Please don't feel misled that the directions for how to clean your walk in shower will be toward the end of this post. You can skip down there now if you like, but I hope you'll read these parts first!
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To start with, could we look at this, and ask: "What’s wrong with this picture?"
This is a trick question because I actually don't see anything wrong—in fact, this post aims to promote the practicality of this traditional bathing design over walk in showers!
What would the method be for maintaining this combined tub and shower design?
You shower in it then you:
1. hold on to the shower curtain and agitate it to force off extra water
2. give the tile walls a quick squeegee
3. squirt a little 7th Generation Dishwashing Liquid (clementine zest or lemon/lime)
4. give the tub walls a bath with a brush, a scrubby, or with just cleaning rag (face towel sized)
Any of these combined with a little 7th Generation Dishwashing Liquid will keep your tub clean; if you’re cleaning your tub for the first time, you will probably also need a can of Bon Ami.
5. rinse using squeegee to pull water up the sides of the tub walls (this saves water and helps you complete the task quickly)
6. make sure your bathroom is ventilating out humid air either with the ceiling vent or by using a portable fan, and you’re DONE!
Instead of having a glass wall to clean, you have a simple shower curtain. You can maintain it by shaking excess water from it each time you shower. You can also put it in washing machine if it gets a film of soap or mildew.
Time it takes to clean a traditional tub shower design: 5 minutes? or less! A child should be able to clean a traditional shower/tub set up very easily.
Now let's look at the trend of the new walk-in showers—
Many new homes and renovations include huge walk in showers. These are attractive, but could end up being a huge hassle! I met with a contractor to talk with her about this trend. Did any of the families she worked with have plans on how they would keep these mammoths clean? She answered: "I don’t think any of them even thought about it." But, we…do...need…to…clean…them, right?
So, here we go!—
Firstly, always squeegee the walls and any bench type surfaces within the shower as soon as you finish showering. Then, always leave the glass shower door open to help get the humid air out of it, and run the ceiling vent or a portable fan to pull warm air out of the bathroom.
Also, remove any damp towels from the bathroom and hang them somewhere else. In our space we have an over-the-door rack and each damp towel is spread out and allowed to dry on it before it goes back into the bathroom.
In tandem with simple daily or regular maintenance of the walk in shower, do a deep cleaning every once in a while as visible film and mildew starts to accumulate. You don't want to use chemicals to clean a shower: Everything that you use on the shower walls and floor and glass door will be taken into your lungs.
Here is how to accomplish a deep cleaning of the walk in shower as quickly as possible, using no chemicals. If you don't want to use the deck brush and sponge mop method, you can just use a palm brush and a wand or handle brush for grout (this method will be detailed after the deck brush and sponge mop method).
I apply the deck brush and sponge mop method on a regular basis because it just goes so much more quickly: it covers more area at once!
A palm brush is great for shower flower or grout in walls, the wand brush works great for grout.
The deep cleaning of a walk-in shower calls for patience and physical effort; it’s ok! You’ll get a work-out!
Items needed:
a deck brush
a simple sponge mop
a palm brush, a handle brush, a toothbrush
a ribbed face rag
a drying rag (no cut up t-shirts; they aren’t substantial enough)
white vinegar
7th generation dish washing liquid (liquid soap) (I like the clementine or the lemon/lime)
2-3 buckets of water (depending on whether your shower head has the ability to be hand-held or not):
in one of the buckets, fill only about 3/4 of the way with warm water plus 1 cup of white vinegar
an empty 32 ounce yogurt container
1. fill a bucket with warm water with a lot of white vinegar
2. put it either on the shower floor or just outside the shower door
3. use the empty yogurt container to spread some of the white vinegar and water solution that you've put in a bucket
4. squirt 7th Generation Dishwashing Liquid onto the shower floor and begin to scrub it with the deck brush; continue to clean all of the shower floor. give the deck brush a little rinse, shake it dry and set it aside. you're done with it.
5. use a squeegee to pull all shower floor water into drain
6. get the ribbed face rag and immerse it in the vinegar water
7. squirt a little puddle of the 7th Generation Dishwashing liquid somewhere in the shower; you will keep going back to this "supply"
8. rub the immersed vinegar water rag into the supply of 7th Generation Dishwashing liquid
9. now, lay this rag onto the sponge mop head and begin moving it up and down each wall.
you'll discover physical intelligence as you figure out how to maneuver this—you have to make adjustments when you do lower part of walls.
10. continue till all walls are done and then do the glass walls/door: you’ll need to keep rinsing out your washing rag in the vinegar water solution, then dipping the rag into your supply of 7th Generation Dishwashing liquid, then placing it over the sponge mop. is this clear?
11. once you’ve done washing each wall, use squeegee to pull the soap solution down all walls toward the floor and back to drain
12. NOW IT IS RINSING TIME: remember you filled other buckets with pure water? or, if you are lucky, you have a hand held shower head? now, use either use the empty yogurt container as a “ladle” to pour clean water down the walls (from your buckets) or use the hand-held shower head to rinse the walls and door
13. now use a shower squeegee to pull the rinsing water down the walls to the drain
14. use a WINDOW squeegee to pull the rinsing water down the glass doors/wall
These are glass or window squeegees. wipe down the rubber strip after each time you’ve pulled a length of water: so, pull squeegee down or across, wipe vinyl strip with dry cloth, repeat.
15. now you can use a dry cloth to dry any areas on tile wall that you may have missed with squeegee
16. dry the faucet so it shines
USING ABOVE METHOD without deck brush or sponge mop
If you choose not to use the deck brush or sponge mop, just do everything exactly the same, but with palm and handle brushes. Clean the shower floor with a palm brush. Put a ribbed face rag over the palm brush to clean wall tile and glass door (email cleanlifemuse@yahoo.com if you have a question about this step), use a handle brush to scrub the grout.
Follow all other steps as above! The palm brush only method takes longer than the deck brush and sponge mop method, but it works just as well!
Daily maintenance of walk-in shower
This is a simple daily solution for shower floor:
Fill an empty dish washing liquid bottle 3/4 of the way with white vinegar, then squirt in 7th Generation Dish washing Liquid. Shake it up.
Let this bottle stay in your shower. When you finish showering, turn off shower,
squirt this solution onto shower floor, quickly use the palm brush on shower floor to help lift any residue.
Turn shower back on to aid in a quick rinse. Squeegee shower walls and door then quick squeegee of shower floor and you are done!
REMEMBER: always leave shower door open for extra ventilation. If you need to bring a portable fan into bathroom and use it to direct moist air out of the bathroom. Keep your bathroom and your home dry!
I leave you with a wish that things could be more thoughtfully designed! In my curiosity about how bathrooms are cleaned in other countries I asked an Iranian friend what techniques they use. She said that in her family’s bathroom there was a hose and it could be used to clean the bathing area and the toilet too! Perfect!
If you are really set on a walk-in shower for your renovation, a design where there are as few individual tiles as possible (less grout!) would be easiest to maintain. Choose a design with larger material surfaces, little grout, and without a glass door:
It’s important to have hand held shower head to assist in keeping walk-in showers cleaned easily!
Bathroom designed by MCD Design/Mary Clare De Reuil and Carlos Tardio
This design uses larger surface areas to minimize grout lines!
Here is a shower two years old and cleaned only with the method described in this post!