A two-gallon (eight-liter) bucket

A sponge (make sure it's used only in the bathroom, not in food preparation areas)

A flexible scrubber pad (again, keep it out of the kitchen)

A stiff, sturdy nylon brush (the kind you can get a solid grip on)

A pair of rubber gloves

A bathroom cleanser (these can vary from environmentally friendly to very toxic, so be informed about your choice)

Optional:

A used toothbrush (for scrubbing the grout)

A spray-on mildew remover

Fabric softener (for cleaning your shower curtain)

If your bathroom is notably grungy, allocate about an hour for a thorough cleanup and airing-out; after that, a weekly wipedown should take about 10 minutes.

Don't mix bleach with ammonia! Cleansers that contain bleach can create toxic fumes when mixed with ammonia. Read and compare all labels.

Bathtub rings? Bath oils and shaving in the tub are two big causes. Because they tend to be oiler than other bathroom grime, rings sometimes require separate treatment. If you've got a major buildup that the overall scrubbing won't clear, try a bit of diluted automatic dishwashing detergent or a sponge filled with vinegar.

Glove thyself: You're dealing with caustic chemicals here. If you don't have rubber gloves but insist on going ahead with the cleanup, at least give your hands a protective coating of petroleum jelly or a non-disappearing lotion. Keep in mind that some cleaning chemicals can scratch or dull jewelry as well.

Preventive maintenance is the best strategy. If you can spend a couple of minutes each week doing a quick wipe-off with gentler cleansers, you'll save yourself a harder scrubbing later on.

Keep a squeegee in the bathroom, and use it to wipe off the moisture on glass panels and other smooth surfaces. It's also useful for clearing those foggy mirrors.

Environmentally concerned? As long as you're reading those labels, keep an eye out for products that are phosphate-free. Those types of cleansers biodegrade, or break down into simpler, less harmful compounds.

Expel the expired: While you're cleaning, why not clear out all the old medicines that have outlived their usefulness? Most have an expiration date, so check it and chuck it.

2torial #0444: Learn2 Clean a Bathroom Don't join the Groutful Dread! Nothing else presents a cleaning challenge quite like the tiled areas of your bathroom. The tiles themselves are very smooth-surfaced (making them great receptacles for hardened soap scum), while the areas between them are filled with grout, a porous substance with plenty of nooks and crannies to hold dirt and mildew. Add the high moisture content of a shower and/or tub, the limited ventilation of most bathrooms, and you have a happy breeding ground for grossness. Ironic, isn't it? The place where you go to get clean can easily be the dirtiest place in the house. Fortunately, it's not too hard to successfully do battle against this blight: it just takes the consistent application of a little elbow grease and some specialized cleaning tools. As this 2torial shows, a few swipes a week will keep away the Tile Terrors and the Gross-out Grout. And these guidelines apply to just about any bathroom, whether it's ornately tiled or furnished with simple slabs of fiberglass. Keep in mind that the normal rules of cleaning don't apply here. Normally, if something got dirty you'd use plenty of soap and water to get it clean--but here, soap film and water stains are components of the blight. Essentially, you have three types of cleaning to do: Remove dried-on soapy film Remove water-related stains Remove mildew Of course, there's dirt to be removed here too...but it'll disappear quickly as a side result of those three tasks. Choose your weapons--light artillery The substances you use to clean should depend upon what you have to clean: if you've a smooth-surfaced fiberglass shower stall with no signs of mildew, a scrubdown with wetted baking soda may be all the clean-up you need. An additional rinse with diluted lemon juice can leave your bathroom sparkling, with zero caustic chemicals to trouble you, or the environment. (If you're interested in environmentally friendly cleaners, look for brands with animal- or plant-based ingredients, such as citrus juice, baking soda, vinegar, corn starch, kelp, cinnamon and lavender.) However, if you decide stronger stuff is called for, the next step up is diluted ammonia, the original all-purpose cleaner. A half-cup (125 milliliters) of ammonia in a gallon (four liters) of water creates a good spongeable cleaner. You can also keep the dilution in a spray bottle for handy touchups: it has the added benefit of being a nifty glass cleaner as well. Be sure to rinse off well afterwards, as ammonia can really irritate bare skin. This approach is recommended only if mildew is not a problem in your bathroom, because bleach is your main weapon against mildew and it doesn't mix with ammonia (see Step 2). Other all-purpose cleaners are stronger still, although most of them are formulated to battle household grime, not dried-on soap scum--and they tend to leave streaks on glass and mirrors. Read the labels carefully before using them: some can discolor painted or varnished surfaces, or both.   Choose your weapons--heavy artillery Next on the heavy-duty scale are the scrubbing bubble-type bathroom cleaners, the kind you spray on and let the bubbling factor loosen up the grunge. These do require marginally less scrubbing on your part, but don't expect those dancing bubbles to whisk everything to a sparkling shine. If you don't wipe and rinse clean all the surfaces, you'll simply be left with a different kind of dried-on film. Also, these cleaners sometimes seem to leave some surfaces dangerously slippery (you'll have to experiment). The real cleaning heavyweights are the scouring powders--the Ajaxes, Comets and Bon Amis. These take more elbow grease, but they'll clean deep down. They can require extra effort to rinse off though, and can scratch some surfaces (although there are scratchless equivalents). They're best used in conjunction with another cleaner, and only for stains and other problem spots. Effective but sometimes overwhelming are the mildew removers, most of which rely heavily on chlorine bleach in a spray-on form. These can save you hours of scrubbing--the mildew just disappears--but you'll want plenty of ventilation and strong rubber gloves. This stuff is pretty harsh, and best only for occasional use. Be careful when using two or more cleaners in conjunction with each other. That's because of this simple rule: Chlorine bleach and ammonia don't mix. Or more accurately, they DO mix--into a gas that's noxious and potentially poisionous. Read the labels; you may be surprised to find that most products draw their cleaning power from one or the other of these ingredients. In this case, don't mix and match! Start the scrubdown The key word here is scrubdown: you're going to work your way down, from top to bottom. But first, pay attention to ventilation: keep the door wide open, and the windows (if any) as well. Scrub the bathroom in this order: sink, tub or shower, the area near the toilet, and then the floor. This way you'll be able to pick up any drips as you go along. Fill that bucket with good clean water, and use the sponge to wet down the walls after cleaning them. It's tempting to use the shower head to rinse the walls, but unless it's one of those detachable types you'll probably just succeed in getting yourself wet. Mildew (and its cousin, mold) consists of those dark spots, while the water stains and soap scum are whiteish (and thereby hard to see against white tile). Make a pass at the mildew, but don't be surprised if it doesn't come right off. We'll focus on it in the next step. Once a tiled area is cleaned and rinsed, remove one of your rubber gloves and run your fingers along the tiles: you should be able to tell if your cleaning method is working, or if you missed a spot or two. Battle the mildew Now let's target the mildew itself. This isn't dirt, it's a colony of tiny organisms that flourishes in the humid conditions of your bathroom. A light scrubbing here will work for a while, but the mildew will grow back eventually. It's time for a deep cleaning, and a change in the environment (see Step 6). Bleach doesn't just clean, it kills bacteria and simple organisms (such as mildew and mold). Use a bleach-based cleaner, preferably a scouring powder, for the grout between the tiles. If you really want to banish the blight, use an old toothbrush to scrub the grout. Mildew on your shower curtain? Bleach could weaken it, so instead remove it and soak it in the tub in hot water with fabric softener added. Then rinse and dry. If you've opted to use the spray-on type of mildew remover, save it for last (see Step 5).   Clean the clear surfaces Finish the cleanup by wiping down the mirrors, chrome and any glass--the clear surfaces on which cleaner buildup would otherwise show. A slightly damp rag will handle the chrome, and glass cleaner should work on all three surface types. Most glass cleaners are ammonia-based, so make sure you rinse away the residue of your bleach-based cleaners to a minimum before proceeding. When it comes to cleaning glass, using newspaper pages is every bit as effective as paper towels. It's also a lot cheaper, and it reduces the amount of garbage in landfills. Air it out For the bathroom to be truly clean, it must be clean and dry. So keep the door and windows (if any) wide open, and pull down the moisture-retaining towels from the towel racks. If at all possible, let it stay that way for several hours. If you're using spray-on mildew remover, this step is especially important...as you'll understand as soon as you get a whiff of this powerful stuff. Spritz it on the mildew stains, then walk away. Unless the label says otherwise, you probably won't have to scrub the sprayed spots afterwards. Keep it clean! Now that your bathroom is spic and span, let's take a look at the steps you can take to keep it that way: If water spots are a big problem, it may be that your tap water is too hard. If this really bothers you, look into a household filtration or water softening system. Otherwise, smile and make friends with a few waterstains. If your basin, shower or tub are slow to drain, they're probably retaining more grunge as a result (the stuff concentrates as it waits to be slurped away). If mildew keeps coming back despite your cleaning efforts, try to keep the door open as much as possible--pull the shower curtains back too. If that doesn't do the the trick, place a moisture capture device in the room--you can buy them at most hardware stores. These are usually plastic tubs containing silica or calcium chloride granules; the granules draw moisture into the tub, where it condenses into water. Don't forget to check yours periodically, and dump out the water before it re-evaporates into moisture.   -end- Learn More!