Saturday, March 12, 2011

Your Secret Weapons Please

Yes, it has been months since my last post and now you happen upon my blog and you are greeted with a post about the least glamorous of all motherly duties... cleaning the bathroom. Well I'm sorry, but that is what is on my mind this lovely saturday morning. I woke up motivated to get my Saturday chores done, mostly because Tyler would be leaving for work at noon and I wanted to get it done before I had both boys to entertain all by myself. That tends to slow down the cleaning, so off I went. I grabbed my trusty bin of scrubbing, disinfecting, and sparkling bathroom cleaning chemicals.

It seems since early on in my life it has been hard for me to commit to any one particular set of cleaners. There must be something to clean mirrors, disinfect and clean countertops. Wipe away nasty toilet germs, bleach the heck out of the toilet bowl and finally make my tub and shower sparkle! I'm fairly comfortable with my selection of cleaners for mirrors, counters, and toilets, but the tub and shower have always left me a little befuddled. Frequently the two are made of different materials and have different needs. Clearly the shower walls need something that sprays and the tub must have something the bubbles up and disinfects. Often, when Tyler is faced with shower/tub he feels it is sufficient to spray it down with water and finish off with our standard after shower spray. I feel strongly that this is not enough. Seriously friends, we stand in their naked... and with BARE feet!!! That thing needs bleached.

Generally for the tub part I look to comet. I love the bubbles, the sparkle and the germ killing goodness. I have even found a lemon scented version and enjoy it very much... but this still leaves the shower walls and doors. I faced an even greater dilemma this week as I realized that I was out of comet and had forgotten to pick up more. So I looked in the bin... windex... not germ killing enough, clorox wipes... not scrubby bubbly enough, toilet bowl cleaner... hmmm bleach, check, bubbly check why not. Well news flash, this is some strong stuff. For my bathroom I wore gloves and was pleased with the final result. After a deep scrub to the tub I sprayed everything out and finished off with a leave on shower spray for the walls. Near the end however I discovered a hole in my gloves and realized I would have to go gloveless for the remaining bathrooms, ICK. Oh well what was I to do? There was a job that must be done and I am the woman for the job, so I set forth looking forward to a nice antibacterial hand scrubbing and moisturizing following the dirty task.

It was then that discovered the harshness of the toilet bowl cleaner. I would say strong base to say the least. My hands feel awful, and now I'm a little worried to put naked baby bums back in the tub. I rinsed much more carefully (like 5 or 6 times) this time around and was still satisfied with the final result but decided that I will definitely need to make a trip to the store before my next bathroom cleaning adventure. Alas, all bathrooms again sparkle and shine... at least for now. Not to mention, I managed to get them all done before 10:30 :) good day. But, my question for all of you faithful readers (hmmm I better post this to facebook so I at least get 2 or 3 of you...) What do you have in your arsenal for that oh so gruesome job? I feel ready to commit so that I don't have to face down the daunting cleaner aisle at Target ever again feeling vulnerable and unprepared. Help me please!

5 comments:

nmskougard said...

Lysol Foaming Bathroom Cleaner is the BEST!! It is Lysol so it sanitizes, plus it has citric acid which dissolves soap scum and hard water on contact. I have those stupid clear shower doors that accrue hard water spots with one shower. I even bought a heavy duty scrubber and used Comet and it would not get clear. The Lysol cleaner is amazing. I can spray it on (and it foams, so that is a bonus) and watch it remove the hard water spots as it drips down the shower door. I won't use anything else. I use it on the toilet, shower, counters, and sink. It even makes the faucet super shiny. That, my dear, is the Skougard secret weapon. Now don't tell...ha ha ha.

Stepha said...

I cleaned my bathroom today too! :-) Nothing better than a sparkling clean bathroom. Okay I can think of a few better things, but I still love it! I use Scrubbing Bubbles on the tub and love it. I use Tilex Mold and Mildew on the tile. They both kill bacteria. Happy hunting for a cleaner!!

The Hoveys said...

I still like Scrubbing Bubbles...

The Glad Family said...

I am in love with both scrubbing bubbles and Lysol products. I use their bathroom cleaners on everything!!

Matt Parks said...

Yowch! Yes, toilet cleaner is a *very* strong base. I remember doing an 8th grade science project on the ph scale and testing lots of different things. As I recall, it was as strong as a base could be, far stronger than anything else I tested. I hope your hands start feeling better soon!