What if I told you that your shower is one of the largest breeding grounds for bacteria and germs in the bathroom? Would you really feel clean washing yourself in a shower full of bacteria and build-up?
Well, unfortunately it’s true. Your shower is the ultimate bacteria host. Because of its location and environment, it’s basically a receptacle for nastiness. Not only is it a collector of dead skin, dirt and soap residue, but its close proximity to the toilet makes it a magnet for other invisible debris and particles.
The humid environment of your shower makes for a cozy spot for bacteria to fester and grow. But if you get in the habit of regular cleaning and maintenance, you won’t have to worry about any of these things.
Safety pit stop: There are a few rules about bathrooms around here. Always wear gloves, and run your fan or open a window. We don’t mix chemicals in the #cleaningarmy! Read your labels. Wipe and rinse thoroughly with warm water between changing from one chemical to another.
When you buy through our links, we may earn a small commission.
Clear it out and vacuum
Make the job easier for yourself by clearing out the shower before you officially start cleaning:
- Remove bottles, razors and accessories.
- Recycle any empties in your shower.
- Rinse all shampoo and conditioner bottles with water in your sink to remove any gunk and grime. (Wait until after the shower is cleaned to replace.)
Once the shower is cleaned out and you have a blank slate, use your handy horsehair brush (Canada) (USA) attachment on your vacuum (Canada) (USA) to suck up any hair and dust around the shower. If you spray cleaner all over the place without vacuuming first the dust and dirt turns to mud and is much more difficult to clean up.
Be sure to vacuum the top ledges as they tend to collect the most dust! This is also a good time to clear any excess hair from the drain.
Hard water build-up.
Hard water buildup is most commonly found on your showerhead or faucet. The easiest way to tackle it is to:
- Fill a bag with vinegar.
- Secure the bag over the showerhead or faucet with an elastic (making sure it is fully submerged in the vinegar).
- Let it sit for 20 minutes (or even overnight, if it’s bad) and the vinegar will do the rest!
Check out our Dealing with Hard Water article for more detailed instructions.
Shower glass and fixtures.
Next, it’s time to clean your shower glass and fixtures. Here’s our simple two-step process:
- Spray shower doors and fixtures (levers, brackets, frames for glass doors, drains, faucets etc.) with our shower door recipe (1 cup white vinegar and 2 tablespoons of blue Dawn® dish soap mixed in a spray bottle). This will tackle grime and hard water in your shower.
- Let the mixture sit for 20 minutes minimum, scrub the shower door and fixtures with a soft sponge. If your first attempt is unsuccessful, try again leaving the recipe on longer. (Do not use anything abrasive because these doors are easily scratched.) Rinse very well with hot water and squeegee to remove the excess water. You are going to be grateful for your fan running when you smell this stuff!
While you are waiting for the vinegar/Dawn® mixture to work, take the plastic strip off the bottom of the shower door. Did you know that they are removable? A lot of people do not know these come off, which can result in permanent staining from mold, mildew and soap scum. It should be clear, not orange or green! Simply slide or pop it off the bottom of the shower door. After you have removed the strip, all you need to do is spray it with Clorox® Clean Up or our water, bleach and Tide® recipe and scrub clean with a scrub brush.
Shower grout.
Use the WBT (water, bleach, and Tide®) recipe (below) to clean and restore the color of your shower grout. (DO NOT use on marble!)
For best results scrub with a scrub brush that has strong bristles. Be careful around caulking to avoid damage. Microban 24® bathroom cleaner is also a great product to use if you are finding WBT unsuccessful (or have marble to contend with). Having a detachable shower head will make rinsing everything easy, but if you don’t have one, a large measuring cup or tupperware container will do the trick. See our article to Deep Clean Nasty Tile Grout.
Pro Tip: If you are finding that your grout stains quickly, it might be time to re-seal it!
Stains.
For stains caused by anything from purple shampoo to minerals in your water, Liquid Bar Keepers Friend® is your best friend. Before you begin, test the Bar Keepers Friend® on an inconspicuous spot to assure it is the right product for your shower. Apply a layer of the product to the stain and use a dry cloth to rub the stain off. If this method does not work the first time the product may need to sit longer.
Dry it out and polish.
A dry shower is a clean shower! It is important to dry your shower walls, floor and glass after cleaning if you want to avoid watermarks and create a smoother finish. Squeegee away as much moisture as possible, then use a dry cloth or towel for anything left.
If you wish to polish your shower (we always do!), use Windex® and a microfibre cloth. The CarbonTuff® Cloths (Canada) (USA) from OceanSales work wonders for any streaks left on your shower glass.
Maintain.
If you tend to deal with lots of hard water buildup, keep a bottle of our shower door recipe in your shower for a quick spray and rinse. Another important step to avoid hard water buildup is to squeegee off your shower glass after each shower. It takes two seconds and will make a huge difference when it comes time to clean.
Now you are all set with some simple steps to a flawless shower that will level up your bathroom as a whole.
To tackle the rest of your bathroom read this; 9 Steps to a Sparkling Bathroom! And for more simple cleaning tips for the entire home, check out our 75-minute interactive “Basic Training” course!
For a list of our favorite products, click here.
- Denise @GoCleanCo
We're big on Instagram.
Follow @GoCleanCo for seriously satisfying videos and top-secret tips. Don’t be shy, come say hi.
gocleanco
Jun 3
Here’s the new ‘do. 💁🏼♀️ Low maintenance, how I prefer everything in life. Go follow my big sis @hairhouseyeg —-they do hair tutorials (for you ladies who aren’t on the 🕰️ app) with simple clear instructions just like I show you how to clean toilets! The plot twist is that she and her business partner are both high school Cosmetology teachers, but they also own a salon together, so they legit know how to teach! #shorthair
gocleanco
Jun 1
Your toilet isn’t wrecked! We gotchu. #cleaning
gocleanco
May 31
I’m in the hot seat answering your burning questions on @downy Rinse & Refresh! I’ve been using the new @downy Rinse & Refresh for a while now, and this stuff is so good at making your fabrics fresh on the daily. Odors get trapped in fabric because we have a residue (like minerals, hard water, or body oils) coating the fabrics. @downy Rinse & Refresh breaks down the residues and helps eliminate the odors. You put it in the fabric softener dispenser cup and wash with your regular detergent (I use Tide in case you are new around here). Plus, it is safe for all washable fabrics. I just used it on my musty towels and it blew my mind! What have you tried Rinse & Refresh on? Tell me in the comments! #ad #downypartner #odorisnttheend
gocleanco
May 23
Petition to have all toilet seats removable from now until the end of time. Sign below ⬇️ #cleaningtips
gocleanco
May 21
Needed this to live on the feed forever cause you folks ask me about it everyday. This is the @malibucpro hard water treatment I use on my hair. If you have super hard water, it sticks to your hair just like your shower doors. It makes your hair coated and feel like straw—your shampoo doesn’t work as well and your hair feels limp and lifeless. It’s super to easy to use, you can do it at home and it’s safe for highlighted/colour treated hair. Linked it up in both our Amazon storefronts and on stories. @hairhouseyeg 💁🏼♀️ #hairtutorial
gocleanco
May 12
Dawn Platinum means serious business. Did you know that 3 bottles of the leading non-concentrated dish liquid equals ONE bottle of Dawn Platinum? @dawndishwash has a powerful formula to help you get through more dishes with less product, which will save you some moola plus you can use it outside of the kitchen! Dawn Platinum cleans windows and BBQ grills, tire rims…anywhere you need to fight a greasy mess, you can reach for Dawn Platinum. We love Dawn Ultra around here, but Dawn Platinum is even more concentrated so it’s the best grease-cutting you can get. You know it works on dishes but where else are you using Dawn, outside of the kitchen sink? Share your best stories below so I can test them out! #ad #dawnpartner
gocleanco
May 9
If you give a Mom a coffee…😵💫 ☕️ Don’t overdo it this week leading up to your big “day off”. #happymothersday
gocleanco
May 3
April in nutshell. #springcleaning
gocleanco
Apr 28
dump scare > jump scare 🫣
gocleanco
Apr 27
DING 🛎️ DING 🛎️ DING 🛎️ If you guessed: Spray Tan Residue, you win 5 gold ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and bragging rights to your friends. #dontdothisathome
gocleanco
Apr 26
You each get one guess: GO! #springcleaning
gocleanco
Apr 17
Check out my IG Live on Wednesday—I'll be chatting with P&G dishwashing scientist, Morgan Eberhard, to answer all your burning questions about the new Cascade Platinum Plus. Remember…the dishwasher pod that blew all your minds a couple weeks ago?! It’s the solution we have all been waiting for; cabinet-ready dishes without pre-rinsing or the need to dry them out of the dishwasher. My DM’s were DEEP when I showed you Cascade Platinum Plus in action and tbh, I didn’t think loading the dishwasher could get so many people steamed up! Drop your questions below so we can answer them on the live with Morgan. She knows her stuff —she’s a legit 👩🏼🔬 folks. #sponsored #cascadeplatinumplus #cascadepartner
gocleanco
Apr 15
Happy National Laundry Day! Not sure why we need a national day for laundry since we do it everyday but hey hey I’m always in the mood to hug a box of tide so here we are! Anyways, in celebration of Laundry Day, we have a blog post all about my new washer and dryer to answer your pressing questions. It will live on the blog so you can go back and check when (touch wood) your machine kicks the bucket. Link is in our bio to read! #laundryday
gocleanco
Apr 13
Nothing like a few before and afters to get your asses motivated! Remember you can start one drawer a day and build from there if you don’t know where to start. Also, try to rope in some friends to help you—6 hands are better than one! Pick a designated day each week for about a month and get everyone together and tackle projects around your homes together. It’s way more fun to clean/organize someone else’s house. Trust me, I made a business out of it. 😉 #springcleaning
gocleanco
Apr 12
Vacuum round up and break down of how they made it into our Amazon Storefront in stories today! We are also planning a Vacuum Fight Club…so drop your favs or the ones you want to see us test in the comments and I’ll hook us up.
gocleanco
Apr 2
#sponsored Did you know that household bleach is derived from sodium chloride - common table salt? During household use, it breaks down to mostly salt and water. Did you also know that you can use Clorox® Disinfecting Concentrated Bleach to keep your flowers beautiful longer? Wearing gloves, add ¼ tsp. of Clorox® Disinfecting Concentrated Bleach to every 1.27 L of water you use in the flower vase and stir well to mix. Make sure to trim off the end of each flower stem before arranging it, to increase absorption. Check your flowers weekly and refresh the water as needed. Just mix up a fresh batch of Clorox® Disinfecting Concentrated Bleach and water solution. #yeahbleachdoesthat @clorox_canada
gocleanco
Apr 1
Wanted to catch y’all before you had breakfast. #cleaningmotivation
gocleanco
Mar 30
Some products you just have to see to believe. 🤯 Cascade Platinum Plus is a brand new product (you might have seen it on the shelves already) that is changing the GAME for your dishwashing routine. For years we’ve been doing work that really should be our dishwasher’s job! Spoiler alert: it’s not your dishwasher, it’s your dish detergent. TBH I was skeptical when @mycascade told me not to rinse and to let the dishes SIT OVERNIGHT BEFORE WASHING THEM but here we are. #sponsored #cascadepartner
gocleanco
Mar 29
It’s the final week of the Spring Cleaning Challenge! How y’all doing? Thrown in the towel yet?! 🫣 This round was fast and dirty (in the best way possible) and I’m telling ya—it feels like a fever dream 😮💨 😵💫 I’ll be recovering on my heating pad come Monday. #springcleaning
gocleanco
Mar 25
Spring cleaning isn’t over until we clean the windows. Sparkling windows make all the difference, you can actually see outside and let the sunshine in! I have a Spring Cleaning offer with @oceansalesltd up in my stories, it is a package deal with the AquaBLADE and the Carbon Tuff Cloths. Check it out! #sponsored