| By :
Nick Vassilev
Some people rate cleaning the bath and shower to be a chore and a bore, and can't wait to turn the task over to a professional domestic cleaner. Others don't mind the job, while others rate it as a favourite. No matter which group you fall into, there are ways to make sure that the job isn't too awful... even if you plan on turning the whole job (plus other cleaning jobs) over to a pro. As always, it is best to avoid harsh commercial cleaning chemicals. Yes, they do a good job of cutting through the grease, but they have a tendency to be very harsh on the skin, making it crack and itch. What's more, the chemicals stink so much that the manufacturers load the product with artificial scents to make it smell tolerable, thus increasing the load of chemicals and potentially carcinogenic toxins in the wretched stuff. It's best to stick to the natural stuff. For the general soap and dead skin that tends to make that awful grey ring around the tub, baking soda is your best bet. Sprinkle ordinary dry baking soda into the bathtub liberally, then get out a damp rag or three and rub at that ring until it vanishes. The grey ring will vanish. Another natural cleaning alternative for the bath is to use an Enjo cloth or any other microfibre cloth. Bath rings can be minimised by judicious use of what you put in the bath, apart from your body. Bath oils - even homemade bath oils - tend to make the clean-up job worse. Bubble bath, however, reduces the ring. Unfortunately, bubble bath isn't precisely natural and can irritate the skin (so can shampoo, which has the same foaming effect but for an awful lot cheaper). Some natural bath products that don't irritate the skin and don't leave a mess that needs to be cleaned up are bath salts and bath vinegars - or a few drops of essential oil added when the bath is running. The taps are another story. They get covered with soap scum. Spraying them with dilute vinegar and buffing them well with a soft, dry cloth tends to get them gleaming, and the vinegar neutralises the soap scum. The same treatment works wonders for the shower head, and the vinegar can also get rid of limescale - but you will have to use a slightly stronger solution of vinegar and maybe leave the vinegar on the metal for a bit longer. Now for the screen that stops the water from the shower spattering all over the bathroom floor. If you have a plastic shower curtain, your problem is to prevent it getting mouldy. Spreading it out fully after each use so it can dry, as well as taking steps to stop too much condensation (e.g. using an extractor fan or opening the window), will prevent mould growing. If mould dares to show its face, then take the shower curtain down and sponge it with neat vinegar or lemon juice before hanging it out to dry thoroughly. You may like to machine wash the shower curtain (in cold water) before drying it again and hanging it back up again. To clean a glass shower door, the best natural method is to mix up a solution of white vinegar, water and essential oil (tea tree essential oil is readily available and is antiseptic. So is lavender essential oil). You can substitute a bit of vodka or some other strong alcohol for the vinegar, if you like. Spray this over the glass shower door and leave it for about half a minute. Then buff the glass very thoroughly with a soft dry cloth until all moisture has gone. This leaves the glass gleaming - and this method can be used for window cleaning and mirror cleaning.
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