Swishin' and Swipin'

July's habit is swishing and swiping the bathroom each day. I don't have too much trouble with this one, because I've been doing it for quite a while. At least with my sink and toilet. I had two little boys, who are now teenagers, so I caught on to this one pretty quick! ;) I spray down my sink and vanity top with Formula 409 and wipe them with a paper towel. Same for the outside of the toilet - seat, rim, behind the seat, and the bottom down next to the floor. When the boys were little, I'd also wipe the floor around the edge of the toilet. I don't swish my toilet every day, but I do watch out for it to need a swish between its weekly cleanings. This little routine keeps the bathroom at least presentable every day.

My biggest problem has always been how to keep my tub clean. I love a shiny tub! I have done the once-a-week scrub, but I didn't like it when I wanted a bubble bath and my tub looked gunky, i.e. not shiny. I've tried spraying it with Formula 409 every day and then wiping it out, but to me that was a major production for my morning routine. So I finally decided to try what FlyLady recommends: take a few seconds while you're in the shower to give the tub a quick swipe.

I've been doing this for a week or so, and it is keeping my tub shiny, which I love. I had an extra bath puff, so every morning I put just a drop of body wash on that extra puff, bend over, and go over the inside of the tub quickly. The water from the shower rinses the soap away as I go, so it doesn't get slippery under my feet. I don't even think the soap is doing all that much; I think it's the mesh of the puff scrubbing off the soap scum.

Now, I still have some problems with mildew in the shower. For that, I'm just going to keep doing the weekly/bi-weekly scrubbing of the shower surround. I've tried cleaning part of the wall each day, but that actually made the problem worse, because the wall was getting more water on it with my cleaning it so often than it was by the shower running. If I got really ambitious, I would take my bath towel and wipe down the shower walls after my shower, but I haven't reached that stage of dedication yet. Have you? Is there anyone out there who dries their shower walls every morning?

We also have glass shower doors. When they are clean and clear, just using a squeegee each day does the trick to keep them clean. But with my sidetracked self, I will forget to squeegee the shower door for days and days, then it's clouded up with water stains and soap scum again, and I'm back where I started. I'm to the point where I'm going to have to do a major cleaning of the shower doors, and then make sure I squeegee them every day. I don't see a way around that one! What do you do for your shower doors or curtains?

So let's talk swishin' and swipin'! What's your "swish-and-swipe" routine? If you don't have one, why not try it for a week (there's a week and a half left in July) and let us know how it goes. It's a great feeling to walk into a clean, shiny bathroom - when you haven't even slaved over it!