Episode 11
Scrub-a-Dub-Dub: Our Bathtub Cleaning Secrets Revealed!
Q&A Mini-Episode: Bathtub Cleaning
In this joy-filled mini-episode of No Shame in the Home Game, Sara and Lacey dive into the nitty-gritty of bathtub cleaning with their signature blend of practical wisdom and light-hearted conversation. This episode exemplifies our mission at the Joyful Support Movement: making life's necessary tasks easier so you have more room for joy!
Episode Highlights:
- Start With What You Have: Sara reminds us that cleaning doesn't need fancy products - begin with a multipurpose cleaner and whatever "device" you have on hand (microfiber cloth, sponge, etc.)
- The Cleaning Equation: Lacey realizes cleaning is like an equation - combining what you have access to in order to reach your desired level of clean
- Different Materials Need Different Approaches: Sara explains how various tub materials (plastic surrounds, tile, fixtures) require tailored cleaning methods
- Top-Down Method: Clean from the top down to efficiently remove soap scum and prevent recontamination
- Prevention Is Key: The hosts emphasize that a quick rinse after each use prevents stubborn buildup and saves time later
Tiny Steps for Bathtub Cleaning:
- Start simple: Remove the biggest chunks with a tissue
- For deep cleaning: Remove all bath items (optional but recommended for a thorough clean)
- Apply cleaner: Use a multipurpose cleaner as your starting point
- Wipe down: Use a soft cloth or sponge to prevent surface scratching
- Rinse thoroughly: A detachable sprayer helps, but a damp cloth works too
Coming Soon:
Stay tuned for future Q&A episodes where Sara will tackle:
- How to clean a tub without bending over
- The truth about abrasives (including "the pink stuff")
- Removing water spots from glass shower doors
Remember, there's absolutely NO SHAME in how you manage your home! Have a cleaning question? Submit it at noshameinthehomegame.com and we might answer it in an upcoming episode.
- The Joyful Support Movement is about creating ripples of joy in your life through practical support. May your day be filled with joy!
Links referenced in this episode:
- noshameinthehomegame.com
- joyfulsupportmovement.com/joymoments
Mentioned in this episode:
Support Joy
Support Joy at the Joyful Support Movement and create a joy ripple today.
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome to no Shame in the Home Game, the podcast that cares how your home feels, not looks.
Speaker B:I'm Lacy, your newly mom for the third time co host who's three months old is joining us in this podcast.
Speaker B:So hello, here is Sarah, my co host.
Speaker B:Hi, Sarah.
Speaker A:Hi, Sarah.
Speaker A:And we should say Sarah, your co host who's going to be delightfully distracted by the lovely Miss Violet who I.
Speaker A:Lacy, I'm not going to look at your face.
Speaker A:I'm so sorry.
Speaker A:I'm going to be looking at Violet the entire time.
Speaker B:So that's just fine.
Speaker A:Hopefully we'll actually get through this.
Speaker B:Fingers crossed.
Speaker B:Because you're the person who's answering questions, not me.
Speaker A:Well, I know, but I'm already so distracted.
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:Maybe I do have to look at you.
Speaker A:I'm so distracted.
Speaker A:We are going to do Q and A question answers and we want to hear your questions.
Speaker A:This is.
Speaker A:There are no dumb questions.
Speaker A:There really aren't.
Speaker A:Like I want to hear all the questions because I love talking about this to a point that's kind of weird.
Speaker B:I mean, every time we start talking about it, I'm like, who knew we could get so into what we talked about walls that one time and it became very intense.
Speaker A:This is whatever your questions are about cleaning, managing your home, whatever stumps you on a daily basis.
Speaker A:You can submit your question.
Speaker A:Today we're going to be talking about cleaning showers and bathtubs, which I gotta say, bathtub kind of my least favorite thing because of all like the bending over.
Speaker A:Everything I talk about is actually can be applied through the good, better, best tool.
Speaker A:That is something we lean into here.
Speaker A:There's no one way.
Speaker A:There is.
Speaker A:What is your end goal and what, what are your resources?
Speaker A:How much time do you have, how much energy do you have and how much money do you have to throw at the problem?
Speaker A:So let's start off with.
Speaker A:I'm just curious, Lacy.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I'm guessing Joe cleans the bathtubs and showers.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:What's his routine?
Speaker B:I'll just say we don't clean them as much as we should.
Speaker B:We do have some maintenance strategies.
Speaker B:I think that makes that better.
Speaker B:So like we have some of that shower cleaning spray that you can spray after a shower and it is supposed to help keep it clean.
Speaker B:So we do that.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:It just happens when it happens.
Speaker B:I wish I could even tell you, like this is the, the, the amount.
Speaker B:Usually it's like the shower is starting to get a little gross.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And then we.
Speaker A:Which again, if you listen to this Podcast.
Speaker A:You know, there's.
Speaker A:There's two reasons to do an activity.
Speaker A:One is it's scheduled, and one is by prompt.
Speaker A:And so Lacy just gave us an example of by prompt.
Speaker A:This shower is so nae nae.
Speaker A:I don't want to get in it and take a shower.
Speaker A:Well, that's your prompt to clean it, and that's fine.
Speaker A:And I'm always reminded so lovingly of the new girl episode of, like, why would I clean my bath towel?
Speaker A:I'm already clean.
Speaker A:It's just clean.
Speaker A:It's just drying me off.
Speaker A:Like, I think there's that sentiment with a shower and a bathtub.
Speaker A:Like, why would I clean it?
Speaker A:It's not like the toilet.
Speaker A:Like, it's the shower.
Speaker A:I'm getting clean in here.
Speaker A:So a good place to actually start is.
Speaker A:And this is gonna make me sound like my dad, like a teacher.
Speaker A:The first thing is like, okay, what are we cleaning?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like, what are the different things that accumulate in a shower that you would want to clean?
Speaker A:So right off the bat, hair.
Speaker A:One of my least favorite things in the world is when a stray hair.
Speaker A:When I'm wet and there's like a stray hair on my arm, it's like, my least.
Speaker A:You best believe.
Speaker A:I love using a detachable shower head to, like, spray down the walls to get any, like, ha down.
Speaker A:So the first thing you can be removing is hair.
Speaker A:Actually, there's probably a whole bucket of things you could be removing if you have children and animals, but we'll just say miscellaneous other than, like, the standard three, I'm going to cover.
Speaker A:So one would be hair.
Speaker A:Two would be any kind of buildup from products.
Speaker A:Soap buildup, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, shaving gel.
Speaker A:What other products am I missing?
Speaker A:Oh, if you take a bath, like, the bubble bathy stuff that builds up.
Speaker A:So there's.
Speaker A:There's different.
Speaker A:Whatever products you're using in the shower and bathtub, those can build up on the surfaces.
Speaker A:And then the other one.
Speaker A:Actually, there's two more.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Sorry.
Speaker A:The other one I was going to say was mineral deposits.
Speaker A:So depending on how the water is where you live, water is not just H2O.
Speaker A:There is always other stuff in there.
Speaker A:And if the water is on the surface and it evaporates, then what you're left with is whatever wasn't water.
Speaker A:And like, where I live, there's.
Speaker A:We live on, well, water.
Speaker A:A lot of people around here do.
Speaker A:So there's a lot of fun stuff in that.
Speaker A:So some people will talk about having, like, the red color that's from things in your water.
Speaker A:The biggest thing is on glass doors and you see the water spots.
Speaker A:So that's leaving behind whatever.
Speaker B:Ooh, we, I.
Speaker B:We do, we do have a squeegee because we have a glass shower door.
Speaker B:And don't always squeegee because a shower is like a marathon for me.
Speaker B:So by the end of it, I'm like, I just gotta go lay down.
Speaker B:But Joe is usually really good about squeegeeing after a shower too, which is.
Speaker A:Such a great preventative.
Speaker A:So you can come at these cleanings from two angles.
Speaker A:Well, you can do one or other.
Speaker A:Well, you can do both.
Speaker A:Whatever you want to do.
Speaker A:There's no wrong way.
Speaker A:If you want to prevent a lot of cleaning, yes, squeegeeing down the water will help not only get the water off, but as you're squeegeeing, if, like, let's say you got a dollop of shampoo on the wall, you'll see that.
Speaker A:And as you're squeegeeing, you can actually squeegee that down to the drain.
Speaker A:So, yes, it does take time.
Speaker A:And nobody really wants to linger in the shower once the water's off.
Speaker A:But squeegeeing is a great tool to get to prevent having to clean later.
Speaker A:So that's one thing.
Speaker A:And then the other thing is.
Speaker A:So I love to say, I was just explaining this to my son last night, damp plus dark equals yuck.
Speaker A:Okay, so the other thing that you have to clean is the yuck, which would be mold and mildew, things that are going to grow because there's enough water and nutrients.
Speaker A:So it's not, it's not the mineral deposits left behind.
Speaker A:It's actually something that's growing.
Speaker A:And we've all been to a 20 something year old apartment.
Speaker A:We know what that looks like.
Speaker A:I do, I do.
Speaker A:It's pretty.
Speaker A:And again, if you squeegee, you're going to help eliminate the damp.
Speaker A:That's also.
Speaker A:It's also why you don't throw your wet towel on the floor and just leave it there.
Speaker A:Because damp plus dark equals yuck.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Violet does not like the yuck.
Speaker B:Violet does not care for the yuck.
Speaker A:No yuck.
Speaker B:She says, no thank you.
Speaker A:Yuck.
Speaker A:So if you know what you're cleaning up, then again, you can look at it from, do I want to prevent any of these things or how can I prevent from cleaning them up?
Speaker A:And then if you want to deal with them, like Lacy mentioned, you can do it when you notice, ooh, it's Yuck.
Speaker A:I don't want to go in there.
Speaker A:Or like, for us, we have one bathtub in the house and I often clean it before one of us is going to take a bath.
Speaker A:Because that's just like an occur moment.
Speaker A:Like, oh, let's do this right now.
Speaker A:Because we don't all have 24 hours in a day to be cleaning our houses.
Speaker A:Nobody's got time for that.
Speaker A:And if you do, I'd love to meet you.
Speaker A:I would love to know what your cleaning schedule is.
Speaker B:Well, it's just not only if you do and you're like, this is what I am gonna spend my 24 hours on.
Speaker B:Are a fascinating individual to me.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, I've got, I've.
Speaker A:I would love to have a conversation.
Speaker A:Oh, wait, 24 hours, you're not sleeping.
Speaker B:I mean, so at that, that point, it's probably a disorder of some kind.
Speaker A:So if we look at.
Speaker A:So we look at the other end, let's say, let's say none of that stuff is prevented or it's not prevented 100%, which is fine.
Speaker A:So what are we cleaning?
Speaker A:So if you're cleaning up hair or miscellaneous, right, that's something you just scoop out.
Speaker A:So at the end of my shower, I got luscious locks.
Speaker A:My son told me last night my hair was so luscious, which was a weird word coming from my son.
Speaker A:But at the end of the shower, I just take a tissue and I scoop up the hair that's in the drain and then I take a little bit of the dry tissue and I actually wipe the ledge because you get a lot of dust and just, yuck, that accumulates.
Speaker A:So the stuff that you can see really easily, you can just wipe that away.
Speaker A:And that's something you can do just when you see it.
Speaker A:You don't have to do all these steps at the, at the same time.
Speaker A:That's the other point too.
Speaker A:So that's.
Speaker A:If you're removing something that you can kind of like grab.
Speaker A:And then if you're removing.
Speaker A:If you can see clumps of dried on shampoo conditioner soap scum, depending on how big the clump is, if it's like kind of dried, you might be able to scrape it off.
Speaker A:So if you have like a little scraper tool or if you want to use your fingernails again, like go biggest to smallest, like the biggest stuff you can kind of like grab or chip off.
Speaker A:And then if it's something more like soap scum that's dried on that, you need a product for the product.
Speaker A:There's so many out there.
Speaker A:I mean, have you been to the grocery store?
Speaker B:Like, we're gonna do a whole episode about cleaning products.
Speaker A:So infinity and beyond.
Speaker A:But here are the two elements, depending on the product you choose and the tool you choose.
Speaker A:It's how much elbow grease do you want to put in and how much do you want the product to do the work right?
Speaker A:So if you only wanted to clean.
Speaker A:Oh, Lacy got inspired.
Speaker B:I just remembered something that happened.
Speaker B:So I'm a TikTok shop affiliate and every once in a while they like, send you things of like, you should use our product or try our product.
Speaker B:And one of them was a steam cleaner.
Speaker B:And I just had it.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:At first I was like, when would I use the steam cleaner?
Speaker B:But as you were talking, I was like, boom.
Speaker B:That is a place you could use.
Speaker A:A steam cleaner a hundred percent.
Speaker A:And that's why there's no one way to do this.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:If you own a steam cleaner.
Speaker A:Yes, that will loosen it all up so that it will come off.
Speaker A:Because remember, all we're trying to do is remove anything that is not the surface, that is not the tile, that is not the shower floor.
Speaker A:Like, we're just trying to remove any layers.
Speaker A:So steam cleaning is a great option.
Speaker A:Not.
Speaker A:Obviously, not everyone has access to a steam cleaner.
Speaker A:Especially if you live in an apartment, you don't want one more tool.
Speaker A:Although I would love to hear how it goes.
Speaker A:Maybe you can make a video.
Speaker A:I would love to see it.
Speaker B:I didn't, I didn't get it.
Speaker B:I was like.
Speaker B:I was like, I know we do cleaning stuff, but this is just a little.
Speaker B:Not for me.
Speaker A:Oh, I used a steam cleaner.
Speaker A:My dad helps me take apart my dishwasher and I steam cleaned.
Speaker A:And that was so lovely.
Speaker A:So lovely.
Speaker A:And my neighbor borrowed it and she took apart the drum.
Speaker A:She got to the drum in her washing machine and she steam cleaned it.
Speaker A:And it was beautiful.
Speaker A:So if you don't have a steam cleaner, then it's what kind of product do you want and what kind of tool are you going to use?
Speaker A:So, for instance, products, multipurpose cleaner.
Speaker A:If you are just a vinegar person, fine water and vinegar.
Speaker A:Or if you want one or more of those heavy duty ones where you have to open the windows and turn on the exhaust fan and spray it and then run out of the room, which I have those, I'm not criticizing.
Speaker A:I have those.
Speaker A:Those work really well.
Speaker A:But some of those, you spray them and you let them set.
Speaker A:Set, because they're actually dissolving whatever's built up so whatever your product is, and then it's what's your tool?
Speaker A:Are you using a microfiber cloth or using a sponge?
Speaker A:And there's sponge that's are like soft and then there's sponges that are like scratchy or are you using some kind of brush?
Speaker A:And it could be a handheld brush or our friend Sarah who was on no Shame in the home game, she got a brush that is powered.
Speaker B:So the brush that I remember she told us about it, she was so excited about it.
Speaker A:So again, that's taking out the elbow grease, right?
Speaker A:So it's not about a magical solution, it's about where do you want to put your time, energy and money.
Speaker A:And she doesn't have the energy.
Speaker A:So she bought this tool to do the elbow grease part for her.
Speaker A:And all that's doing is working in the product and breaking down whatever it is, the mold, the scum or the mineral deposits.
Speaker A:For the most part you can get away with a lot with a multipurpose cleaner and a two sided sponge.
Speaker A:You can get away with so, so, so, so much.
Speaker A:So don't feel like this is you have to buy some specialty product, but you can add things in if it's not getting as clean as you want it.
Speaker A:So you can add in abrasives like Borax or Barkeeper's Friend or baking soda, anything that's going to give you another layer of.
Speaker A:Just think about it.
Speaker A:When you exfoliate your body like you can use a loofah or you can use, what do you call those sugar scrubs.
Speaker A:Those scrubs, right.
Speaker A:So it's the same thing.
Speaker A:It's just on the surface.
Speaker A:You know what's funny is right now I'm realizing how boring this is, but how much fun I'm having.
Speaker B:Well, no, as you're talking, it's like an equation is what I'm realizing of like, it's like, you know, this plus this, maybe this equals clean.
Speaker B:And it's using, you have what you have access to and that kind of stuff to get to a different level of clean that you want.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And some, some people like again it's a whole spectrum of what, what your end goal is, of how much time you want to put into it.
Speaker A:You know, some people want to be able to literally prepare food on it.
Speaker A:It's that clean.
Speaker A:And they want bleach and they want sterilization.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And that's fine.
Speaker A:That's going to take a little bit more time.
Speaker A:And I gotta like asterisk all of this with if you have Grout with your tiles.
Speaker A:That's like a.
Speaker A:That's like a different subset of things.
Speaker B:Well, we are going to have a grout and caulking, a caulk episode.
Speaker A:So just keep in mind what I'm talking about here is not the grout in the caulk.
Speaker A:I'm really talking about.
Speaker A:Is it a plastic surround?
Speaker A:Is it tile?
Speaker A:Is it.
Speaker A:There's so many other materials.
Speaker A:And then you have your.
Speaker A:Your fixtures, the knobs and the handles.
Speaker A:I think it's called fixtures.
Speaker A:So every.
Speaker A:Every surface.
Speaker A:And this is where, again, the equation is so different for your home.
Speaker A:Like, what materials do you have on the tub, on the walls?
Speaker A:Do you have, like, hanging shelves in there?
Speaker A:Do you have chrome or brushed stainless steel?
Speaker A:And you don't have to know.
Speaker A:It's fine.
Speaker A:I would say if you don't know where to start, I would say scrape off or use a tissue to get the biggest chunks that you can.
Speaker A:Start there.
Speaker A:And then the second would be to use a multipurpose cleaner.
Speaker A:Oh, I missed a step.
Speaker A:If you really want to go deep, you don't have to do this.
Speaker A:If you really want to go deep, take out all of the items, take out the shampoo bottles, take out the bars of soap, take out the loofahs.
Speaker A:But that's only if you want to go stem.
Speaker B:Deep cleaning.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Stem to stern.
Speaker A:That's a best stem.
Speaker A:Stem to stern.
Speaker B:I have no idea what.
Speaker B:What you're saying.
Speaker A:Stern, bow to stern, tip to stern.
Speaker A:Anyways, that one left me.
Speaker A:Perimenopause.
Speaker A:Hashtag.
Speaker A:This moment is brought to you by perimenopause and brain Fog.
Speaker A:But you don't have to remove the stuff if you don't want to.
Speaker A:But if you spray it and then whatever your devices, if it's microfiber or sponge, wipe it all down.
Speaker A:Just caveat.
Speaker A:If you do use a sponge that has a scratchy surface, you just have to be thoughtful about if it's scratched, if that surface can be scratched like that, because some surfaces are more delicate and you will end up scratching the material and not just the.
Speaker A:The yuck you're trying to get off.
Speaker A:So start with something softer.
Speaker A:Test in a little area to know if that scrub.
Speaker A:I learned.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:There's this stuff called the pink stuff.
Speaker A:Have you heard about this stuff?
Speaker B:I have heard of the pink stuff, yes.
Speaker B:I'm not stopping you.
Speaker B:But we have talked about these episodes being like 15 to 20 minutes, and we're at 18 or 19.
Speaker A:I get so excited.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker A:I get so excited.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I'm gonna wrap it up.
Speaker A:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:Can we.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Can we?
Speaker A:In a freezer?
Speaker A:Q and A will do.
Speaker A:How to clean a tub without bending over?
Speaker A:Yes, please.
Speaker A:Okay, let's do an asterisk to talk about abrasives.
Speaker A:And remind me to talk about the pink stuff.
Speaker A:I learned a lesson the hard way.
Speaker A:So if you just start with the multipurpose cleaner and whatever your device is, go from the top down and just try to loosen and remove as much as you can.
Speaker A:And then this is where a detachable sprayer comes in really handy, because you can spray all that down to the bottom and see what's.
Speaker A:If you don't have that, then if you just use a rag with some that's clean, that's wet, like a clean, wet, damp rag, and then you wipe from the top down to try to remove any product.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So that's, like, your first pass.
Speaker A:And that's going to get a lot of it.
Speaker A:Like, a lot.
Speaker A:And it's just a multipurpose cleaner after that, if you want to go farther, that's when you have to look into specialty products first.
Speaker A:Mineral deposits on certain.
Speaker A:On certain surfaces.
Speaker A:Or if it's mold or mildew in a caulk, for example.
Speaker A:There are situations where you need something that's more specialty.
Speaker A:But we're past our time, so I'm going to leave it as, like, a cliffhanger.
Speaker A:Like, ooh, how do you remove those water spots from your glass door?
Speaker A:Oh, you'll have to come back and find out.
Speaker A:I'm just doing that because Lacy's laughing, but you can't hear it because she's.
Speaker B:On mute, on mute because Violet's getting mad.
Speaker B:But cliffhanger.
Speaker B:Of all cliffhangers.
Speaker B:What do you do?
Speaker A:What do you do?
Speaker A:So we will.
Speaker A:We will wrap up this.
Speaker A:What was supposed to be short Q and A by saying multipurpose cleaner and a sponge is your starting point and prevention prevent.
Speaker B:Because I.
Speaker B:What I'm realizing is that our showers and tubs don't get too gross because we do a lot of prevention.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And that's just so true.
Speaker A:Like with the bathtub example, if you just rinse that ring when you're done, that soap scum will not.
Speaker A:Not dry.
Speaker A:And you won't have to work 10 minutes to get it off when you could use 5 seconds to rinse it down.
Speaker B:And I hate when there are clumps of things so that will never be on ours.
Speaker B:I've.
Speaker A:I've witnessed.
Speaker A:This is no shame, but I have witnessed.
Speaker A:It's like Somebody took the conditioner and, like, squeezed it on the wall.
Speaker A:I was like, how does that much conditioner get on the wall?
Speaker B:I mean, it's like the.
Speaker B:What's the word that I'm looking for?
Speaker B:The toothpaste in the sink.
Speaker B:That's a big pet peeve of mine.
Speaker B:Holy moly.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:It actually makes my blood like, yeah.
Speaker B:My children's bathroom I don't walk into because I don't want to see that.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Well, let's wrap up today's because I just planted, like, 10 more seeds for other things.
Speaker A:And if you have questions, please go submit them.
Speaker A:Is it.
Speaker A:Noshameinthehomegame.com is where they submit.
Speaker A:Okay, perfect.
Speaker A:We'd love to hear your questions.
Speaker A:Whatever your questions are.
Speaker A:Nothing too big or small or gross.
Speaker A:The grosser the better.
Speaker A:Nothing too boring either, as you see.
Speaker A:I love boring when it comes to managing your.
Speaker A:And then are we wrapping up with Moments of Gratitude or.
Speaker A:No?
Speaker B:Yeah, well, we'll do it real quick.
Speaker A:Well, my moment of gratitude is we just recorded our first Joy Moments podcast.
Speaker B:That was gonna be mine, too.
Speaker B:So we'll just say that this.
Speaker B:We have a shared moment of gratitude, and we encourage you all to check out Joy Moments, our new podcast where we share 10 minutes of joy into the world.
Speaker B:So coming soon.
Speaker B:And you can probably find it in the show notes as well, a link to that page.
Speaker A:Thank you, Lacey.
Speaker B:Thank you, Sarah.
