My Favorite Bathroom Cleaners
There are a surprising number of products on the market that will help you clean your bathroom. You don’t have to spend a fortune on the latest and greatest products, but some products are still better than others—and as someone who writes about how to clean for a living, you can imagine that I’ve tested a lot of them. . Here are the ones I think are the best in recent years.
The Two Best Products for Cleaning Most of Your Bathroom
First of all, no longer worry about how you are going to clean your bathtub, sink, toilet and fixtures. You really only need two products, and they both work great. For porcelain and tile, use a soft scrub. I first became acquainted with this product two summers ago, when my boyfriend suddenly decided to buy a boat. Each night when we docked, we were tasked with scrubbing off the salt water that coated the surfaces, and we quickly discovered that the Soft Scrub, which combines a small abrasive and a large amount of foam, was the most effective and least harmful product. From there I took some for home. I think of it as a gentle exfoliator for my clothes: it lightly polishes and restores the surface, never scratches and lathers, giving a good clean. For the bathroom, try a mixture with bleach .
For your hardware, like faucets or even your toilet flush, I recommend the same thing I recommend for kitchen metals: Brasso . The seven-in-one polish is inexpensive—just under $5—and easily adds shine to copper, steel, chrome, and more.
For the most difficult places
In the past, I’ve recommended using electronic brushes , which are great for easing the need to thoroughly scrub tiles, grout, and crevices. However, since I started using a more abrasive soft scrub, I find it a little unnecessary. If I need to clean a little more, I again recommend what I also suggest for the kitchen: my trusty Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Extra Foamy . You get five of them for less than $10, and if they ain’t broke, don’t fix them. I buy one package and use them throughout the house. Like traditional melamine sponges, they make quick work of sticky stains and scuff marks, but with small foaming pods of cleaning agent inside, they also foam up for extra grime removal performance.
However, if you have a bunch of tiny crevices, one of these electronic brushes may still be for you. There’s really no good reason to strain your elbows when something like this exists and only costs about $20.
Other Bathroom Cleaning Essentials
I also keep a miniature scraper in the bathtub and use it to clean the glass while I shower. This has significantly reduced the frequency and intensity of glass cleaning overall, as it prevents moisture buildup and prevents water spots and streaks from forming before they even appear. Here’s the one I have that costs less than $10.
I never use liquid cleaners or clog removers to clean drains. I’ve never found them to be that effective, at least compared to drainage weasels . It’s long, has a rotating handle, and easily pulls debris and hair right out of your pipes, so regular use means you won’t end up with a ton of clogs.
Finally, here’s something I don’t have yet, but really want, so I’m mentioning it as a means of putting something I need out into the universe: a cordless window vac from Sharper Image that you fill with water, stick to glass and let us do all the work for you. After spraying the glass, it even removes the water and then sorts it into a separate tank so that clean and dirty water never mix. It costs $68 and is admittedly a little unnecessary if you only have a small mirror (which I have) and a bottle of Windex (which I also have), but it’s very cool and it means something.