry surfaces

• Scour Sponges | Use these to effortlessly scrub the shower, tub, counters & sink

• All-Purpose Cleaner | Try the Meyers & Method brand if you don’t have one you love

• Glass Cleaner | Glass towels are actually my secret to streak-free mirrors – just use water

• Soft Cleanser Or Pumice Stone | Use these for a quick & non-toxic way to remove toilet bowl rings & stains

• Mold & Milder Stain Remover | Try this brand for a low-odor, no scrub option but be sure to follow the instructions

• Small Trash Can Liners | Buy these babies online & in bulk instead of in the grocery store to save serious cash

• One Large Cup | For rinsing shower walls and surfaces

• Toilet Bowl Brush

• Vacuum Cleaner Or Broom  | I always recommend Shark vacuums for the entire house

• Mop & Bucket

• Caddy | Use one like this or temporarily substitute with a mop bucket or basket if you don’t have one

• Gloves | I’ve never found lasting glove so I use these disposable ones.

This next list of products has cleaning products & tools that are fantastic because using them will save you even more time when cleaning than if you just used the items above. If I could only recommend one item from this list, it would be the apron. Seriously.

OPTIONAL CLEANING PRODUCTS & TOOLS THAT REALLY CUT DOWN YOUR BATHROOM CLEANING TIME

• Apron | I seriously can’t clean without one – everything you need is right there which means no more wasted time going back and forth for products. Check out the one my staff uses here.

• Dawn & Vinegar Mix: 50:50 | It’s super effective for soap scum and cleaning dirty bathroom surfaces without scrubbing. Yeh, it stinks but the smells goes away pretty quickly. It’s a personal favorite of mine!

• Mold & Mildew Inhibitor | It will cut down on mold & mildew growth which will save you mega time on future cleanings.

• Have Tile & Grout? | Get an actual grout brush or use a medium or hard toothbrush for cleaning grout. A grout sealer is also a good idea.

• Heavy Soap Scum On Your Glass Shower Door? | Use a window scraper or razor blade to quickly scrape all the scum away instead of having to use lots of elbow grease.

You may want to check out my very popular Daily, Weekly & Monthly Cleaning Schedule With A Simple Morning Routine (built into the schedule).

STEP TWO | USE A BATHROOM CLEANING ROUTINE

FOLLOW A BATHROOM CLEANING ROUTINE AND STICK TO IT

Why you should follow a cleaning routine

The more you do something, the better (and faster) you’ll get.  It’s like a law of the universe – kinda – that works in your favor even when it comes to cleaning!

Personally, I can clean a bathroom (clean or crazy dirty) super-fast!  Like mind-blowingly fast and I’m not exaggerating. And “no” I’m not using fairy dust!

What’s my secret?  I have a routine that I use no matter what.  That’s what gets me in and out so fast!   I always know exactly where to start and there is mega power in that. 

How to make your cleaning routine work for you

Just keep the routine short & simple in the beginning so that you have room to build on it over time. And then follow the routine over & over again for a few months so that eventually it becomes a habit and not feel so much like a chore!

Remember the following when cleaning the bathroom or any room

I’m also sure you’ve already heard the general rules to cleaning but here they are again as a friendly reminder:

• Work from top to bottom
• Work from left to right (or in a circle)

But I’m going to add one important rule that will supercharge your cleaning routine by saving you lots of time and unnecessary scrubbing…

Always pretreat tough areas before you clean anything!

Most products actually need a few minutes to sit and work on build-up which translates into less elbow grease & effort from you.  And trust me when I say this is the ultimate time-saving hack!  

How to pretreat your bathroom

From now on, step one of your cleaning routine is to search for soap scum build-up or stains in the bathroom.  When you find them, spray them with the appropriate cleaner – then go clean something else. 

Let the product dwell. When you do this, you’re letting it do the heavy lifting for you.  Most products actually need 5-15 minutes of dwell time per the instructions.  Once the time is up, you can begin scrubbing or wiping as usual. That’s it! Easy right? 

And to clean your bathroom really fast, use a timer!

You want to clean the bathroom fast, but how long should it take you? The quick answer is, it’s up to you. If you currently take 2-hours to clean it but want to reduce your time to 1-hour, you need to track your cleaning time.

Set a timer for the amount of time you think it should take you to clean the bathroom. Then clean as usual (or start with your new routine), but be sure to check the timer from time to time to see how you’re doing.

And this is where the magic starts! Using a timer is a powerful hack because it puts pressure on you to move and keeps you laser-focused. Those two powers combined put you into pure Wonder Woman mode!

If you want to learn the secrets to cleaning your entire house fast, you should check out my post: how to clean your entire house in 2 hours! It’s a game changer!

STEP THREE | CLEAN AT LEAST ONE THING IN YOUR BATHROOM EVERY DAY

MINI-CLEAN THE BATHROOM EVERYDAY

What is mini-cleaning? 

It’s any cleaning you can accomplish in a few minutes – wiping out the sink, cleaning the mirror or even cleaning the toilet can be considered mini-cleaning.  

Why should you clean at least one thing in the bathroom everyday? 

Because cleaning a little each day will keep your bathroom from becoming a freak show! It’ll stay in a constant state of fresh and clean!  Doing this will save you from having to spend hours cleaning a dirty bathroom. 

Some ideas of what to clean in your bathroom when you’re just mini-cleaning…

When you have a little time, just choose one or two things off the list below to clean! Remember you only need 5-30 minutes a day to make a big difference in your bathroom.

• No more towels left on the floors or on the sinks.  If it needs to be washed, place it in a hamper, otherwise hang it up.

• Clean the toilet. A lot goes on in this spot – it only takes 10 seconds to scrub away any evidence you were ever there. 

• Keep cleaning products in the shower. That way you can easily spray and wipe down surfaces when you hop in or on your way out!

• Keep a small vacuum cleaner close by to remove hair off the floor but here’s a mega tip – vacuum the hair before you get into the shower or get the floor wet.  Wet hair is almost impossible to clean up! 

• Pay your bath mats some attention. Shake them out regularly, vacuum them if possible and wash them when needed.

• Declutter the bathroom by getting rid of old, expired make-up and other products. Plus, you get a chance to take inventory of what you have and I’ll bet you have some great anti-wrinkle creams that have been hidden in the back of your drawer!

• Take out the trash. Try to remember to keep extra liners in the trash so that you don’t have to waste time looking for a liner the next time it gets emptied.
  

• Prevent mold and mildew from growing in your shower. Clean as you go & wipe surfaces like glass doors dry before you step out of the shower.  Or spray a mold inhibitor in the shower as needed.

• Grab a paper towel and wipe excess toothpaste out of the sink.  Doing this on a daily basis will help keep your sink from turning into a bowl of grossness.

Let’s Wrap Up

To clean your dirty bathroom really fast and keep it clean you simply need to do the following:

• Make sure you have the right cleaning products and tools for the job. Not having the right products will definitely slow you down.
• Use a bathroom cleaning routine – and don’t forget to use a timer – to drastically slash your cleaning time.
• Microclean daily – spend a few minutes cleaning different areas in the bathroom to keep it surprisingly clean almost all the time!

Good things are meant to be shared! Save this to your Pinterest account so you can actually find it later and so others can see you’ve got all the good stuff!