Scrub That Tub!

Cleaning the bathroom is not one of my favorite chores. I am willing to bet that it's not yours either. As a mom that works outside the home, I either have to find time in my evenings to clean it or clean during the weekend. But I would rather be playing with DD, and since her room shares a wall with the bathroom I can't really clean it after she goes to bed.

So I've started cleaning the bathroom while she takes a bath. She loves the extra play time in the tub, and I can be productive while I am in the room with her for awhile anyway.

I have been buying these "Quick Erasers" from Dollar Tree. Two sponges for only $1! They are half melamine (magic) sponge, half blue scrubbie sponge. I prefer these as I can really use ALL of the magic sponge since they have the blue sponge to hold on to. The all-white quick erasers tend to disintegrate and get holes in them. These sponges will last for 2-4 good cleanings and remain in once piece.

But what I really love about these sponges is they let me scrub the tub while DD is in it taking a bath! That's right - no bad chemicals getting in the bath water. I add a bit of soap to the sponge and start scrubbing away while she plays. My grandpa gave me a wonderful tip - the same soap that causes the soap scum will also remove that soap scum. And its true! Shampoo, bar soap, body wash, or even baby wash. Just a bit on the sponge and get to cleaning. Older kids may want to join in the fun as well :)

Once I am done with the tub I use the same sponge to get the sink - the magic sponge really gets all the caked on toothpaste, hair spray, and dried saline solution residue. By the time I am done DD has been splashing enough that the floor is pretty wet. Perfect, since I need to wash that anyway! Using the same sponge I wipe down the floors. The quick erasers are great for getting up the hair spray residue that seems to get all over the floors (actually, everywhere!). Lastly I clean up the toilet using some Clorox wipes. Call me crazy, but I don't really want to reuse a sponge that I used on the potty.

This takes me about 15 minutes total. Perfect amount of time for DD to play and get all prune-y in the water. Clean baby + clean bathroom = happy mama!!

If you don't have kids, or if they are old enough that they can bathe on their own, you can keep a magic sponge in the shower to give it a good scrub while you are already in there. I used to do this while my conditioner was soaking in 1-2 times per week. It is amazing how much easier it is to scrub the shower when you are already in it and not worried about splashing water on yourself. Or am I the only klutz that can't clean the tub without getting soaking wet? ;)