2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 6/23/2014 - Third Round

User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 6/23/2014 - Third Round

Postby Harriet » Sun Jan 19, 2014 6:21 pm

Here are Indiana's steps to a clean bathroom, from January 17, 2009

As we continue to maintain our homes, the key is maintaining our homes through out the year instead of a full deep cleaning once or twice a year.

Adjust the rooms to fit your home.

Not all the things listed need to be done this round. Some may be done daily, weekly, monthly, every 3 or 6 months or yearly. I have marked possible times for doing the chore. Look at each area with fresh eyes to see what should be done this round.

As you do each room dust, vacuum, wash, wipe, wax, sweep, mop, detail, straighten, and declutter any surfaces that need to be done.

Bathroom

Manage clutter - daily
Light switch - weekly
Dust lights - weekly
Dust pictures - weekly
Dust decorations – weekly
Dust furniture - weekly
Floor – weekly
Throw rugs – weekly
Wipe mirrors – weekly
Trash - weekly
Change and launder bath mats, towels, and washcloths - weekly
Toilet - weekly
Sink - weekly
Tub/shower –weekly
Towel bars, toilet paper holder - weekly
Dispensers (fill) - weekly
Doors and hardware – weekly (finger prints), quarterly
Ceiling and corners - quarterly
Ceiling light - quarterly
Walls - quarterly
Door and floor trim - quarterly
Cold/hot air vents - quarterly
Wash decorations – quarterly
Window trim and hardware – quarterly
Closet -quarterly
Drawers, cupboards, and shelves – quarterly
Exhaust fan - quarterly
Shower curtain/door - quarterly
Grout - quarterly
Medicine cabinet - quarterly
Hairbrush and combs - quarterly
Toothbrush (change) - quarterly
Makeup (expiration dates) - quarterly
Concealer: 6 to 8 months
Powder, Eye Shadow, Blush and Bronzer: 1 year
Eyeliner and Mascara: 3 months - NEVER keep these two longer than 3 months! The eyes are the area of the body most prone to infection. Pumping your mascara or eyeliner pushes bacteria into the tube increasing your risk of infection.
Lip Stick: 1 year
Lip Gloss: 6 months to 1 year
Medication (expiration dates) - quarterly
Window treatments - annual
Repairs – either repair or put on a list for the future
Buy – replacements or something new if needed
Declutter – office/other room (next focus area) and post accomplishments in Harriet’s declutter thread. This is a great opportunity and will make maintaining the office/other room easier.

Remember not all the things listed need to be done this round. Some may be done daily, weekly, monthly, every 3 or 6 months or yearly. Use the list as a guide.

User avatar
Ivy
Member
Posts: 3306
Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2012 9:46 pm
Location: United States

Re: 2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 1/20/2014 - First Round

Postby Ivy » Mon Jan 20, 2014 9:08 pm

I dumped trash, did toilets, straightened up bathroom drawers. I need to re-read this "First Round" list to refer to so I get a more complete cleaning. We did bathrooms up well last week, but skipped the master bathroom. Will attempt it tomorrow. Still need to do a "bedroom catch-up" because focused on bathrooms/the house for a company cleaning, last week. Are a bit topsy-turvy on our order. :?: :oops:
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her seas. Rest your soul in her solitary places. ~Henry Beston

User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

Re: 2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 1/20/2014 - First Round

Postby Harriet » Wed Jan 22, 2014 12:19 pm

Anyone else thinking about killing viruses and bacteria this week? (smile - hard not to have this on our minds a little in the winter) I have usually used Lysol wipes, but am considering starting to use this idea - anyone have an opinion? :

To save money and use products that aren't toxic, with no possibility of bleach splash, this is a "recipe" from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Buy two small spray bottles and fill one with vinegar and one with ordinary hydrogen peroxide. Label with a marker. (Best idea is to use the hydrogen peroxide brown bottle itself by just putting another small spray bottle's top directly onto it. That way, no one is confused, and just as cheap.) When you clean, spray either one first, then the other. They are 10 times more effective when kept separate up until use. In their tests, using the 2 sprays together "killed virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, or E. coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food and surfaces". Hydrogen peroxide does kill even norovirus, so this is a very effective "recipe", although in hospitals they use 7-percent concentrate of hydrogen peroxide and we can buy 3-percent at our groceries or pharmacies. You can buy the wipes hospitals use for norovirus, if you'd like, at Amazon, called "Clorox Healthcare Hydrogen Peroxide Wipes".

Of course, hydrogen peroxide is old news. The EPA first suggested its use in household bathrooms in 1977, but I'm sure lots of folks were already using it.

The bathrooms are looking a lot better here. I'm doing a little each day on this, which is working well this week.

Btw, can't say enough about the change we made to bright white inner shower curtains instead of color ones. I've always used blue to match the room, not dark at all, pretty, and we never thought about how they were darkening our shower as soon as we pulled the curtain. Unless your light fixture is directly over your shower, you'd be surprised how much nicer it is to take a shower when you stop darkening the space!

User avatar
Ivy
Member
Posts: 3306
Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2012 9:46 pm
Location: United States

Re: 2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 1/20/2014 - First Round

Postby Ivy » Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:46 am

Harriet, I use Clorox disinfecting wipes for toilet handles, light switches, phones, etc... :idea: I have vinegar and water mixed, but DH :roll: can't stand the smell. I LOVE ♥ the smell because it smells CLEAN! :!: I didn't know this abotu peroxide though. It's nice to know. :D Thanks!

I wrote my FOCUS bathroom/master bedroom list tonight. I plan on getting started tomorrow, working over the weekend on it. I'll also use my office and the main office, as my "other" room, for next week. I'm making that list this evening, too. I love how lists guide us. Crossing items off makes me feel so good.

I also love the FOCUS threads here, which I find extremely helpful, motivating, and inspire me to move more, do more, and take pleasure and pride in caring for our home. :D

I enjoy decorating the bathroom with a glass mushroom jar full of assorted sea shells and display here and there, 1 - 2 nice large sea shells. I wondered how others decorate their bathrooms? DH bought me a decorative set of bubble bath, I think, or bubble bath oil, with plants in them. They're pretty, but have never opened them, because they're too pretty the way they are. I have a BFF who rolls up guest hand towels inside a basket for her bathroom counter, which makes a welcoming homey look. It's fun to also use candles in glass jars for decoration. :idea: I try to have accent colors in the bathrooms and keep tissue boxes, the colors of accent colors in there, too. Little touches can add so much. DD showed me a photo inside a Martha Stewart magazine once. She's neatly put towels on a towel rack, then took wide ribbon, and tied perfect bows, on 2 side-by-side towels. It was beautiful, but truly only decorative. You couldn't use the towels for fear of messing up the ribbons! :lol:
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her seas. Rest your soul in her solitary places. ~Henry Beston

User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

Re: 2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 4/072014 - Second Round

Postby Harriet » Mon Apr 07, 2014 9:49 pm

Second round through our bathrooms!

We have just put a new toilet lid/seat in our master bathroom. That looks very nice. In prep for that little handy-job I made sure the floors were already clean. I like to wash the bath mat when I clean the floors. I wish my family could get into the habit of always rehanging the bath mats. We use the thick-towel type and if you will just hang them for a while they will quickly lose that moisture and stay nicer. But they are always so rushed I sometimes find the mats in a wrinkled mass on the floor. :roll:

I like tissue boxes the color of the bath as well, Ivy. I like just using paper decorative ones as they come from the store rather than buying something I may not continue to like.

A tip - if you can't find one that's attractive, and have to buy some opposite color or weird pattern, open the empty and new boxes, being careful not to rip the old one. Slide the new contents gently into the old box and tape shut and just start using the new batch.

User avatar
Cowinkie
Member
Posts: 1763
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 8:52 pm
Location: Valley in the Desert

Re: 2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 4/072014 - Second Round

Postby Cowinkie » Mon Apr 07, 2014 11:09 pm

Funny I wasn't even aware it was time for the second go round but Sat I did all of the above but want rid declutter even more. I need some new baskets as my old plastic ones are old....

I'm really in a dumping mood again so I'm gonna be ruthless. Need to be near wmart tomorrow so it fits in my schedule.
Live boldly, take risk, no regrets...Jillian Michaels

User avatar
Cowinkie
Member
Posts: 1763
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 8:52 pm
Location: Valley in the Desert

Re: 2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 4/072014 - Second Round

Postby Cowinkie » Mon Apr 07, 2014 11:18 pm

I meant to add I seldom use glass objects in my bathroom because of breakage. I don't have shelves to put things out of the way. I like the look, but am more comfortable with others types of media.

Harriet... I have this "Psycho" thing about shower curtains and for years would only hang decorative clear ones. This was especially true when I lived alone. In later years I got over it and could use fabric curtains, but have always used white or clear plastic ones beneath the fabric because it is so much brighter that way...
Live boldly, take risk, no regrets...Jillian Michaels

User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

Re: 2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 6/23/2014 - Third Round

Postby Harriet » Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:59 pm

Spiffing the bathrooms for our third round. I remember P and P writing, "Does it need a little Pine-Sol in there?" :D

User avatar
lucylee
Member
Posts: 13740
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:17 pm

Re: 2014 FOCUS - Bathrooms - 6/23/2014 - Third Round

Postby lucylee » Thu Jun 26, 2014 2:31 am

I have to have clear shower curtains too... and I have only seen the clips/previews from Psycho -- that was enough for me! I could never watch the whole movie...
Also very little glass in my bathrooms, now that I think of it. Guest bath has a few breakables, I guess. None that I can think of in master bath. (Except mirrors.)
Trying to do 15 minutes in master bathroom & bedroom this week, b/c I missed last week totally, but so far this week, only managed to work the plan today.
Tomorrow is another day.


Return to “FOCUS”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests