Domestic Engineering: Keeping Bathrooms Tidy

Some days I prioritize a tidy home over my relationships with my family.

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Other days I know a tidy home serves my family but my relationship with them is most important.

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Every day I need God's help to prioritize loving him and others before myself.

Towels, toothpaste, and toilets. In our home, the appearance of our bathrooms varies greatly by the hour. As a result, I've sought to keep things simple in maintaining them.

Reality Check

I'm often tempted to respond unkindly when my kids undo my cleaning efforts. As such, I often have to apologize and confess my desire to have things be the way I want them to be.

Keeping my home tidy is something I'm striving to grow in because it does make our home more restful. But it will never give me peace, even if I do achieve "Home Show Perfection" status.

Only Christ is (and ever will be) the one who can give me lasting peace. Because he is near I have freedom from disquieting thoughts. Not because a bathroom mirror remains fingerprint free for more than an hour.

I regularly have to remind myself of the following passage:

"The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:5b–7, emphasis added

Today we are tackling tips for maintaining and cleaning bathrooms. Both sections will include suggestions on how to involve your kids. Then we'll wrap up with some favorite audio resources I use during cleaning sessions.

How To Keep Your Bathroom Tidy 
(Including Involving Your Kids)

 Bathroom Maintenance

• To minimize toothpaste fiascoes use a binder clip to keep the paste at the top.
• Inside a cabinet have a storage basket with washcloths to use for random messes. 
• We also have the girls use these after meals to clean themselves up.
• Discreetly store a spray bottle of cleaner (I use peroxide) in each bathroom. Use it with a washcloth to spot clean at the end of each day. 
• As your kids get older involve them in doing the spot cleaning before bed.

• Consider ways to maximize space while ensuring everything has its assigned place. My three favorites include:
1. Using an outlet splitter if you're short on outlets.
2. Storing your blow dryer inside a cabinet door with a styling station.
3. Use a bathroom command hook to hang up your shower squeegee or bathtub mat.
• Have a place for everything and then hold your kids accountable for putting items back.

Plunging Into Toilet Clogs

If you've ever been frustrated by your toilet plunger Amazon has the best plunger around. I skeptically bought this three years ago and haven't looked back.

If you have a really bad clog, this toilet auger has saved us several times from having to call a plumber.

Also, don't forget to teach your kids how to turn off the toilet water supply.

Cleaning Bathrooms in Five Steps

1. Spray down your shower and toilet with cleaners first. This allows them to do their magic for several minutes. Then clear your counters.

2. Tackle your toilet bowel next. 

• If you have hard water rings, wetting 220 grit sandpaper is my favorite way to remove them.
• Once you're done, rinse the toilet brush when you flush it. Then prop the handle under the toilet seat with the brush over the bowl. Spray it with disinfectant and allow it to drip dry clean.

3. Dust the counters and sinks before washing them so there's less moistened gunk to clean.

• For this step, microfiber cloths work magic in clinging to dirt.

4. After washing your sinks, clean your mirrors and restore your counter items. 

• If you have dirty spots on your floors, use this wet rag to spot clean. 

5. Finish with cleaning the shower and outside of the toilet.

At this point, I have not trained our girls to clean the bathroom. As such my suggestion is to train young kids to do room/quiet time. You can read about how I do this in step two of this post.

We will eventually work through each step once they're able to properly clean. For now, I think they would make a bigger mess than the one they're supposed to be tackling.

Favorite Audio Resources

As you may have noticed I don't have any specific cleaning supplies I would say are "must haves". There are plenty of sites (like Dr. Annie's Experiments) that can help you make an informed decision.

However, I will share some favorite audio resources I use when cleaning the bathroom.

The first is an app called Scripture Typer that I use to help me memorize Bible verses. This video gives a great two-minute description of it. My favorite three features include:

• Being able to create collections of verses. I've used this for myself and to track what my kids have memorized.
• The app has a built-in timer for reviewing verses based on how well you remember them.
• There are very few apps I buy, but this one I have because the PRO feature allows you to make an audio recording of verses. I'm then able to listen to them sped up in a loop while cleaning the bathroom.

For audiobooks, your local library or LibriVox are a couple of great free options.

For Christian audiobooks, I enjoy being subscribed to Christian audio. They offer a free audiobook each month and that has led to me owning several gems.

As a last quick tip, if you don't have a portable Bluetooth speaker, stick your phone in a paper cup to amplify the sound.

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* Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.