cleaning Archives

I have a love/hate relationship with cleaning my bathroom. I love having it clean and sparkly, and I know way too much about the bacteria that want to grow in there to leave it for too long. Clorox wipes are my best friend for wiping down my sink and vanity area, and I have a set system for keeping the floors, mirrors and toilet clean. The shower is where I notoriously have trouble. For a long time, no system worked that was affordable and quick.

When I already don’t have enough time to get everything on my to-do list done in a given week, chores that take significant time can easily get pushed off another week. This may have translated to weeks (months) where I rinsed what I saw, but I didn’t deep clean my shower more than taking a Clorox wipe to the bottom.

Like any good believer in retail therapy and the wonders of sales at Ulta, I have a thousand and one shampoos, conditioners, hair masques, body washes, lotions, scrubs and other products that take up too much space in my shower. And admittedly, they often like to find their way in little globs on the shower itself or on the shower curtain. I have discovered the hard way that if you don’t catch them in time, that stuff will harden and it takes a pickax to get it off all of the way.

That is, until I discovered the wonders of Blue Dawn Soap and Vinegar. I’m sure there are other products that do the same thing, and you’ll often pay a decent amount for them, but guys. Seriously. Blue dawn (and don’t ask me why that works better than another color/smell of dawn but it really does) and normal old white vinegar can clean anything from my bathtub.

I buy one of those dish scrubbers, you know the ones that have the spot in the handle for the soap with the sponge on the end?

I take that and fill it half and half with the BD and Vinegar. Turn it over a couple of times to mix it up, and scrub away. I have to touch nothing but the handle (because let’s be real, that’s the grossest part), I’m not dealing with anything crazy chemical wise, it makes it smell fresh and clean when it’s done, and that stuff cuts through grease and my little globbies that want to take up residence. Though you may have to work at it a little depending on the product, how long it’s been living there, etc.

Sometimes (though be careful not to splash it up on yourself) I even go ahead and clean it while I’m still in the shower. And when I’m finished, I’m clean, my shower is clean and I don’t have to give it a second thought.

It’s less than $5 (depending on sizes, brands and what you already have on hand) and it lasts for a long time, making a cleaner that works.

Great life choice in my book.

Disclaimer: Depending on the quality of scrub brush you buy, some of the liquid mix may spill out when it’s being stored. I leave mine on the lip of my tub and whenever I use it, I just rinse the BD and vinegar away. I’ve never stored it on anything that wasn’t able to be washed, so I can’t speak for that, but if you’ve never used that kind of brush before – know that it can leak a little. I just take it as par for the course with that tool, and keep on keeping on.