10 Ways to Spend LESS TIME Cleaning the Bathroom

I know that cleaning the bathroom is one of the least enjoyable places in a home to clean. I get it, I’m right there with you. But over the years, I have picked up some tips that I want to share with you. Hopefully, these will allow you to reduce the amount of time you need to spend cleaning this messy room, because you know what? We all have better things to do than scrub a bathroom!

These are little tips that you can incorporate into your daily routine that actually slash the amount of time spent cleaning, so you can keep your keister out of the bathroom unless you need to use it.

Reduce Your Stuff

I know this one is going to be hard for the beauty junkies out there but reducing the amount of stuff you have on your bathroom surfaces makes a huge difference in the amount of time spent cleaning. More stuff, more clutter, and more dust mean more cleaning. I know in the past when I’ve had bottles of skin care products and hair products, they sometimes get oily and are always dust magnets.

If you can streamline your skincare routine and reduce the number of products that you have, it will go a long way in keeping your bathroom neat and tidy. Another tip is to keep products in an organized place, like on a shelf or in a cupboard. This will allow you to keep counter space and other surfaces clutter-free and will make it much easier to clean!

Use a Dish Wand

Contrary to popular belief, cleaning your shower tiles with a dish wand while you’re in the shower, did not become a thing because of TikTok. This is an OG cleaning tip that’s been discussed and used for over a decade.

If you don’t feel like cleaning it, for example, on a random Wednesday evening when it badly needs cleaning, you can always just wipe it down it while you’re in the shower. I mean, who doesn’t like spending a few more minutes in a glorious shower, plus it is a very efficient way to clean. Once you’re done your shower routine, take your dish wand and wet it down, scrubbing the tiles as you go. You do have to be mindful because the floor might get a little slippery, but you’re going to want to clean top to bottom, left to right. This will keep you organized as you clean area by area. Then, rinse everything down in the shower, giving your tiles a nice final wipe clean and squeegee everything dry.

The cleaning solution recipe that I always use is equal parts dish soap and vinegar. However, if you don’t want your shower to smell like a cleaning job, you can add a few drops of essential oils to your solution or just use unscented dish soap in your dish wand. Check out our Complete Guide to Essential Oils to find out more tips and tricks for using those delightfully smelling products.

The Toilet Isn’t a Garbage

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: toilets are for bodily functions and toilet paper only, nothing else! If you do use them like your own personal garbage can, you’ll find that they clog up and don’t work properly, meaning you have to spend more time dealing with toilet issues and cleaning the bathroom. So, hair wads, dental floss, baby wipes, and any other stuff gets pitched right into the garbage. Leave your toilet to do its job handling waste and toilet paper.

Use a Squeegee

Back to the topic of showers, every single time you take one, stop yourself and say, “Did I squeegee today?”. If your answer is no then it’s as simple as adding one or two extra steps to your daily routine. Get out your squeegee and start wiping the remaining water away. I have been preaching about the benefits of squeegeeing the shower for years and years.

The reason this task is so important is that, as you shower and wash your body, stuff flicks itself onto shower glass and tiles. Once the water dissipates, it leaves a residue of soap scum that will collect over time. Now if you squeegee your shower, using a rubber blade to get all of that scum off your tiles and glass, you will never have to worry about buildup again.

Pre-Treat When You Clean

When tackling the bathroom, think about the cleaning process in two stages. First, we pre-treat, then we wipe and scrub. If you do it all at once you will notice it will take longer because the product will not have had a chance to do its work.

Start your cleaning process by going around the bathroom and spraying everything down, letting the product soak in. Then go back to your starting point, wiping and scrubbing everything down. If you do this little trick you will begin to notice that the product does the heavy lifting for you!

I always believe that if you pick the right product and tool for the job then your work time will be reduced. Once I started incorporating this into my own personal and professional cleaning routine, it was an absolute game changer.

Always Be Chilling

The term ABC has meant many things to many people, but when it comes to bathroom cleaning, I use it to mean “Always Be Chilling”. This refers to always using a fan or keeping a window open when showering or using water in the bathroom. The reason this is important is that your fan’s job is to suck up moisture that would otherwise be lingering in your bathroom. This moisture feeds bacteria that can then become mold or mildew.

It’s a simple fix and an issue that can be tackled quite easily. If you get rid of the moisture your bathroom won’t be like a tropical environment that is a breeder of bacteria, mold, and mildew. A good trick is to use a timer to make sure you are drying everything up properly. At home, we happen to have one of those timer fans, but you can always use your phone or an old-school kitchen timer. Set the timer for 30 minutes when you step into the shower and for 30 minutes more on your way out of the bathroom when totally finished.

Now, if you don’t have a fan, don’t fear, simply open your bathroom window and keep it open throughout your entire shower and for an hour or two afterward. This should clear everything up and will leave you with a dry bathroom!

Wash and Dry Slimy Stuff

We all know things can get slimy in the bathroom and if you think about it, it really makes sense. There’s so much bacteria coming from our mouths, our bodies, our clothing, soap, water…etc. It’s like the perfect storm for slime. Now there are a few different ways that you can eliminate that slimy buildup and it’s good to think about a strategy ahead of time so that you minimize your time cleaning.

The first place I want to talk about is the toothbrush area. Whether you use a manual or electric toothbrush, the daily use of this area will inevitably cause a white crusty buildup of oral bacteria, toothpaste, and water. To tackle this simply make sure to properly wash your toothbrush after use. While running it through water, comb your fingers through the bristles to really flick off all the toothpaste and grime, then dry it thoroughly before putting it back. Now you will avoid crust buildup and make your counters look squeaky clean.

Other places I see a lot of slimy, grimy stuff are the areas where I keep all of the shower soap, shampoo, and conditioner. If you notice this happening just pick your bottles up while you are taking a shower and rinse them. You can even dry them and the area they are in, after your done showering. Then pop them back in their place and you are good to go. Now, I know it might sound counterintuitive. What am I drying something up only to put it back in a place that is going to get wet again? The thing is, if you add this to your regular routine you’ll notice that there won’t be anymore slimy grime in those areas and it will stop bacteria build-up overtime, cutting down on your overall time spent cleaning.

Hang Towels to Dry

Now let me tell you a little story about my best friend and her husband. This is legitimately one of the biggest arguments they have and it is one that I have some thoughts about. Despite her many great qualities, my best friend is not great at hanging her towels up after getting them wet. Now her husband is fastidious about this and the two of them argue about towels all the time. Frankly, I have to side with him, because she is not hanging up her towels properly, they are not drying, the air is not circulating through them, and they are getting musty.

The name of the game here is to dry your towels fully after using them and the best way to do that is to spread them out, nice and open, on your towel bar. If you don’t happen to have one of these, consider flipping your towel over your shower curtain rack. A dry towel is a towel that doesn’t smell and doesn’t contribute to the moisture issue in your bathroom.

Close the Lid Before You Flush

I must admit that there are a few things in life we probably would like to never know about, one of which, my friend recently taught me, is called fecal veneer. This is a layer of “you-know-what” on just about everything we touch in the bathroom. Gross, I’m aware but good to know when cleaning a bathroom. Another one of these is called a toilet plume. This is the spray that comes out of your toilet every time you flush and it is estimated that the spray reaches about 6 feet, which is probably, roughly the distance your toilet is to, let’s say, your toothbrush.

A rule in our household is to close the lid before you flush and I suggest you do the same. This will mean you’re not only, keeping it classy, but you’re also reducing the amount of bacterial spread throughout the entire bathroom. Quick and easy!

Keep a Cleaning Cloth Near

Some of the first things you notice in the bathroom are the mirror, sink, and faucet. These things get dirty very quickly so it’s always good to keep a cleaning cloth on your counter to tackle the triple threat of toothpaste on the mirror, schmutz in your sink, and bacteria around your faucet.

Think I don’t know what I’m talking about? The next time you go to your bathroom check around the faucet. You’ll probably see a buildup of discolored water and think to yourself, “Where did that come from?”. Well, it comes from your hands, clean or dirty, that have a soapy residue on them. When you go to shut off your faucet, water drips all over the place from your hands and settles, leaving a discolored sludge. So the best thing to do is to keep a cloth on your counter and wipe it down as you use the bathroom. Check out, Maker’s Clean Monochrome Microfibre Cloth Kit for a matching set with all the cleaning power that you need!

Now if you don’t want a cloth on your counter, I completely understand. Instead you can always use your hand towel to help keep this area of the bathroom clean, then toss it in the wash afterward. These are just a few things that build up and get nasty quickly, and this is an easy and efficient way that you can maintain that triple threat clean!

I stand by these tips and am willing to give them the Melissa Maker’s seal of approval! Try infusing them into your daily routine and you will find that you spend less overall time cleaning your bathroom. That, my friends, is bankable knowledge. Thanks so much for reading, catch you next time!

If you need more bathroom cleaning tips we have many articles ready for you!