Would anyone be able to give me a step by step instruction on how to clean a bathroom?

[Yumyi]

My own parents never taught me this and were always quite lax on generally tidiness. I feel like the rest of the house I can do. Hoover, dust everywhere and kitchens I wipe the tops. But when it comes to bathrooms I don’t really know what to do. At the moment I use disinfectant wipes over everything and use bleach squirt in the toilet. But I feel like this isn’t the right approach? What should I do with bath and shower? I have teenage boys and I want to teach them how to do cleaning properly before they leave home too so wanted to do it right

You needs something to dissolve the soap scum. Get a squirty bottle of bathroom cleaner or cif , use a non abrasive sponge to rub around the sink, bath or shower unit then rinse. White vinegar on any mirrors, windows, glass shower screens and for any areas of limescale build up. An old toothbrush to get around taps and plugholes.

Thank you much appreciated

I just use washing up liquid and hot water, and then antibac spray.

I put toilet cleaner around rim of loo, and then spray toilet top, lid, seat with antibac spray and leave for 5-10 mins (leave toilet cleaner for 15 mins)

then I splodge a bit of washing up liquid (I buy a cheap one just for cleaning the house) all over the sink and bath. I use a non-disposable cloth in hot water to clean all around the sink, taps, bath, bath taps, plughole etc. Old toothbrush around the bits cloth can't reach. Then I do the bath/shower last, wipe all round including tiles then using washing up liquid neat on shower head, give it a good lather with the cloth and more hot water. Then put shower on hot and rinse off. Do same for shower screen and try to remember to put shower door cleaner on it after that.

After this enough time has gone by so I take kitchen roll to clean the loo (not the cloth). I wet it, add a dab of washing up liquid, wipe the loo down from top to bottom and then use loo brush to clean the inside of it which has had the cleaner on it. Then I dispose of the kitchen roll. The cloth I use for the rest of the bathroom gets washed on hot setting and only used for bathroom.

The main cleaning principle is top to bottom and work around the room so you don’t miss anything. But bathrooms are a little different.

1. squirt toilet cleaner in the toilet bowl. Put the lid down and ignore it until the end.
2. throw all towels and bath mats etc in the wash.
3. hose/wipe down tiles around the bathtub and/or shower tray and shower screen
4. Spray and wipe bathtub and/or showertray
5. Wipe (and dry!) the bath/shower taps and any other fittings
6. spray and wipe the area around the sink and then the sink
7. Wipe (and dry!) the sink taps (glass cleaner works well)
8. Clean the mirror
9. Dry wipe the toilet from top to bottom
10. spray and clean the toilet from top to bottom, toilet seat last
11. scrub or use a toilet brush inside the toilet (only if you are in the 1% of mumsnetters who admit having a toilet brush)
12. empty bin
13. spray and wipe door handle and light switch on your way out
14. replace towels etc

cleaning the extractor can is a once in a blue moon job for me. It would be step 3a when I bother to do it.

Things you need:
Toilet bleach
bathroom cleaner
glass cleaner
sponge/soft scourer combination
toilet paper (can be flushed but kitchen paper shouldn’t be)

As above, but I always use decent rubber gloves to protect my hands from all the cleaning products. I have one pair for the bathroom, one for the kitchen.

My process is:

Dust shelves and window sill
Spray flash bathroom spray around bath and tiles and scrub over everything with a sponge, rinse off and dry with a cloth.
Spray sink with flash, scrub, rinse and dry off
Wipe all toilet with bathroom wipes and put bleach down loo, squirting it all around the bowl and rim. Close seat.
Sweep floor and then was with mop and bucket
Once floor is dry, scrub toilet bowl and flush
Spray air freshener
Done

Thanks that’s a very comprehensive list. Just what I need. What is the point of the dry wipe of the toilet? I have only recently noticed the importance of drying after wiping. As all my disinfectant wipes are leaving smear marks! I tend to dry with toilet roll and flush it . Is that a good plan?

@DifficultBloodyWoman's list is good.

My favourite bathroom product is Viakal, our old cleaner used it, and it's BRILLIANT at removing soap and hard water marks from metal and ceramic, I use that on the shower, bath, and basin a couple of times a week.

Get a good set of microfibre cloths and ditch the wipes. When you clean, you move round the room right to left if right handed, spraying and using a damp cloth to clean surfaces, taps etc, and then go over with a dry cloth to dry. Last thing to be cleaned is the toilet and then throw the cloths in the wash. Then a mop of the floor to finish.

Get rid of the wipes, they are horrible for the environment. You can easily replace with microfibre cloths and chuck in washing machine afterwards.

I only use two products: viakal for cleaning as we live in hard water area and put bleach in the loo. Also a glass cleaner by Astonish for mirrors.

However I've just bought Nancy Birtwhistle's book on Amazon and am going to make her pure magic spray which looks amazing and is much better for the environment.

My DP didn't know / wasn't taught how to clean properly either. The main thing I noticed was that he wasn't really scrubbing enough, more just wiping, so the bath was accumulating grime. Basically, scrub until it's squeaky clean is how I was taught! (Literally can test if its clean by wetting finger and seeing if it squeaks against the surface)

I like to use cif / a cream cleaner for the bathroom with a green scrubber sponge.
Ditto PPs suggestion for an old toothbrush for around the taps etc.
Don't forget to put your shower curtain in the wash regularly.

The dry wipe of the toilet is because the cistern tends to accumulate dust. If wet wipe it or spray it first, you just move the now wet dust around and it is harder to pick it up. A dry wipe first picks up the dust (or knocks into the floor) leaving you a dust free surface to actually clean.

Important note - dusting may form a part of cleaning but it is not cleaning in and of itself.

I like to use cif / a cream cleaner for the bathroom with a green scrubber sponge.

I'd be wary of a cream cleaner if you have a plastic bath - it could be too abrasive. Cif spray is all right, though. You can get refills for it, too.

One of the best things you can teach your boys is to dry off the inside of the shower enclosure and the shower controls before they step out. This prevents limescale and water marks.
To this end, we have a few small hand towels in a colour none of us would use to dry ourselves and we keep one hanging over the top of the shower enclosure. It doesn't need to be bone dry, just a swipe to remove droplets.
It makes a big difference to the everyday swish round.

Thanks these tips are so great x
interesting about scrubbing until all the grime is gone. I think at the moment I am only wiping

I love threads like this. I operate well with instructions

I clean with mister muscle bathroom spray and bicarbonate of soda. Works a treat on the bath and sink to remove soap scum.

This is a bathroom checklist Dana K White created for her kids to follow. She has other ones for the kitchen, other rooms and a daily bathroom checklist too.

For anyone that needs a list or instructions, the Goblin Tools website and app are brilliant.

You can put in any task and it will break it down into steps for you. You can break it down into as many steps as you need, then tick them off as you go along.
You can also add your own steps or delete any you don't want.

I find it really helps me.

I use Bar Keepers Friend for everything in the bathroom, including the shower screen. I don't know what's in it, but it is a miracle product!

Oxalic acid.

It’s an amazing product!

To be fair, you only need to scrub if you can see or feel dirt.

For example, sometimes you can feel something on the side of the bathtub (dry soap residue) but you can’t see anything there. Keep scrubbing until it is the same texture all around the tub.

If you are cleaning regularly, scrubbing isn’t needed. A wipe is sufficient because the dirt is only on the surface and isn’t around long enough to become engrained.

I find a few wipes with a soft scourer (sponge on one side, scourer on the other) is enough and my bathroom doesn’t actually get cleaned as much as it should. ☺️