31 Days to Bless Your Home, Day 17: Sparkling Toilets, Tubs, and Sinks

31 Days to Bless Your Home: Easy Tips for the Domestically Challenged

Week 3- The Glamorous Side of Homemaking: Cleaning, Organizing, and Decluttering

Day 17 – Sparkling Toilets, Tubs, and Sinks

“First thing in the morning, she dresses for work,
    rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.
She senses the worth of her work,
    is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.
She’s skilled in the crafts of home and hearth,
    diligent in homemaking.” Proverbs 31:17-19 MSG

This week’s challenge: It is time to roll up our sleeves and give our homes some extra TLC this week. What have you been putting off? This is the week to tackle it!

Today’s challenge: Put some extra effort into making your bathrooms and kitchen sparkle.

OK, Ladies, it is time for the really glamorous side of homemaking! I thought I’d break you in gently by starting the week with decluttering and organizing. Today, however, we are going to bless our homes and families by scrubbing toilets and bathtubs and sinks! Oh my!

The first thing I want to get across to you is that what you do is so valuable! There are times as wives and moms that we can feel so underappreciated and unsung. We look at the nasty ring in the bathtub, and then we look at reflections in the mirror with our sweat pants, t-shirts, and pony tails, and think, “Is this all I have to look forward to? This is not the life I expected!” When we look at it that way, it is enough to make us feel like useless frumps!

If you are a working mom, it is easy to feel resentful that you are essentially having to do two full time jobs, and that bathtub ring can be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back! It is enough to make a woman feel nuts!

Is that negative enough for you? I promise; no more of that! The point is that it is all in how we look at it. God convicted me of my attitude years ago, and by just changing my perspective, my housecleaning took on new purpose and meaning. Now when I look at that yucky ring in the bathtub, (OK, let’s go ahead and add the lovely porcelain throne too!) I see it as an opportunity to create a clean, well-managed, and comfortable haven for my family. I began to see it as an honor and as a ministry.

Scrubbing toilets as a ministry? Yes, it is! I know that sounds crazy, but hear me out. When we do the menial work of cleaning and taking care of our homes, we are creating the environment where our husbands, children, and any other family members do life. It is the place where they rest, work, create, play, be inspired, make memories, and receive the bulk of their spiritual training. Will they do all of this in a home that is reasonably well-managed, tidy, and in order? Are they observing an example of discipline and diligence that will spark habits of success in other areas of their lives? Do they have the sense of well-being that accompanies a clean and well-ordered environment?

I am not trying to throw guilt at you, but a clean home is so much more than rubber gloves and a sweaty brow! Think of it this way, when you love someone with all your heart, what kind of environment would you want them to live in? We would naturally want only the very best! Out of our love for our families, let us give them exactly that! Let us take the effort to make their home as pleasant and as comfortable as possible! Cleanliness is a big chunk of that!

If you have read my previous posts, you know that I am not advocating perfection at all! It may sound that way, but no way! Rather, I am after balance. It takes hard work and discipline to manage our homes well, but never does that mean that we are to beat ourselves up or to neglect our more important roles of nurturing and building the relationships and spiritual climate within our homes. That is so much more valuable!

What I want to get across is that we can do all things as unto the Lord, even scrubbing our tubs, toilets, and sinks! (Colossians 3:23) Doing our best with what we have been given is a form of worship, and it expresses gratitude to the One who has blessed us with our homes and families. He is the One who has assigned us this wonderful responsibility, and it honors Him when we do it cheerfully and vigorously. We minister to and bless our families by working hard in our homes.

Just keep it all in balance!

Oh, and I’m not opposed to sharing this responsibility either! Just so you know! If my husband picks up a mop, I’m not going to argue! After I pick myself up off the floor and get over the shock, I will welcome the teamwork. However, I do consider it my primary responsibility to manage our home and make it a haven. God gives us as women that unique ability to create the atmosphere.

Here are some practical tips to help:

Kitchens and bathrooms are germ central, and we are going to attack those little critters today before they spread their bounty of bacteria and viruses throughout our families.

Bathrooms:

Every morning when you get ready for the day, and every night before bed, put everything away. Do not leave toiletries or hair styling tools on the counter. It only takes about 2 or 3 seconds to do! Then, using a washcloth, paper towel, or bathroom wipe, quickly wipe down the sink, counter, and toilet. It takes mere seconds, and your bathroom will be company ready at all times! If you use a flat iron, you probably have a lot of broken hairs on the counter that need to be whisked away. If you have boys, you know the benefit of daily wipe downs!

I don’t do the tubs as often as I used to. We have four people living in our house, and four bathrooms. We each have our own tub, and therefore, our own scum. Nice,huh? A daily shower spray eliminates having to clean as often, and they are life savers when you have as many tubs as I do to clean!

Make it a habit for family members to pull their own hair out of the drain and to spot clean any messes they make. This will eliminate having to clean as often too.

For weekly cleanings, or sometimes every two or three weeks, depending on the degree of scum, I always begin with dry cleaning first before cleaning anything wet. When you sweep and dust, it is so much easier to do when the floor is dry! (Remember, we do daily wipe downs, so it doesn’t get very dirty!) When you dust, don’t forget tops of towel holders, toilet paper dispensers, and the front of cabinets. They can get gross pretty quickly!

I begin by spraying everything with Scrubbing Bubbles so that it can sit and do the work for me. It also takes time for all the germs to die. The surface needs to remain wet for at least 10 minutes to kill all the germs. I also put toilet cleaner in the bowl. Now to work!

I have no reason for this except that it is easier for me to go around the room in one direction. I always do it in this order – tub, toilet, mirror, sink and counter, and then floor.

I clean the walls of the tub first with a scrubby sponge with an extended handle, and if there is any really bad mess in the bottom, I sprinkle some Comet and put some elbow grease into it. Then rinse. I keep an old towel handy on the floor by the tub since I always spill and make a mess.

For the toilet and sink, I clean everything with a sponge, then rinse, and then wipe everything with a clean cloth diaper, making sure everything sparkles, especially any chrome. I knew those cloth diapers were good for something!

I have heard many ladies using an apron in which they can keep all of their cleaning supplies on hand to save time. I love the idea, but I get so hot when I clean, that I just can’t stand it! Rather, I have a caddy stocked with everything I need, and I place it dead center in the room to quickly grab what I need.

I finish by mopping the floor. You can do baseboards too, but I don’t worry about them but a couple of times a year. I mean, really!

Now for the next three bathrooms! Ugh! Oops – I mean, yay!

Kitchen:

My best advice is to clean right away every time you use anything. Put food away immediately. Wipe the counters. Rinse dishes right after you use them and put in the dishwasher. This only works if you empty the dishwasher after every use! That is usually a morning routine for me.

Usually, I just use a little dish soap on a wet cloth to clean the sink and counters, but once in awhile, I like to use an anti-bacterial cleaner and let it soak for about 10 minutes before wiping up. Kill those germs! I also use comet to scrub my sink every so often so it stays sparkling white.

Dishwashers are made now to clean dishes with food on them, but if they sit for any length of time, the food gets stuck and may not ever come off! Also, the food may get sprayed onto other dishes. It is always better to rinse dishes well, and even scrub the hard stuff off before putting them in the dishwasher.

Clean as you go! Wipe things off; put things away; throw away any packaging; etc. while you cook. My mother used to say that to me all the time, and it has stuck! She taught me that cleaning up is a part of cooking. After dinner clean up will be so much faster too!

Reach into the abyss, I mean the refrigerator, every few days for anything rotting or any uneaten leftovers. Get rid of it and put the container in the dishwasher. Yep, you even have to wipe down and disinfect the shelves every so often! Most experts recommend every week, but I confess, I don’t do it that often! Check for any “gross stuff” accumulating in the rubber grooves of the door and the ice maker tray too. Many people miss those until they become scary!

Wipe the fronts of the cabinets often before grease and dust mix together and accumulate into a hardened shell on your cabinets. Don’t forget to check for fingerprints!

I sweep daily, but I don’t mop as often as I probably should. Rather, I just use a paper towel and spot clean any mess I see. However, as a nana, when my sweet grandbaby comes, that floor is spic-and-span!

If you don’t have a self-cleaning oven, my advice is to clean often enough before the crud becomes too hardened to manage. However, we usually procrastinate this job because it seems like it will be so much harder than it really is. Sure, it smells really bad, and it is disgusting, but it really doesn’t take that long. Talk yourself into it like a coach pumps up a football team, and get in there and do it!

I have a gas stove which is so much easier to clean than the electric ranges I have had in the past. I just use a little Comet on a scrubby sponge, and it’s clean! However, you may need to use oven cleaner on electric range trays if they have accumulated too much crud. Remember, the more often you clean them, the easier it will be every time. Or, what I used to do was just to buy new trays every time. Ha ha! Why not make it easier for yourself?

Well, that just about covers my routine. I am sure most of your have your own routines and can teach me a thing or two! What I hope you get out of this is a fresh inspiration to do the messy work of making our homes a haven. Now that your work is done, do grab yourself a cup of coffee with some spiced pumpkin creamer and relax with a great book! You have earned it!

Join me tomorrow for more tips to help you bless your homes and the glamorous side of homemaking!

Thank you, and God bless you and your home!

Shari Lewis