I love a clean bathroom, and it is actually one of my favorite rooms to clean. Others may say “Ewww!” It’s true, cleaning the hair off of the floor and scrubbing the ring in a tub may not exactly be glamorous tasks. But I get so excited with the finished product that the gunky process doesn’t bother me for the most part.
What does bother me are nasty, stinky, bad-for-you cleaning products that hang in the air like a bad perfume. But fear not! Getting a clean and fresh bathroom doesn’t require those harmful chemicals! With just a few inexpensive items and a little bit of effort, you can easily enjoy a naturally clean and fresh bathroom.
What I Use to Clean the Bathroom
I use a handful of ingredients to get our bathroom fresh and clean. I do almost all of our cleaning with the same ingredients because they are inexpensive, effective, and harmless.
The Stars:
- Baking soda (affiliate link) for gentle scrubbing, degunking, and deodorizing
- Vinegar for degunking, disinfecting, and degreasing
- Hydrogen peroxide for disinfecting and whitening when used with baking soda
- Essential oils (affiliate link) like tea tree, eucalyptus, lemon, or peppermint for a touch of natural scent and disinfecting
Easy Steps to Get the Bathroom Naturally Clean
The Process
- Mirrors, fixtures, and surfaces get wiped down with a half-vinegar/half-water solution that I keep in a spray bottle. I also usually add 1 t. of essential oil to the solution. I usually have to declutter the sink-tops, too. It’s amazing what my children seem to think belongs there.
- Sink bowls and tubs get scoured out with baking soda and the vinegar spray. I put about one tablespoon of baking soda in each sink bowl, and about 1/4 c of baking soda sprinkled around in the tub. I spray enough vinegar solution into each to make a paste with the baking soda and scrub away. I also spray extra in the tub to make sure the notorious ring gets dissolved. The vinegar really goes to work on that gunk! So long as I haven’t let the tub go for too long, this doesn’t take too much scrubbing from me.
- Shower walls generally just need scrubbed with the vinegar solution, but occasionally seem to have some soap build-up in certain spots. When that happens, I use a little baking soda to scrub away. I rinse the tub and walls with some water after they are scrubbed.
- The toilet bowl receives about 1/4-1/2 cup of baking soda dumped in (I really don’t measure, of course), a few drops of tea tree oil, and a splash of peroxide (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup again). Sometimes I use vinegar in place of the peroxide, but I think the finished bathroom smells fresher with peroxide. Either will work, though. After scrubbing with the toilet brush, I leave it set until someone needs to use the restroom.
- The floor is wiped down with… take a guess… bleach! Just kidding. I spray it with the vinegar bottle and wipe it down, moving myself out of the room. I also wipe down our baseboards when I do this because they are white and new and seeing them dirty would make me sad. For now.
- The inside shower curtain is washable, so I try to watch it for build-up of soap or rust. We have very rusty water, and even with a sediment filter and whole-house water filtration system, I still notice a little rust. I’ve tried soaking the bottom of the curtain in baking soda and vinegar before washing in hot water, and that seems to help. I’d love to hear other suggestions for this one! *Update: The fabric shower curtain liner is clean! It’s easy. Read how in this post.*
- Our toothbrushes are soaked upside-down in a small cup filled with peroxide. It disinfects and brightens them and is simple to do when I have the supplies out already.
I know, all of our toothbrushes are in one container of peroxide. I probably get more comments on this picture than anything else! That’s okay. The peroxide disinfects the toothbrushes, so to me, this is like throwing all of our family’s spoons into one sink of water to wash. They are each rinsed after soaking, too. However, if you are more concerned, you can put each toothbrush in it’s own cup of peroxide.
That’s about it! We all have our differently cleaning processes and preferences, and I’d love to hear any additional tips and tricks for keeping a bathroom naturally clean.
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I love love LOVE this cleaning guide Kristen! I’ve just been taking my vinegar cleaner in the bathroom and going crazy with that. I’ve often wondered if I’m using the cleaner in the correct place 😬 I didn’t realize vinegar and baking soda could be used together, I had recently read they canceled each other out. But now with my peroxide bottle and other cleaners ready, I’m so excited to get a quiet moment away from my boys (yes, house full of boys!) to clean the bathroom!!
I’m glad it was helpful, Amy! Baking soda and vinegar can cancel each other out, but we use just enough vinegar to get the baking soda wet for scrubbing. Sometimes we just use water, too. But the spray bottle is already there and handy, so it works just as well. 🙂
PS… do you have the bathroom cleaning guide for kiddos? It’s even helpful for parents! 😉
what do you use for the toilet itself? would you use the vinegar or the peroxide to disinfect?
Hi there, Jill. I spray it with the vinegar solution that I use for all other surfaces, though a peroxide spray can work for the toilet seat if you wanted to use that. Happy cleaning!
Hi, love your natural method of cleaning a bathroom! I’ve never used peroxide with my cleaning, but will be giving it a go now!
I do have a question….do you have a post, or can you share info on your whole house water filter action system?
I have well water that is heavy on iron and rust. I would love to hear what you use.
Thank you,
Sam
Hi Sam! I actually don’t have a post on our water filtration system. We bought it many years ago when we purchased our first house and well before I started a blog. Ours is a Rainsoft system. We bought it without much research or comparison, so I can’t really say how it compares to other options out there. At our first house, we were in the city and didn’t have trouble with rust. At our current house in the country, we have very rusty water like you do. We’ve found that we still have to stay on top of our sediment filter and use a special iron-out salt in the filtration system or we still get rust stains from the water. Hopefully that’s somewhat helpful!
Oh my gosh! This is almost exactly how I clean my bathroom and toothbrushes (in separate cups-?)! I absolutely can’t stand the smell of store bought cleaners and nothing cleans like baking soda and vinegar! Plus, the bathroom smells so good after cleaning with tea tree. You’re right! It makes it fun to clean the bathroom because it sparkles afterward and the tea tree smell is so invigorating.
Yahoo! Another bathroom cleaning fan! 😀 The toothbrushes in the same cup thing still makes me laugh… separate cups never even crossed my mind. Ha ha ha! Yep, probably a non-germaphobe to a fault. 😉
Yep! The toothbrushes in one cup? If you don’t think that’s a good idea, perhaps you don’t trust the cleaner… I agree with Kristen. Either the brushes get clean or they don’t, but it would be the same all together or separate. Sure, it looks bad, but just thinking a little bit, I can agree with Kristen.
Ha ha, thanks, Mama2eight! It’s so funny… when I wrote this post years ago I never even thought about the toothbrushes. I’m so not a germ-a-phobe. (Not that others who wouldn’t put them in one cup are overly germaphobic 😉 ). Like I said, I figure it’s the same thing as putting our silverware in the same sink full of soapy water to wash, but to each their own! 😀
All great ideas which I do. I stop buying soft scrub. My only concern is that it is not a great idea to put all the toothbrushes into the same dish of solution to be cleaned. Baking soda is my friend.
Hi Loraine! Glad you enjoy these methods, too.
Yes, someone else commented on the toothbrushes in one container. My thought has always been if they are being disinfected with the peroxide, I don’t see any harm in them being cleaned in the same container. Kind of like how we put all of our dirty dishes into one sink? I could be way off on that, but I’m kind of on the opposite end of the germaphobe spectrum. 😉
Baking soda is so great for cleaning, isn’t it?
Wow! Thanks and more thanks!
love your idea for the toilet! I dislike chemicals, too.
Rachel’s suggestion works, doesn’t smell the greatest but it works!! I have the same trouble with the bottom of the fabric shower curtain liners..I’ll try soaking them next time!
Let me know how it works for you or if find a new trick for the shower curtain!
Love all of your suggestions! I may have a solution for the shower curtain liner- I hang mine high enough so that it does not actually touch the bottom of the tub, that way it doesnt get the build up of yuk!
That’s a good idea, Shirley! We have pretty rusty water here, even with whole-house filtration. I have a feeling I’d be stuck with some orange no matter where I put the curtain, but my guess is that your suggestion would do away with quite a bit of it!
Oh, I forgot one thing that I just did and worked amazingly!! I get really bad build up on my shower walls from the hard water and have tried everything and usually the only way to get it off usually leaves my arms aching for days…UNITIL NOW!!! hahah I don’t know how you feel about Dawn dishsoap, but I heated up 1/2 C vinegar for 90 seconds and mixed it in a spray bottle with 1/2 C blue dawn dishsoap. I sprayed it all over my shower walls and let it sit for a little while. I just rinsed it off and the soap scum was gone!! I was pretty impressed and my arms were very thankful!! 😉
Thanks for sharing, Rachel!
Oooo, cleaning the toothbrushes…I never thought of that!! When they would start to look rough, I’d just replace them. I bet cleaning them will give them a much longer life!! I share the same problem with the inside shower curtain, I can’t wait till we get our water system completed. I’m hoping that will help!!
Just toss the fabric shower curtains in the wash using the hottest water temp possible. If you wash them weekly’ they last longer. The plastic ones, however, are good for nothing… Just leave those in the store.
Sounds like a great tip. Now to put it in practice with a larger and growing family… 😉
A toothbrush should still be replaced quarterly. Cleaning does not enhance quality. Cleaning them does remove bacteria and aids iI a healthier mouth.
Thank you for reading and sharing your input!
I replace my toothbrushes quaterly as my imagination goes wild with how many bacteria is multiplying on it. I love the hydrogen peroxide idea, is it absolutely safe to soak them thoroughly in it? I’d definitely separate toothbrushes to soak them, the picture of all of them soaking in one cup isn’t too appealing to me. PS I love to vacuum, I do it everyday! 😀 I’m glad my hubby cleans the toilet. Have a great day and thank you for all the interesting tips.
Hydrogen peroxide can be used as a mouthwash, so I think soaking toothbrushes in it is just fine. I’ve never had trouble and can’t think of any potential problems. Since it is disinfecting, I don’t mind putting them all in together, but I’m pretty far from a germaphobe! 😉
Glad you were able to read and join the discussion!