A Staggering Number of People Forget to Clean This One Place in Their House
There’s no denying that keeping a house clean takes a lot of work. Most of us manage to stay just ahead of the mess by cleaning here and there during the week and tackling bigger projects on the weekends. However, no matter how extensive your chore chart, there are some places in the house that are going to be at the bottom of a long to-do list. While spring cleaning or an impending visit from your in-laws may inspire you to finally clean the throw pillows, dust the ceiling fans, and give the grout a good going over, there are some spots that may never get cleaned. Case in point? That spot right behind the toilet.
While cleaning the toilet isn’t typically at the top of the list of anyone’s favorite activities, it tends to be tackled fairly often. Every week or so, rubber gloves are pulled out, baking soda or some other favorite cleaning product is dumped into the bowl, a toilet brush is wielded, handles and seats wiped down, and soon things are sparkling clean. That spot behind the toilet though isn’t as easy to scrub down or disinfect which is why it gets ignored or forgotten in so many houses. (No judgment!)
That said, it really should be cleaned. Depending on your toilet’s location in the bathroom and the proximity to the wall, the best way to clean it is probably with a mop and your cleaning product of choice (disinfectant is probably a good call, too). If you can’t maneuver a mop behind the toilet, sorry to tell you that you may have to get on your hands and knees and give it a good scrub. Use a sponge or scrub brush with soap and hot water and a good dousing of disinfectant. The silver lining to this whole endeavor is that at least it’s a small area to clean and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
WATCH: 12 Things Only Professional Cleaners Know
Cleaning behind the toilet may never be a favorite chore but it is an important step to getting rid of lurking germs and getting a sparkling clean house. Besides if you’re looking for a new least favorite chore to put off doing, consider the fact that you should really clean your toilet brush. Real Simple has detailed, multi-step instructions for how to do that, including bleach, clean water, warm, soapy water and then cleaning the toilet brush holder. Doesn’t that sound worse?
