This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click and make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I use and love, or that I would recommend to my mom or best friend. Please see the disclosure statement for additional information.
Your bathroom can be super dirty, even if it looks clean. Use this checklist to deep clean your bathroom a little at a time (perfect for working women!).
Orange horror surrounded me.
Everywhere I turned, there it was. I stood under the water for a minute, head hung low, wondering how I’d let it get to this point.
Ah, the bathroom.
So vitally important to modern-day civilization, yet still somehow repugnant.
I was adjusting the fill valve on one of our toilets earlier. Sticking my hand inside the toilet tank, even through it was empty, still felt like I was on game show doing something gross for prize money.
There’s something about the bathroom that stirs up visions of monstrous bacteria, highly mobile contagions, and sick growths springing up in random places.
Let’s fix that, shall we?
I have just the thing: My bite-sized bathroom deep cleaning checklist.
The Importance of a Bathroom Deep Cleaning Checklist
Deep cleaning is the opposite of speed cleaning. Rather than quickly wiping things down and straightening up, deep cleaning entails a thorough, meticulous clean of your home.
Even if you wipe down the surfaces in your bathrooms every day like I do, there are probably places you don’t always think to clean. As a result, it’s important to run through a solid bathroom deep cleaning checklist every now and then to ensure your bathrooms are sanitary.
Put off deep cleaning your bathroom, and you might find yourself surrounded by orange horror mildew in the shower, like I was several years ago. This article from WebMD details the icky (and potentially dangerous) germs that can lurk in the average household bathroom.
How Often Should You Deep Clean Your Bathrooms?
Frequency of deep cleaning bathrooms is a loaded question. Ever since I started taking great care of my home several years ago, having clean bathrooms is really important to me. I want the place where I soak in the tub, brush my teeth, and do, well, other bathroom things, to be visibly clean.
The bathroom can be riddled with germs, and my family and I use the bathrooms in our home every single day. As a result, I’m a fan of completing most of the tasks on the bathroom deep cleaning checklist once per week. Some tasks, such as wiping down the insides of cabinets, can be completed monthly or even quarterly.
Once you get into the habit of deep cleaning bathrooms weekly, it gets easier. Frequent deep cleaning prevents the buildup of thick layers of grime, making cleaning a snap.
Order of Deep Cleaning Tasks
You’ve probably heard that cleaning top-to-bottom is the most efficient method. Where it makes sense to do so, the tasks on my bathroom deep cleaning checklist are ordered from top to bottom. As a result, you’ll clean more efficiently and minimize re-cleaning areas you’ve already done.
Complete the Checklist in Chunks, if Needed
You don’t have to deep clean your entire bathroom all at once. You can complete a task from the bathroom deep cleaning checklist here and there as you have time to do so. Because the checklist is broken up into small tasks, you’ll know where to start when you have time to finish deep cleaning your bathroom. That makes it perfect for busy working women who don’t have a lot of time to deep clean!
Some tasks will take just a few minutes, and some may take 30 minutes or more. It depends on how clean your bathrooms are to start with, and how quickly you clean.
By the way, if you have trouble keeping your house clean, you might want to check out my free monthly cleaning checklist. It’s a done-for-you plan to keep your house clean through daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Best of all, it only takes about 30 minutes a day! You can also check out my post on how to keep your house clean in 30 minutes a day, which explains a little more about the checklist.
Bathroom Deep Cleaning Checklist
Use this checklist to deep clean your entire bathroom. You can do it all at once, or break it up into chunks.
Be sure to check out my whole-home deep cleaning checklist for universal tasks to complete in each room, including the bathroom. Those universal tasks aren’t included in the checklist below, and should be completed before you start on these bathroom-specific tasks.
- Remove all items from storage areas (Vanity cabinet, drawers, medicine cabinet, shelves, etagere, etc) and dust/wipe down
- De-scale under-sink plumbing
- Clean backsplash
- Clean crevices between wall, backsplash, counter
- De-scale sink faucet
- Clean countertop
- Clean sink
- Wipe down outside of toilet
- Clean around base of toilet
- Clean inside of toilet bowl (Be sure to scrub the under the rim)
- Gently clean sealant or crevice between base of toilet and floor
- Clean behind toilet
- Dust and de-scale water line
- Clean bathtub/shower
- De-scale shower head and tub faucet
- Scrub grout
- Clean floor, including crevices between shower/tub and floor, vanity and floor, and deep corners
- Disinfect trash can
- Clean mirror
Bathroom Deep Cleaning Checklist: Conclusion
This bathroom deep cleaning checklist will help get your bathroom as clean as possible. With regular deep cleaning, you’ll provide yourself and your family with a trustworthy, sanitary environment in which to get yourselves clean.
As stated above, I recommend completing the tasks on my whole-home deep cleaning checklist in the bathrooms first. Then, you can move on to the bathroom deep cleaning checklist.
Want free printable copies of my deep cleaning checklists? Join the ShowMe Suburban community and get access to my cleaning and organizing resource library! You’ll also receive my free weekly emails, where you’ll learn simple habits and routines to keep your home clean and organized, so you can relax away from work without feeling the stress of a messy home. Sign up here!
Coming soon – I’m working on a series of deep cleaning checklists for the rest of your home! Check back here for updates – I’ll link to each new checklist once I’ve published it.
Bathrooms
Dining Room
Playroom
Closets
Laundry Room
Utility Room
Basement
Garage
Thank you for this! Things on it I haven’t done in ages *facepalm. For my bathroom I will add to clean the fan cover. It can get dusty and nasty looking after awhile if I don’t Swiffer it every so often.