]-How to Clean a Bathtub (Cleaning Motivation)

Welcome to the Clean My Space channel. My name is Melissa Maker and I am an accidental cleaning expert, which means I've run a cleaning business for the past 16 years, but I hate cleaning, so I don't want to waste any more time doing it than I absolutely have to. And in this video, I'm going to show you how the pros clean a bathtub using a very simple DIY recipe that works every time. I've seen a dirty tub in my day. I've seen lots of wild products that are out there and DIY recipes. But this one is inexpensive and it works. So let's do it. And just a quick reminder, if you haven't done so already to subscribe to the Clean My Space channel and stick around to the end of this video where I will tell you about the time my company ruined someone's brand new bathtub. To make this recipe, just get a bowl and you're going to add equal parts baking soda and dish soap. So here I have about a tablespoon of each. And then I'm adding in some drops of orange essential oil. This is totally optional, but very nice. Now that you've seen my simple DIY recipe, what do you use? What's your go to for cleaning the tub? The cleaning aisle is full of products dedicated to dealing with soap scum and dirty tubs. And I'm curious what has been your go to. And my hope is that maybe I'll convince you to try this. Now, a wet sponge is key because a dry sponge is not going to spread the product around the way you need it to. Your sponge should be almost dripping wet. You're going to apply it with the soft side of the sponge. You can see I'm just working my way up and down. You want to see this product foaming. I can't really pick it up here on the camera, but it should be sort of foaming for you. And if it's not foaming, add more water. OK, so you're going to keep working your way around the tub, dosing out more product as necessary. Here you can be liberal with the use of product because the more soap and baking soda that sits there, the better it can work off that soap scum. Now I'm going to do the same thing to the base of the tub, and I'll finish off by cleaning that area around the drain. Now that the product is sitting, let's talk about what soap scum is. First of all, if soap scum is present in your bathroom, it doesn't mean that you yourself are dirty. We all generate soap scum when we shower. And here's why. It has three main components that none of us can avoid. First, soap. Any bath or body product that you are using in the shower or the tub is going to leave a residue behind. Just think about if you use too much soap on your hand and you don't rinse it after scrubbing your hands clean, you're going to have a residue. Or if you use too much soap on your floor, there's that stickiness. Well, even when you rinse off your body, soap is going to be clinging to your tub. It's going to be there. So that's number one. Number two is anything that comes off your body. Well, while you're showering or bathing, dead skin cells, body oils, stuff, product from your hair, whatever the case may be, that is sticking around in the tub, too. And finally, anything that is residual from evaporated water. So minerals linger behind. And what happens is these three things mix together and they sort of casually cling to the sides of the tub. And as water evaporates, they hang out there. And over time, that is how soap scum builds up. Now, a pro tip is to take your bath rug and fold it up, placing it under your knees. That way you have a bit of support when you're doing the scrubbing. And I'm using the same technique, just working section by section, top to bottom, using an S pattern. Now, I've let this sit for a couple of minutes. My tub did not have a lot of soap scum. But if you have a tub that does have a lot of soap scum, you might want to let this sit for, you know, maybe five, ten minutes. The scrubbing part is really important. I'm using the scrubby side of a non scratch sponge here in my fiberglass tub. And a little trick you can use to see if all the soap scum is gone is to take your hand and just rub it against the surface. If you feel any friction, there's still soap scum. If it feels smooth, you've done your job. I always work on the surrounds first and then I finish off with the base of the tub. Now it's time to rinse. So I'm using the handheld shower here to give my tub a really good rinse. I'm not even using hot water. I'm just using cold water and going for it. I'm working my way around the tub. The important part here is you want to get rid of the grittiness from the baking soda and any of the residue left behind from the soap. Now, if you don't have a hand shower, you can get yourself a jug or a container. Fill it with water. Hold it straight up against the edge of the tub and slowly pour. That's how you can rinse. Now is one of the most important parts, and that is drying your tub here. I'm using the Makers Clean Duo cloth, which is a thick and thirsty cloth that's quite large, meaning it can pick up a lot of the moisture, actually all of the moisture that's left behind. So that way there won't be residue or there won't be any excess moisture, which will then dry on and leave spots on the tub. I'm also using it to polish the edges of the tub, as well as any of the fixtures. And what's cool about this cloth is despite the fact that it just soft up all of that moisture in the tub, it's still not completely saturated. That's why I love using this for this job. And that is how you clean a tub without spending a fortune and getting great results in a very short amount of time. I've done my job. Now, the cloth that I use to do this particular job is called the Duo cloth. It's available on MakersClean.com, which is our line of premium microfiber cleaning products or tools, I should say, Melissa. Anyway, it's on sale right now, so you can go check that out. And I love using it for that particular purpose. And there's so many other great uses for it. Now, I did promise you this story about the time where my company ruined a client's brand new bathtub. So here goes. It was a rather new hire, and this goes to the importance of training your staff well. And businesses are always learning, which was very early on in my business. We were probably less than a year old at this time. And a client brought us in to clean their brand new condo that they had just received and they were just about to move into. And at the time, they had given us a big bag of cleaning supplies and they were like, all right, go to town. And my wonderful, dedicated new employee wanted to scrub the tub really well. And she used an iron handle brush with heavy duty nylon bristles to scrub an acrylic tub. So anyone who has an acrylic tub, they're probably cringing right now because you know what happened. It totally, totally ruined the tub. And yes, we had to pay to repair it. And I don't remember exactly what was done, but I do know we lost money on that job. So again, goes to the importance of using the right products, tools and techniques on a job. And of course, as a business owner to continually train your staff on how to do their job properly. If you enjoyed learning how to clean your tub like the cleaning pros do, you might enjoy our Clean Like a Pro playlist, which you can check out right over there. You can also support our channel by subscribing to it if you haven't done that already. And you can visit MakersClean.com where that Duo cloth is available, as well as our entire line of other microfiber cleaning cloths and premium products right over there. Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you next time.