The Guide to painless Sunday night Bathroom Cleaning

All of us have experienced the daunting task of having to clean a room that the very thought of cleaning leaves you in a pit of tears and dread. For me, that room is the bathroom. I have whined to myself for weeks about how gross the tub looks. I have tried to justify to myself  that since I now live alone there really isn’t a pressing need to bust out the bleach. I have even reasoned that it has been so long since I have scrubbed the tub that the dirt is etched in all the cracks and cleaning it right now would be futile and a complete waste of my precious time. Time that could be spent going on Facebook and doing crap all.

 

Yesterday morning, I actually closed my eyes while I peed so I wouldn’t have to see the crusty tub which now has developed a voice that sounds very much like my mother’s, admonishing my horrific laziness.  This was it for me. You know it’s time to clean a bathroom when the tub starts talking to you. I need a gameplan, I thought. This is my new theory in life. Every daunting task or situation in life can be made exciting by devising a gameplan and picking an epic soundtrack to go with it.

 

The Game-Plan: When cleaning a bathroom, it is important to realise that your life will be much more pleasant if you have all the right cleaning products at hand. There’s nothing like pouring Clorox in a toilet bowl and then realising you don’t have a toilet brush. Or in my case realising I have no rubber gloves right after I’ve juiced up the toilet with potent chemicals. I’m not a firm supporter of hardcore cleaning chemicals, but when you haven’t cleaned your bathroom for weeks, it’s time to bust out the acid.  So off I went to Shoppers Drug Mart with my pink polka dotted backpack in search of nothing but the best. If you haven’t guessed what my gameplan is by now, it was to make Sunday night bathroom cleaning an event, rather than a chore. I tried to tell myself that cleaning my bathroom was going to be sooo much fun but I gave up when I realised cleaning a bathroom is about as fun as going to the dentist to have a root canal.

 

I came home with Green Works Natural Bathroom Cleaner because  I care about the environment and supporting small Canadian businesses. Then I saw the price of Green Works and thought the environment would have to fend for itself and bought Life Brand toilet bowl cleaner. I’m still a good person because Life Brand is Canadian. But then Pine-Sol was on sale. It’s American. Don’t judge me, Canada.

I also bought ice-cream, just in case things got emotional.

 

The soundtrack:   Say Hey by Michael Franti. Epic enough for some good toilet clean fun.

 

Equipped with a game plan, cleaning products and rubber gloves, I pinned up my hair, rolled up my PJ bottoms and cranked up Mr. Franti.

 

The result? My bathroom is spotless and smells lemony fresh. Was it fun with a gameplan and soundtrack? I think fun is too strong a word to use. However, what I did get out of spending 45 minutes mindlessly scrubbing away soap scum was the genius idea that there was a way of avoiding scrubbing my tub for a long while. Showering at the gym. And that brainwave is what made my bathroom cleaning event a hit.