I mean, every market has 2 or 3 whole aisles dedicated entirely to cleaning products and each seems specific for one thing only. I feel like some soap with a disinfectant is enough, but most people I know do a whole 3 stage cleaning ritual - soap (and rinse), disinfectant (and rinse), bleach (and rinse to finish)
- Bleach + water (~1tbsp/L)
- Vinegar + water (1:1)
- Toilet bowl cleaner
- Tub & Tile cleaner
- Lots of rags
90% of my bathroom cleaning is done with the bleach and vinegar solutions (but DO NOT MIX them!!! Use separate rags, etc.) Toilet bowl cleaner is good for the angled bottle and the bluing is absolutely worthwhile.
Tub & Tile cleaner is good for hard deposits, but doesn’t really get brought out very often.
If there was anything else I’d add, it would be a general purpose light cleaner - despite the name, Windex is ideal for almost everything else.
Also, add something like Mr. Clean into this list and you have everything you need to clean your entire house forever.
EDIT: Something people may not realize about bleach. You really do NOT need a heavy concentration, but you have to leave it in contact for a while. Spray on the diluted solution, leave it while you clean something else, and then wipe it off. But crucially, if you increase the concentration, you don’t significantly reduce the amount of time it needs to work.
Bleach and simple green, just not at the same time.
Any kind of soap for basic cleaning, but you don’t can substitute water and elbow grease in a pinch.
For sanitizing, get a hypochlorite generator. They’re cheap (you can get them on Amazon for less than $25), and use electricity to turn a pinch of salt and some water into the same dilute bleach solution that Hospitals use to sanitize surfaces.
Baking soda and vinegar. Have a septic tank so cant use bleach etc.
Oh shit, that’s news to me!
My dad used bleach and hard cleaners on his septic and it still lasted 50 years so youre probably fine. Also drove heavy equipment over top of it many times, which one should not do
Ok, will not go crazy on the bleach and stuff.
Omg I just might have drive my car over it twice today
E: I don’t think I did… Not used to it being in the front yard
When I moved into my husband’s house, I noticed he only used pinesol. I thought it fucking weird. 6 years later, I only use pinesol.
I clean relatively often. I’ll use bleach in the bathroom once a year maybe, the rest of the time it’s Pinesol. We have a litter box in our bathroom, that I clean 3 times a week, and usually just clean the whole bathroom down at the same time. It’s clean in there.
Isnt that for wood?
Yes and No, it’s general cleaner/disinfectant. It’s called Pinesol because there is pine oil in it. The name brand stuff no longer has real pine oil, it’s not that sustainable at scale, but the store brand I get does. Here’s the label
“Pine oil is a disinfectant that is mildly antiseptic” Wikipedia
Use a toilet bowl cleaner and brush for the toilet and then use a multi-surface bathroom cleaner for everything else.
There’s four core things you could need for the bathroom:
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Bleach gel for the toilet bowl. Can also be used on other porcelain surfaces, but not for metal or natural stone (if you don’t want to ruin it).
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A calc remover to remove calc deposits outside the toilet bowl. Can be substituted with either vinegar or citric acid. Can be used on metal, but do not let it stay on for long - 30 seconds is fine if you clean every 2w to 1mo. Even shorter times if you’re truly regular with your duties.
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A degreaser for general cleaning (to remove soap residue and other nasty stuff). Can be substituted with dish soap, but is usually a bit more effective so less scrubbing needed.
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If you get clogged sinks, those declogging solutions are okay. As most people have PVC piping you can just get the cheapest one. If you live in an antique house/apartment with lead piping, you should splurge on the enzyme-based variety, assuming you need it in the first place.
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I use a vinegar and water solution for most things. Bleach and water solution for the toilets.
You really don’t need to buy too many things.
Fabuloso mixed at 1 Oz per gallon of water. Great for getting the scum off the tub, cleans everything but glass. It’s cheap as hell.
Vinegar & water for glass cleaner (with a drop of dish soap). Cleans better than store bought.
Occasionally I’ll use a specific toilet bowl cleaner when minerals start building up. I get the bottle that squirts up under the rim because that’s where mineral buildup starts.
But really, just about any light cleaner works for a bathroom, I’ve used everything. Just don’t use abrasives until you know exactly what you have for materials. Many baths are plastics these days, which are easily scratched by abrasives.
What’s that fabuloso?
It’s a general purpose cleaner that’s sold in jugs that are way too similar to a fruit juice jug for my liking. Works great, cheap, smells good.
Vinegar based cleaner for everything and you are good. Recommend a separate, dedicated mirror cleaner for mirrors though. Clean weekly to reduce the need to scrub with more powerful stuff.
I just use vinegar and water with a drop of dish detergent in the spray bottle for mirrors. Learned it from my grandparents, and it works better than any “blue” glass cleaner for pennies.
I’m not convinced you need specific toilet bowl cleaner if you clean it regularly; a lot of them are really strong chemicals that are unnecessary, but it does depend on your situation and the water you’ve got etc. Loose stools may need more attention.
A bit of all purpose cleaner really is all you need imo. But if hard water you’ll need to up it to something containing a (preferably buffered) acid to remove soap scum and hard water deposits.
Vinegar has its place but I find it almost universally disappointing when cleaning. In particular, it’s not got any surfactants or ability to bind to dirt or grease.
Bleach for the nasty bits, soapy water for the rest.
I mix bleach with baking soda into a paste for the hard to clean bits. That way you can apply it more thoroughly and just wipe it off with soapy water.
Just make sure the soap you use in the soapy water isn’t dish soap as that could make toxic fumes if it reacts with the bleach .
Oh dang. Tbh I never noticed any fumes unlike professional cleaning products that compel me to wear a respirator. I’ll edit it.
Oh ok, I dunno what it would smell like, I’ve not tried it 😅
Just been warned about mixing bleach with other cleaners so I generally just use it by itself to be safe.
I’ll never cease to be amazed by how easily we can create impromptu chemical weapons just by trying to clean our homes with bleach
A mix of water and vinegar in a spray bottle is best. Maybe toilet bown cleaner for the toilet bowl and maybe some CLR occasionally to remove mineral buildup in the shower or bath.
The first step to cleaning is BUY A BLACKLIGHT. It can see so much that you simply can’t. You’ll know what works when a blacklight tells you it works.
Toilet bowl cleaner for the toilet. Everything else gets simple green and elbow grease.
