Bathroom Blitz: easy cleaning tips

By Alex Brooks

Getting clean in the bathroom can involve dirty products. Those powerful bathroom cleaners that blitz soap scum or mould can contain ingredients you might not want to get naked with.

Nasty cleaning chemicals have the potential to be absorbed through our skin or inhaled through steam – think about that the next time you soak in a bathtub. When Choice tested bathroom cleaners, 43 per cent of testers reported skin irritations from a popular mould remover.

Products that contain bleach – sodium hypochlorite or sodium hydroxide – are common culprits behind nasal or skin irritations, but most of us feel like our bathroom isn’t entirely germ-free until the bleach has been sloshed around.

The good news is that natural alternatives such as sunlight, fresh air and essential oils – especially citrus or eucalyptus – can act as antiseptics.

It’s best to reserve chlorine bleach for use only when you need the big guns (like when someone’s been sick with a tummy bug) rather than integrate it into your regular cleaning routine.

In the meantime, try these easy bathroom-cleaning tips:

1: THE 20-MINUTE CLEAN ROUTINE

Who wants to waste time on dirty work? Develop a 20-minute bathroom cleaning routine to attend to once a week. Empty any garbage bins and remove all towels, bathmats and facewashers for laundering. Tackle the toilet next – yerk – by sprinkling bicarb or borax around the loo and leaving it for a good 15 minutes while you work on the rest of the room.

Wipe down the sink and then spend time wiping and scrubbing the tub or shower. Dust down ceilings and corners (don’t forget the vent of the extractor fan). Finish any tiled walls and mirrors with a squirt of vinegar and polish dry with an old cotton nappy. Scrub the toilet with a toilet brush, wipe the seat with vinegar and (using a clean rag you can then chuck in the wash) polish everything dry to offer the final touch of disinfecting. Remember, ventilating the bathroom with fresh air is nature’s best disinfectants – and mould or mildew finds it hard to grow on surfaces that are dry.

2: MAKE YOUR OWN BICARB BLITZER

There’s a lot to be said about the wonders of bicarbonate of soda as a natural cleaning product, but using it incorrectly will leave you surrounded by powdery white dust. Never use too much bicarb. Ever. A tablespoon is ample to clean a bathtub or shower. It’s best to sprinkle the smallest amount (less than a teaspoon) on a damp cloth and start wiping the surface. You’ll see the bicarb turn grey and as it cleans and lifts dirt and soap scum from a surface. Keep folding the cleaning cloth over as you remove the grey and yicky bicarb. A final polish with vinegar and clean rag should remove all traces of powdery bicarb and leave the surface with one of those sparkly shines that you see in TV commercials.

3: DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE RIGHT PRODUCTS

There is nothing wrong with relying on bathroom cleaning products from the supermarket, provided you follow the instructions. Microfibre is your friend, especially in the bathroom, where those super-absorbent cloths can whip through soap scum with a little elbow grease. A top tip is to fold the cloth in four and keep alternating the side of the cloth as you clean.

4: CLEAN YOUR TOOLS

Toilet brushes are gross. After you’ve cleaned the bathroom, clean the toilet brush thoroughly under running water (outside rather than in your newly clean bathroom) and leave the brush out in the sun to dry for at least six hours. Sunlight and fresh air will do wonders for the brush. If you want a little extra germ-prevention, dip the brush in vinegar or spray with Bosisto’s Eucalyptus Spray. Any cloths or rags that are used on the toilet should be laundered, dried and stored in a clean container so they are sterile and clean for next cleaning day.

[BREAKOUT]

GET YOUR TOX OFF!

Ban the triclosan! Commonly used as the anti-bacterial agent in a range of soaps, toothpastes and cleaning products, this chemical is moderately toxic by ingestion, it is a skin irritant and some research suggests it is a mutagenic, according to Peter Dingle in Cosmetics and Personal Care: Dangerous Beauty. So you may kill bacteria and other microbes, but you replace them with chemical residue that can do as much harm. Not to mention encouraging resistant bacteria strains to grow. Switch to plant-based soaps, natural toothpastes and less powerful cleaning products that don’t use the word ‘anti-bacterial’ on the package.

SQUEAKY GREEN BABY STEPS

Knowledge is power, so do your best to learn about products you spray, wipe and foam up in the bathroom. Scrutinize the labels on your bathroom cleaning products in the same way you look at food labels – and then go on a product diet. Try not to buy any more cleaning products that make you wheeze, sneeze or sting. Human beings are non-toxic, biodegradable and (mostly) friendly. It would be wonderful if our cleaning products were too.

G LOVES

1. Scotch-Brite High Performance Bathroom Cloth

The fine fibres in these clothes make them super-absorbent and able to clean without any chemicals. This one promises to absorb eight times its own weight, but microfibre tends to be most effective in the bathroom when used only slightly damp. RRP $5.38 available at supermarkets. www.3m.com

2. Cinderella Fabulously Easy Bathroom Cleaner

Reminiscent of cleaning with a Barbie doll covered in coconut oil, this fluoro pink cleaner may not look entirely natural but doesn’t contain any petroleum distillates, ammonia or phosphates. RRP $4.99 for 500 mL available at supermarkets. www.cinderella.com.au

3. Orange Power Shower Bath & Tile Cleaner

Great at getting off soap scum, this citrus-oil-powered cleaner is powerful and best left on the surface for a minute before wiping clean. It smells great, too. RRP $4.98 for 750 mL available at supermarkets. www.orangepower.com.au

4. Earth Choice Natural Clean Shower

This greywater-safe cleaner comes in recycled bottles and relies on citric acid and vegetable-based surfactants to power its clean. It promises that it is biodegradable to Australian Standards but requires between one and five minutes on the surface to break down dirt. RRP $3.79 for 600 mL available at supermarkets. www.naturesorganics.com.au

5. Ecover Toilet Cleaner

Made from plant-based ingredients that include citric acid, lauryl polyglucose and xanthan gum, this cleaner needs to be left to soak for a few minutes before scrubbing with a toilet brush. RRP $7.50 for 750 mL available at health food stores and selected outlets. www.ecover.com