Master Bath: Part A

Our master bathroom is much bigger than is really necessary.  Don't take that as a complaint; it just seems to sort of spread in all directions, meaning both that there is plenty of elbow room when My Love and I are both trying to get ready in the morning AND that it took me two days of work to clean it.

We have a double sink, a stand-up shower and large garden tub, a small area that we use like a closet (with no door), and, of course, the toilet.  Basically, I divided the bathroom in half and cleaned the east-facing wall on day one and the west-facing wall on day two.

Day 1 Action Plan:
1.  Clean light fixture
2.  Clean sinks, mirror, and counter tops
3.  Clean out under sinks and in drawers and wipe down cabinet and drawer fronts
4.  Clean toilet
5.  Wipe down all exposed surfaces (toilet paper holder, towel rack)

I don't think I ever noticed the wide assortment of light fixtures in our house until I started on my cleaning spree.  Really, it's kind of entertaining to examine each one and figure out how to remove each piece of it.  The one in the master bath was particularly engaging.  It was a long, think mirror with eight exposed light bulbs on it.  Each had to be removed, wiped with ACV, and then replaced.  The mirror itself needed cleaning with Windex, but it was difficult to clean around the light sockets.  The process took a while, because I had to wait until the bulbs were cool to start; then, I had to wait until they were dry again to re-install them.  (I had visions of electrocuting myself with a damp lightbulb...yet another occupational hazard that might pop up during housekeeping.)  Also, the edges of the mirror were sharp; My Love had cut his finger once while installing a light bulb a few years ago.  Despite the trouble, I got the instant gratification I needed to feel like it was a job well done.  The bulbs seemed to have black, burnt spots on them; as it turned out, it was just flambeed dust.  Once the dust was removed and the mirror was shined, the bathroom was noticeably brighter.

Cleaning the mirror over our sink is nothing exceptional, except that it's huge. I remember an old Windex commercial; the woman in it said something like, "The more you need to clean, the faster you have to clean." I think she was trying to demonstrate how runny the off-brand was as opposed to the Windex brand, which actually coated the glass surface and didn't run.  Well, I AM using generic Windex, and it DOES run all over the mirror as soon as I spray it on.  The top of the mirror ends up dry, while liquid puddles along the bottom edge.  It eventually gets cleaned, though, and I'm not using any techniques that are different than what my mama taught me, so it's not much to complain about.

Funny story:  My Love and I have been married six years this month.  For a (very creative) wedding gift, some friends of ours gave us a little plastic tote full of cleaning products.  In hindsight, it was inexpensive and useful; I also think it's interesting that I remember exactly who gave it to us, while I have no idea who gave us our toaster or bath towels.  Anyway, in that plastic box was an aerosol can of scrubbing-bubbles-type cleaning product.  I've never used this type of thing before; I've always been a Comet girl, followed by the spray version after it came out, so this scrubbing bubble can has sat in our laundry room (and the laundry room of our previous home) for years.  When I inventoried my cleaning supplies before beginning this endeavor, I found it again, and I figured it really needed to be put to use.  The bathroom sinks and countertop were the first thing I used it on, and I was really impressed.  This stuff is POWERFUL.  I sprayed it on, and literally just had to wipe away the bubbles after a few minutes to reveal a sparkling clean surface.  Spoiler:  I also used it on our shower, and it worked like a charm there as well.  The only drawback I discovered is that it also had a nearly overwhelming smell.  Our bathroom is a closed-in space, and the countertops take up a large part of it.  I found that I had to spray, then leave the room for a few minutes, then come back to wipe down the surfaces, then leave again while the smell dissipated.  I also ended up with a headache, so I had to take another break at the halfway point of Day 1.

I got a great deal of satisfaction out of organizing and purging the drawers and cabinets under the sink.  As I mentioned when I cleaned my closet, I'm a very structured, order-loving person, and it was edifying to see neat rows of makeup, hair products, and eyeglass cases.  I also threw away a lot of things that were expired.  The two biggest culprits for hanging around indefinitely were makeup and sunscreen, both of which, I learned, should technically be replaced every 12 months or so.

About the time I moved to clean the toilet, Mini-me showed up and asked to help.  She really has perfect timing; I gave her a Lysol wipe and let her wipe off the fronts of the drawers and cabinets for me.

The last step in today's process was to clean our toilet.  Cleaning toilets is one of those tasks that doesn't really bother me.  Truth be told, I'd rather clean a toilet than fold laundry any day.  Also, when a toilet starts to look visibly dirty, I feel like it's a decent thermometer to indicate that the rest of the bathroom is likely dirty too, so I clean the toilet more often than the rest of the house.  I'm a pretty faithful user of Clorox cling or Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, whichever happens to be cheaper; they both do the job.

A quick dusting of the toilet paper roller, the toilet paper holder, and the towel rack, and 50% of my bathroom sparkled; it also smelled clean enough to make up for the other half!