How to clean a bathroom: a step-by-step guide from mirror to floor

The short answer: to clean a bathroom, work from top to bottom and from the cleanest surface to the dirtiest. Spray the shower and toilet first so the cleaner can sit while you do the mirror and sink.

• Order: clear the room, air it out, dust the high spots
• Then: mirror, sink and counter, shower or tub, toilet, high-touch spots
• Floor last, then reset the room
• Time: a regular weekly clean takes most people well under an hour
• Next step: Plan it with the Cleaning Schedule ($4.49).

To clean a bathroom, work from top to bottom and from the cleanest surface to the dirtiest. Clear the counters and floor, open a window or turn on the fan, dust the high spots, and spray the shower and toilet so the cleaner can sit. Then clean the mirror, sink and counter, shower or tub, toilet and high-touch spots, and finish with the floor. A regular weekly clean takes most people well under an hour once the order becomes a habit.

If you want the order on paper, the Cleaning Schedule ($4.49) gives you Room-by-Room Checklists, a Daily Checklist, a Weekly Cleaning Schedule, a Monthly Checklist and a Seasonal Deep Clean page in one 9-page PDF (US Letter and A4). Browse all of our Printables for more home planning pages.

This guide covers the method: what order to clean in, what to use on each fixture and how to deep clean. If you just want a list of tasks to tick off, our bathroom cleaning checklist is the shorter, printable-style version. For the rest of the house, see how to clean a house.

The 3 rules that make bathroom cleaning faster

Almost every tip for cleaning a bathroom comes back to three rules. Once they click, you stop redoing work.

A fourth rule is about safety: one product at a time. The CDC's guidance on cleaning and disinfecting with bleach says never to mix household bleach with other cleaners or disinfectants, because it can release vapors that may be very dangerous to breathe in.

What you need to clean a bathroom

You don't need a cabinet full of products. A short kit, kept together in a caddy, covers almost every bathroom.

The CDC's guide on when and how to clean and disinfect your home explains the difference: cleaning with soap or detergent removes most germs and dirt, and disinfecting is mainly useful when someone in the home is sick or a sick person has visited.

How to clean a bathroom step by step

Here's the full weekly routine. Read it once, then follow the same order every time so it becomes automatic.

1. Clear the room. Take out bath mats, towels, the trash bag and everything sitting on the counter, the tub edge and the toilet tank. Clean surfaces get clean much faster when nothing is in the way.
2. Air it out. Open a window or turn on the exhaust fan before you spray anything. The CDC recommends good ventilation when you use bleach products indoors, and it makes any cleaner more comfortable to use.
3. Dust the high spots. Wipe or vacuum the exhaust fan cover, light fixtures, the top of the mirror and any shelves. Dust falls down, which is why this comes first.
4. Spray the shower, tub and toilet. Put cleaner on the shower walls, tub and fixtures, and squirt bowl cleaner under the toilet rim. Leave them for the time the product label recommends while you do the next steps.
5. Clean the mirror. Spray glass cleaner onto a cloth rather than straight onto the mirror to avoid drips, then wipe in an S-pattern from top to bottom.
6. Clean the sink and counter. Wipe the counter, scrub the sink basin, then detail the faucet and drain edge with the small brush. Dry the faucet so it doesn't spot.
7. Scrub the shower or tub. Work from the top of the walls down, then the fixtures, then the tub floor. Rinse well. If you have glass doors, see our guide on how to clean shower glass.
8. Clean the toilet. Scrub the bowl and flush. Then wipe the outside from top to bottom with a toilet-only cloth: tank, handle, lid, seat (both sides), rim, hinges and base.
9. Wipe the high-touch spots. Door handle, light switch, cabinet pulls, the toilet handle again and the towel bar. These are the surfaces people touch most.
10. Clean the floor. Sweep or vacuum first to pick up hair, then mop from the far corner toward the door. Get behind the toilet and along the baseboards by hand.
11. Reset the room. Put in a fresh trash bag, hang clean towels, put back clean mats and restock toilet paper and soap.

How to clean each bathroom fixture

Different surfaces need slightly different treatment. This table is the quick reference.

For stubborn lines between tiles, our guide on how to clean grout goes deeper. If the shower drains slowly, see how to unclog a drain.

How to deep clean a bathroom

A deep clean is the weekly routine plus the jobs that only need doing every month or every season. Do the regular clean first, then add these:

• Grout and caulk. Scrub grout lines and check caulk for gaps or dark spots.
• Exhaust fan cover. Remove it if it comes off easily, wash it, and dust inside the opening.
• Shower curtain and liner. Many liners can go in the washing machine; check the care label.
• Shower head. Soak or wipe away mineral buildup so water flows evenly.
• Drains. Pull out hair from the sink and shower drains.
• Baseboards, door and door frame. Wipe them from top to bottom.
• Inside cabinets and drawers. Empty them, wipe them out, and toss expired products.
• Toilet base and bolt caps. Get into the corners around the base with the small brush.
• Trash can. Wash it inside and out and let it dry.

You don't have to do all of it in one day. Many people spread deep-clean jobs across a month, one or two per week. The Seasonal Deep Clean page in the Cleaning Schedule is built for exactly that. For a whole-house version, see our deep cleaning checklist.

How to deal with mold and mildew

Small spots of mildew on caulk or grout are common in bathrooms because they stay damp. The EPA's guide to mold cleanup in your home says to fix plumbing leaks and other water problems as soon as possible, scrub mold off hard surfaces with detergent and water, and dry everything completely.

The EPA also says that if the moldy area is less than about 10 square feet (roughly a 3 foot by 3 foot patch), you can usually handle the job yourself. If there has been a lot of water damage, mold covers a bigger area, or sewage or other contaminated water was involved, call a professional. Our page on how to clean shower mold covers the shower specifically.

To keep mold from coming back, run the fan during and after showers, squeegee the walls, and hang towels and bath mats to dry.

If you use bleach

Bleach isn't required for regular bathroom cleaning. If you choose to use it, the CDC's bleach guidance gives a few clear rules:

• Clean visibly dirty surfaces with soap or detergent first, then disinfect.
• Use regular unscented household bleach that lists 5% to 9% sodium hypochlorite.
• If the bottle has no dilution directions, mix 5 tablespoons (1/3 cup) of bleach per gallon of room temperature water, or 4 teaspoons per quart.
• If the product has no instructions, leave the solution on the surface for at least 1 minute, keeping it visibly wet.
• Mix a fresh solution each day, wear gloves, keep the room ventilated, and never combine bleach with any other cleaner.

How long it takes to clean a bathroom

Time depends on the size of the room and how long it has been since the last clean. Use these as planning time boxes, not targets.

The quick tidy is what keeps the weekly clean short. A bathroom that gets a few minutes most days rarely needs a long scrub.

Common bathroom cleaning mistakes

• Wiping cleaner off right away. Most products need time on the surface to work. Check the label.
• Cleaning the floor first. Everything you clean above it drips and falls down.
• Using one cloth for everything. Keep a separate cloth or color for the toilet.
• Mixing products. Even two cleaners that seem harmless can react. Rinse between products.
• Skipping ventilation. It's harder to breathe and surfaces take longer to dry.
• Ignoring moisture. A wet bathroom grows mildew fast. Dry it, air it, fix leaks.
• Trying to fix months of buildup in one go. Do two shorter passes a few days apart instead.

How often to clean each part of the bathroom

A simple rhythm keeps the room from ever getting to the "really dirty" stage.

If remembering the rhythm is the hard part, a printed schedule on the inside of a cabinet door helps. Our guide on how to start a cleaning routine shows how to build one, and our cleaning schedule template lays out the whole house by day, week and month.

If cleaning has revealed worn finishes or fixtures, these bathroom remodel ideas compare cosmetic refreshes with larger projects and include a budget worksheet.

Make the bathroom part of a routine

A clean bathroom is mostly about doing the same short routine in the same order. Keep your supplies in one caddy, follow top to bottom and clean to dirty, let the cleaner sit, and give it a few minutes most days.

The Cleaning Schedule ($4.49) puts the bathroom on a daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal plan, with Room-by-Room Checklists and a Cleaning Supplies page. If you're organizing the whole house, the Home Management Bundle ($16.99, reg. $32.94 bought separately) includes the Cleaning Schedule, Household Binder, Home Inventory, Home Maintenance Log, Moving Planner and Password & Accounts Log. Find more sets in our Bundles shop or browse everything for running a home in our home shop.