You Missed a Spot! 5 Bathroom Objects You Forget to Clean.

Picture this: it’s Saturday. You’ve cleared your schedule for the weekend so you can spruce up the ole’ homestead.

The bathroom’s looking pretty dingy, so you decide this’ll finally be the day you scrub it down!

You wipe the caked-on toothpaste off the sink, get rid of all the soap rings around the tub, and tackle the floors, the cabinet, and the shower walls. You even hunker down, plug your nose, and give the toilet a deep clean.

And with that, you’re all done!

… or ARE you?

On closer inspection, you may find some objects around the bathroom that you and many others might have missed. Some of which, if left untouched, could drastically affect the quality of life in your latrine.

Here are five bathroom features that you might miss while cleaning and how to give them a proper scrubbing!

1: Shower Curtains

Does the bath mat match the drapes?

We start off with something you look at every time you wash up but might forget to scrub when you clean your shower; the shower curtains!

Whether your curtains are a solid color, have a floral pattern, or have the periodic table of elements printed on them, they all have one thing in common; they defend your bathroom floor from soapy water as you shower. After multiple showers, however, they will be coated in soap scum.

Drape-r or plastic?

There are several ways you can get that soapy scourge off your beloved curtains. Those made of fabric can be put in the wash, just be sure to follow the recommended wash instructions for your shower curtain.

However, many shower curtains have an inner plastic layer or are fully plastic. As much as we would like to just let the washer take care of it, to prevent the plastic from melting under high heat, we’ll have to scrub this down by hand.

The best method for putting in the ol’ elbow grease is to lay the curtain out on a flat surface, such as a table or the floor. This’ll give you a solid base to scrub against.

Clean in a circular motion to loosen any caked on film and be sure to hit any places with heavy build up. If done correctly, it’ll be curtains for soap scum!

If you’re looking for a way to get the job done faster, Drillbrush makes a line of drill-powered flat brushes that does all the hard scrubbing for you. You can check out those brushes here: Drillbrush Flat Brushes

2: Showerhead

“Hey! Up here!” - your showerhead, probably

While we’re nearby, let’s take a look at the key feature in your shower that often gets skipped during scrubbing season…

The showerhead.

Yes, the reason it’s called a shower in the first place can often get overlooked. Many will assume that because it’s the source of the water and it’s elevated above all the dirty parts of the shower that it can’t possibly get THAT filthy.

However, like faucets, you’ll eventually get calcium build-up on the nozzle. This can clog the openings in the showerhead and make the water flow weak.

This can be resolved simply by removing your showerhead, placing it in a suitably sized container, and submerging it with plain vinegar. The vinegar will react with the calcium deposits and send it packing!

Scarier than the shower scene in “Psycho”.

After giving it the vinegar, use a thin object like a pin to clear out clogged sections of the head, then use a small brush to scrub between each of the nozzles.

When you’re done, you’ll be able to sing slightly off-key to a chorus of water spraying at full force!

3: Vents

Sometimes you just gotta vent.

Usually when people talk about cleaning their bathroom, they’re talking about the bathroom-specific fixtures, like the tub, sink, shower, and toilet. However, the vents in the bathroom are very important in maintaining a healthy bathing space.

Vents are responsible for circulating air around the house. As such, the grates can be a haven for dust and mold to build up. This not only decreases the overall air quality of your home, but makes the vent work less effectively.

Lookin’ grate!

The best way to clear the air, so to speak, is to get between the slats in the vent with a thin brush, like an old toothbrush.

If the vent plate can be removed, this makes your job even easier! Simply unscrew the plate and you can scrub the inside as well, getting any clumps of dust you might have missed from your limited front facing perspective.

Though if using a toothbrush to clean like a kid who got after-school detention isn’t appealing, Drillbrush makes a thin drill-powered Edge brush for getting into grates and grout lines that you can find here: Drillbrush Edge Brushes

4: Behind the Toilet

D-do we have to go back there?.

You clean the inside of the toilet, you clean the outside of the toilet. But do you clean BEHIND the toilet?

I know, it’s a dark place that even the toughest among us fear to tread, but if left alone for too long, it’ll collect all sorts of dust, garbage, grime, and *shutter* other substances…

It might be a tight squeeze, but you can get back there with most scrub brushes and dusters. You may want to wear gloves and disinfect the floor, though, as this area is in the “whoops, I missed” zone.

If you have issues reaching behind the toilet, try to use cleaning tools that have a long-reaching handle. If you’re using a drill-powered brush, Drillbrush makes extensions that attach to all of our products. You can find them here: Drillbrush Extensions

5: Bath Toys

His name is Kendrick.

If you have kids (or are just a kid at heart), you probably have bath toys to make washing up more fun. However, you shouldn’t forget to give the toy boats and rubber duckies a bath as well, or mildew will put the kibosh on all that splish-splashing merriment.

Some may get the impression that bath toys should be clean because they are often chilling in bath water, but that water ends up collecting all the dirt, dead skin, and filth that washes off of you.

Place the bath toys in fresh hot water and scrub them down with a cloth to get rid of any nasty film that may have developed on the surface.

The toys’ exterior isn’t the only thing you need to clean. Many bath toys have a hole on the bottom that water can get into. It may be difficult to get in there, but there are ways to clean it out.

Squeaky clean!

You can use a syringe to inject rubbing alcohol into the opening. This will coat and disinfect the interior of the toy. If you don’t have one or aren’t comfortable using a syringe, you can submerge the toy in a container of rubbing alcohol. Squeeze the toy to let the air out and release to allow the toy to bring the liquid in.

When you’re done, be sure to squeeze out and rinse the toys and dry them as much as you can before packing them away. This’ll prevent the box they’re stored in from getting grimey as well.

No Longer Forgotten

After you clean everything above, you can safely say, once and for all, that the whole bathroom is back in pristine condition!

At least, until you have to use it again.

But while you wait for the inevitable, prepare yourself by watching this video we made highlighting various Bathroom cleaning tips, including the ones we mentioned above!