I’ll start with a confession: I have a cleaning lady. She comes every other week and has me thanking my lucky stars, because with four kids, I so need the help. In between her visits, the house stays relatively clean except for the floors and the bathroom sinks. Within hours (sometimes minutes) of the cleaning lady leaving, the sinks get gross. They’re caked with toothpaste residue, soap scum, and hair. Since we have hard water where we live, the sinks and bathroom counter tops are even more difficult to keep clean. It’s so frustrating. And for me, nasty sinks can make me feel like my whole house is a mess, probably because we use the sinks so much, and I’m constantly looking at how dirty they are.
I don’t have time to do a full cleaning of our bathrooms every day. Nor do I feel like lugging a big bottle of bathroom cleaner and a sponge from bathroom to bathroom. I used to wipe around the sink with a towel after I’d use any of the bathrooms, but it was hardly enough to do more than a surface clean, and the inside of the sink basins were still icky. So I had an idea to keep a small bottle of bathroom cleaner under every sink in the house so I could basically clean the sinks on demand. I’ve since found that Clorox or Lysol cleaning wipes actually work best, because you can buy them in bulk, and there’s no sponge involved.
Now, once a day I’ll just quickly wipe up the sink basin, faucet, and counter top. It takes less than a minute per bathroom, but I really feel like taking that time has made a big difference in how I feel about the cleanliness of my home. Walking into a bathroom with a clean sink just makes me happy.
The best part about this simple cleaning hack is everyone in our house can do it. So, here’s hoping you’ll try this hack and feel just a little bit better about the state of your house, too. I’m telling you: a little effort will equal a big reward, especially when a friend stops by unannounced and asks to use your bathroom!
