Wondering how often you should clean your bathroom? Everyone’s needs are different but here’s a glimpse at a realistic bathroom cleaning schedule!
Hi friends,
Have you ever searched the internet for a comprehensive bathroom cleaning checklist and come across a giant 20-something long task list? Sitting there wondering how in the hell these people manage to squeeze time in to clean every inch of their bathroom in a single day.. weekly??
I’ve been there – 100%! Those lists made me feel like I was such a failure.. No way are these people are cleaning their baseboards every damn week! Not-uh. Not buying it!
Today, I wanted to share with you how often you should be cleaning your bathroom.. but realistically for once! Whether you’re a working mom juggling all the things, a stay at home mom chasing kids from the moment you wake up to the moment you hit the sheets, or not a mom at all but just super busy.. Here’s a list that just might make you feel a bit better!
Here’s How Often You Should Clean These Things In Your Bathroom
First, let me break down how I go about my cleaning routine to make these tasks work in my favor and around my schedule!
The quick run down is this.. Have you ever seen a water intake habit tracker? Maybe a mood tracker? Something along the lines of a weekly checklist with daily boxes to fill in. Oddly enough, I use this method to keep up with my cleaning routine.. and it totally works!
When you see my goals you’ll noticed they are broken down by daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals. This is because of how I set up my schedule. I also pretty strictly use the word “goals” because these aren’t always definite. Some tasks I shoot for multiple times a week.. not daily but also not as infrequent as monthly either. So I might just list them as weekly for the sake of simplicity. Same goes for just about every other “goal” on this list.. Some get done more or less often than others and thats perfectly okay!
If you want to download my “habit tracker” style cleaning checklist, you can grab here or down below at the bottom of this page!
Daily Bathroom Cleaning Goals
1. Wipe down light switch & doorknobs
My kids have the dirtiest hands… like, ever. Grabbing a quick lysol wipe and giving these two “high traffic” areas a quick wipe down is defiantly ideal for me. We touch these items countless amount of times during the day. I’ll be honest, switches and doorknobs in any other part of the house aren’t really that high on my “to-do” list.. The bathroom though, I’m a little more weird about it because… well, kids and toilets.
2. Wipe down the sink
I’m pretty good about this one! Truthfully, I probably don’t even need it my list but I have it there anyway. I don’t mean that I full on clean my sink every day but I’ve made it a habit to make sure I give it a good wipe down after the last kid gets their teeth brushed for the night. There’s nothing worse than left over toothpaste residue just hanging out in your sink.
Weekly Bathroom Cleaning Goals
3. Clean the shower/tub
Scrubbing bubbles are my shower/tub cleaner of choice, personally! This post isn’t really about products too much, so I’ll show you what I use but I won’t be really going in to depth about each one. Since we’re here though, I want to mention that this past year I’ve been using this extendable tub and tile scrubber and I love it… so much.
Note: One thing that’s super important but I feel like often gets overlooked is reading labels! I really encourage you to give your products a quick glance at their label to learn how the product is intended to be used. For example, something may be labeled as “disinfecting” but may require a wait time for the full effect.
4. Clean toilet exterior
This a weekly MUST in our home. Typically, I’d say the toilet gets cleaned twice a week. Sometimes more if we’ve had guests or the kids are just extra gross that week lmao. Definitely needs to be done at least once though!
Also, how the hell does that little space between the lid and the water tank thing get dirty so fast?? Please, tell me I’m not the only one with this ongoing issue…. please!
5. Wipe down the mirror
This task maybe on the “weekly” goals list but probably gets done 3 or 4 times a week. Why don’t kids know how to spit in the sink? The world may never know but…. LOL this is such a fucking cheesy transition… Sprayway glass cleaner really is the the “world’s best”! I swear by this brand and pretty much refuse to use any other one. It smells sooo good, in my opinion at least.. I can never quite put my finger on what exactly it reminds me of though.
6. Clear and clean the counters
Admittedly, I probably should be giving the counters a good wipe down more often… but I don’t. This is a task that really does only get done once a week and it’s often at the end of the week when I suddenly realize I haven’t cleaned them yet!
I have granite counters in the bathroom and used to use the Method brand but turns out, it’s not disinfecting. Again, important to read labels lol! This one actually does kill germs so if you happen to have granite in your bathroom as well, be sure you’re using a cleaner that actually disinfects!
7. Wash the rugs and bath mats
This is more so tied into my laundry schedule for me personally. If you don’t really have a laundry schedule and more of a “do what you can when you can” type of momma though, I got you! Add this to your checklist for the bathroom!
Before my laundry schedule became a thing, bath rugs/mats were one of those things I would see and be like, “oh.. thats looking a little gross. I should probably wash that soon!” but then would keep forgetting until I couldn’t ignore it anymore. Life is like that sometimes and as moms we have a huge mental load! We’re probably more concerned with making sure everyone has clean clothes to wear than the bath mats. No shame! Zero.
8. Sweep the floor
Hair, hair, hair.. hair everywhere! And little pieces of random trash/toilet paper too?? Water bottle caps?? How? Why? Maybe my kids are just extra messy but they’re always leaving the most random bits on the bathroom floor.
Sweeping is something I have to do weekly. No debating this for my house. Make sure you get behind the toilet and doors!
9. Take the trash out
Since we’re here, I have to ask! What do you use as a trash bag in your bathroom? I used to use just grocery bags but then..
1. I started using reusable bags more often
2. Grocery bags wouldn’t stay up for us and were awkward to tie
Honestly, I didn’t even know there was such thing as drawstring small trash bags until more recently and I’m so happy I have these now!
Anyway, yes.. bathroom trash can is another one that seems to get overlooked until its overflowing. You might not need to change it weekly but putting in you list means you’ve at least checked it and it’s on the back of your mind every week.
Monthly Bathroom Cleaning Goals – How Often You Should Clean Your Bathroom
10. Scrub the toilet bowl
Am I outing myself here by telling you this isn’t on my weekly checklist? I feel like I’m definitely going to be judged for this one! Eeeek!
Yup, this is on my monthly checklist, not my weekly! No, that wasn’t by accident.. Our toilet bowl luckily doesn’t get hard water stains or anything like that and my kids are good about flushing so typically nothings sitting in there for an extended amount of time. I just don’t feel like it needs to be cleaned every week.
Obviously if someone is sick or something and the toilet bowl is looking funky I’ll clean it more than once a month because again, these are goals. Not the end, all be all! I make sure it’s done at least once a month and if I need to clean it more than that, of course I still will! (typically it’s probably done twice or so, I’d say)
11. Wipe down cabinet/drawers exteriors
Honestly, this is a task I sometimes to pass off to the kids when they seem bored lmao! A lysol wipe and a good ol’ magic eraser get this job done in no time.. I’d give the handles a good wipe down with a disinfecting wipe but other that, a magic eraser will get rid of any finger prints or marks just fine.
12. Dust light fixtures and any decorative items
Please tell me I’m the only one who is horrible about dusting! Things like my fans are constantly going all year round and aren’t still long enough to notice the inch think layer of dust. This chore really gets overlooked a lot if I don’t make note of it to remind myself!
Dust any light fixtures in your bathroom, picture frames, floating shelves, etc! I feel like dusting the bathroom gets overlooked by a lot of people.
13. Wipe down the baseboards
How often do you get around to cleaning your baseboards? In my last place, I never really felt like I needed to. They stayed pretty dang clean without much effort. Since moving, I’m really not sure if its the paint or something, but the baseboard get dirty much faster!
For us, this something I aim to do monthly.. For you, you may want to move this to your yearly list if yours stay pretty clean!
Side note: I’ve never used this baseboard buddy time listed above so be sure to check out the reviews first to see if you think it’ll be right for you! I wanted to list it because I saw this in a mom group recently and had no idea it even existed so I just wanted to share 🙂
14. Mop the floor
Don’t know about you, but I sure as hell ain’t getting out a mop and bucket for the bathroom every damn week! But – it is still important of course, so once a month at least is a good idea.
Again, you’ll want to make sure you get behind the toilet and doors!
Yearly Bathroom Cleaning Goals – How Often You Should Clean Your Bathroom
15. Clear out and wipe down cabinets/drawers
Do you even *actually* need to do this yearly? I dunno. But I’d like to pretend to be on top of my shit.
Maybe if it’s on our checklist, it’ll be easy and just happen with minimal effort!
16. Throw away expired medicine/products
We’re ALL guilty of this! All of us! I normally don’t even notice till I’m packing up to move and see a bottle of sunscreen that expired 4 years ago.
Or worse, someone will get sick after a long streak of good health and you go grab some medicine just realize you haven’t used it in a while and it’s expired.
Just doing a solid, general purge of your bathroom drawers and cabinets is always a good idea but something I obviously tend to overlook. Now, it’s on my checklist and I don’t even have to think about it!
This post was all about how often you should clean your bathroom.. realistically!
Be sure to snag this free bathroom cleaning checklist/tracker down below.. If you need help figuring out exactly how to set it up, don’t worry, I got you!
Now that you have an idea of how often you should clean your bathroom and what would work best for your family, checkout this post for all the details about my “tracker” style cleaning checklist here: The Easy & Practical Bathroom Cleaning Checklist Busy Moms Are Switching To!
