It’s important to keep your bathroom clean. Bathrooms are a great place for bacteria to grow and pests to live. Pests, like cockroaches, love humid environments, so it’s important to keep your bathroom clean. Here are some essential bathroom cleaning tips from to help keep your bathroom fresh and avoid unwanted pests!

Toilet

Use a cup of baking soda to scrub your toilet bowl. If there are still stains, you can use a pumice stone to get rid of them. HGTV recommends cleaning your brush afterwards, too. Drop a capful of disinfectant into the bowl, place the brush inside and flush a few times to rinse off the bristles before placing it in its holder.  For more in depth cleaning tips for your toilet, look here.

Tile floors

To tackle tile floors, sweep first, then spray an all-purpose cleaner over the floor. Turn on the hot water in the shower, exit the bathroom, shutting the door behind you, and wait for the steam to build up for about twenty minutes. The steam will loosen buildup that will stick to the cleaner. This allows the cleaner to cut through more dirt and grime. Afterwards, grab a clean microfiber cloth and wipe the floor. To make things easier on your back, you could attach the microfiber cloth to your Swiffer and go to town. Pro tip: you can also clean your counters and ceilings using this method. To reach the high ceilings, you can use the Swiffer tip again. After the floor is dry, there may still be grout discoloration. Grout is a porous substance which means bacteria settles in and can be hard to remove. Dip a grout cleaning brush (read: toothbrush) into some bleach to remove any discoloration and bacteria. Make sure the room is well ventilated while you do this.

Shower

To keep the soap scum at bay, you can run a squeegee over bath surfaces (including the shower door) after every shower use to get rid of condensation. To clean your shower door, make a paste of baking soda and vinegar and applying it directly to the door. Allow it to sit for one hour and then rub it with a microfiber cloth. Rinse, then buff dry with a clean, dry microfiber cloth. If you have a shower curtain and liner, throw them in the washer with your regular laundry detergent. You should include a few old towels with the liner to act as scrubbers to get all the grime and mildew off. For your bath tub, we have found that a weekly scrubbing with an all purpose bathroom cleaner will work fine. If you have tough stains you just can’t get rid of, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser or bleach can work wonders. And finally, you can tackle the shower head. The shower head can be cleaned before or after you clean your bathroom. Fill a plastic bag with enough white vinegar to submerge the shower head. Secure the bag to the shower head using a rubber band, and allow it to sit overnight. Remove the bag and then run hot water to rinse.

Sink

The sink is gross. We all know it. You touch it after you use the restroom and before your hands are clean. RealSimple.com recommends pouring white vinegar or baking soda down the drain and flushing with hot water to get rid of the bacteria inhabiting the drain. Then, use disposable disinfectant wipes to wipe down the basin and the handles.

It’s important to keep your bathroom clean. Pests love bathrooms because of the moist atmosphere. By keeping your bathroom clean and well ventilated, pests won’t like it in there which will help keep them out of your home. A deep bathroom clean like this will also help you to spot any pest evidence if there is any.