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Anyone who knows me even slightly has heard a story about scrubbing toilets. Toilets are designed to be difficult for germs to latch onto them. With a little regular maintenance, your commode will not be the dirtiest thing in your life (in my opinion that award goes to kitchens and cell phones; more on that in the future). Place a toilet scrub brush in a tall enough holder to hold a spritz of bleach or whatever cleaning agent you prefer. If the holder itself is not very functional I have found wide mouth jars work well. The brush is going to drip some water, so give it a stable home where it can drip and not breed bacteria. Also, toilet brushes are not the priciest of household cleaning options. I encourage people to keep one brush in whatever holder you choose per bathroom. This way the person cleaning is not importing a brush that may have other people’s foreign germs nor are they running all over the house dripping water or accidentally tipping the base over.

As for actually cleaning the toilet, I use an all-purpose or a tile cleaner. If you are a fan of toilet bowl concentrate cleaner, then I like to place some around the bowl rim upon arrival. I find that vacuuming the bathroom space prior to any other cleaning is beneficial. Hair, dust, dirt and other loose particles become glued down once they get wet. So, vacuum all of that up and then spray the toilet down entirely. Next up, I grab the (hopefully nearby) brush, clean the bowl, and flush. For anyone who cleans multiple toilets regularly it can be useful to watch how much bending over and squatting one does while cleaning.  Next, I sit on the floor with my legs crossed and lean forward to wipe with paper towels. I do wear gloves. Usually a set of disposable nitrile gloves with a set of larger rubber gloves on top. If the floor is particularly dirty, I’ll occasionally sit on a towel. This is a life saver for my knees! I start with the lid down and wipe every portion of the bottom half all the way to the floor. A bathroom dedicated toothbrush works well around the base meeting the tile if needed! When complete, I put the lids down and sit the opposite way on the lid to clean the tank making sure to really clean the handle and the meeting place between tank and seat. From this seat it also easy to see if there’s any additional cleaning needed around the side base. If you clean two houses with four bathrooms a day that is eight toilets. I have found this method ensures I do not miss any specs while also decreasing the wear and tear on my body. I hope this has been an enjoyable read and maybe even a little helpful!

I have never been a big supporter of cleaning surfaces by pushing all the dirt, crumbs and dust on the floor only to rely on a vacuum to do the rest of the work. I was partly correct. One doesn’t need to chase crumbs all over the stove top pushing bits of however-many-day-old dinner into crevices unreachable. My preferred method is to first take a small handheld vacuum to the top of the stove. It works with a dust buster, a hose attachment or even just the top portion of a stick vacuum. I usually take a dry sponge in one hand and the vac in the other, guiding as much as i can to the pull of the vacuum. Next I use a spot of dish soap or spray whatever cleaner suits the glass, stainless steal, ceramic, or otherwise stove top and use a sponge to wipe the remaining dirt and stains. Using hot water on the sponge to wipe, rinse, and alternating to the harder side of the sponge if anything requires more scrubbing (careful with those glass stovetops though, they can scratch pretty easily). Once the stove is cleaned off I find that I prefer to wipe all surfaces off with a beach towel. They seem to leave the least amount of lint and you can dry off all the countertops, microwave and the stove top before washing it in the laundry. That’s it!