The term “Hollywood Clean” is trending on TikTok. It’s essentially a surface-level cleaning or basically cleaning just enough to not look like a slob to guests. While this may be fine for your bedroom and living room, your bathroom needs a bit more attention so as not to become a petri dish of bacteria and fungus. Here are 7 easy steps to take to turn your bathroom into a clean dream.
1. Descale the Shower Head: This may be the easiest task of the whole list. Not only will cleaning the scum off your shower head stop you from spraying Micro-bacteria all over your skin and hair, but it will also clear out the tiny holes to give you better water pressure for an ideal showering experience!
2. Clean the Shower Curtain or Doors: That hazy film may look like soap, but I promise you, it’s not clean. For shower curtains, simply remove them and throw them in the washing machine. For shower doors, combine distilled white vinegar and baking soda, rub it on the door, let it sit for an hour then wipe clean and ‘Presto’. Your shower doors should look like new!
3. Clean Your Bathroom Cleaning Tools: You read that right, you should clean your cleaning tools. Most importantly, your toilet brush. After cleaning the toilet, place the brush in the residual toilet water, pour in a small amount of bleach and let sit for 10 minutes and you're ready for your next cleaning.
4. Refresh Dingy Grout: Grout is very porous making it a breeding ground for bacteria. Take an old toothbrush, dip it in bleach and start scrubbing away. Make sure to keep the area well ventilated so as not to inhale too much of the bleach fumes.
5. Clean the ENTIRE Toilet: If you’ve ever seen a slow motion video of a toilet being flushed, then you know that what you flush in the toilet also ends up outside the toilet, launching bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella, outside of the toilet. For a deep clean, you should be cleaning the seat, under the seat, the exterior of the bowl and the floor around it with a bathroom cleaning solution. Pro tip: Close the lid of your toilet before flushing to reduce the amount of bacteria sprayed into the air.
6. Maintain Your Towels: Keeping your towels as dry as possible is the best way to reduce bacterial growth. After showering or drying your hands, make sure to hang your towels so that they aren’t creased or folded to allow for speedy drying. Even with proper drying, it’s best to replace your towels every 3-4 days.
7. Degerm the Bathroom Vent: All that moisture and bacteria getting sucked up into your vent doesn’t always make it through. Much of it gets stuck on the vent cover and fan blades. Make sure to flip the circuit breaker so there isn’t any electricity flowing. Remove the cover and soak it in a vinegar and water solution. Then using the same solution, or a multi-surface cleaner, wipe down the fan blades.
Next time you’re ready for a bathroom cleaning, make sure you’re getting it Deep Clean, not just Hollywood Clean!