This post is sponsored by Clorox.
If you haven’t already heard, I gave my notice at my corporate job (this was my going away gift from my co-workers – pretty awesome!) as a Senior Corporate Recruiter to focus solely on The It Mom and to help George with his eCommerce business. I’m moving on and transitioning from corporate to entrepreneur full-time and it’s scary and exciting all at the same time.
I’ve worked for my current employer for eight years — originally as a Contract Recruiting Coordinator not meant to even last beyond ninety days as a temp. And throughout the years, I grew and advanced with the company becoming a full-time employee and gaining a Senior Corporate Recruiter title. I created and launched The It Mom seven years ago (one year after I began working with my current employer), but never did I think that it would ever lead to this moment in my life now…where I am able to build a business out of my passion. After saving six months’ worth of expenses and getting our financial affairs in order, I knew it was time to grow my own blogging empire.
BUT…quitting my corporate job isn’t the only dirt I’ve been keeping from the mass public.
We recently did a mini makeover in our master bathroom, and the set up with all of the new decor is gorgeous! The thing is, we only showed you a partial view of our huge master bathroom. The parts of our bathroom that you didn’t see (the toilet, shower, and inside the sink bowls) are the parts we specifically kept hidden during the makeover for a reason. Why? Because my dirty little secret IS my dirty bathroom!
You’re probably thinking that bathroom messes are a problem we ALL face, but don’t often talk about…it’s everyone’s dirty little secret, am I right?! But it’s true — months of layered on mold and mildew built up to the point where we want to just tear the bathroom apart and start over. I’ve given up and hid those areas from guests. And I fear the judgment and mocking that I would have to endure if people saw my master bathroom. We certainly do not want the perception of being dirty or messy, because in reality, we’re not either of those things. We’re VERY busy. The reason for our mess is because we have been limited in time to be able to deep clean anything ourselves. We’re busy running 100 miles per hour and lacked the time to do much for the house. But our bathroom doesn’t stay clean for anyone, it’s a place that rarely feels clean, gets messy, and where you find mold growing in the most unexpected places.
A perfectly clean and serene bathroom is rare these days. And ever since we gave ours a makeover, I grew fond of relaxing in the bathtub to unwind. Thankfully, now that I’ll be working from home full-time and focusing on two things (our family and our businesses) instead of three things (our family, my full-time job, and our full-time businesses), I can finally make the time to keep our house spotless, clean, organized and tidy (and not just during parties or events we host when guests are over). I want this all to last routinely and daily. I also give props to Clorox for creating products that help save time and requires less effort. The reason why Clorox is legit amazing is because Clorox® Bleach kills 99.9 percent of germs and mold and mildew unlike other products.
I’m about to share “before” photos with you that are filthy. I’m actually really embarrassed to share these right now, but I want you to see REAL results and my before and after photos are mind blowing. It’s time to come clean about my dirty little secrets! With Clorox® Clean-Up® Cleaner + Bleach, Clorox® Toilet Bowl Cleaner with Bleach and Clorox® Regular Bleach2 with CLOROMAX®, you can disinfect with the bleach power we all love and trust, while making your surfaces easier to clean. Clorox® Bleach helps kill germs in your bathroom, so that you can enjoy every part of your house.
So here goes, I’m completely exposing it all and my solutions on how I conquered the hot mess we made.
Here are BEFORE photos of our shower…
We started with the hideous stand up shower with all the mold and mildew we needed to remove from the tiles first. The problem areas lie on the shower floor, and the many, many, many, MANY shower tiles and grout from bottom to top. All of the areas were dirty, stained, and built up with mold and mildew. Clorox® Bleach helped kill germs and cleaned the messes of THE most challenging area — the shower! And if you didn’t know, Clorox® Bleach has a new patented formula called CLOROMAX®, which invisibly adheres to hard surfaces, forming a protective shield that repels stains to make cleaning quicker and easier.
Before disinfecting, we needed to remove all that mold and mildew with bleach using Clorox® Regular-Bleach2 with CLOROMAX®. First, you wipe down the surface with a wet sponge. Second, you’ll need to mix 3/4 cup of Clorox® Regular Bleach2 with CLOROMAX® with 1 gallon of warm water. Third, you wet the mold and mildew areas of your shower with the bleach solution. The fourth step is to wait 10 minutes for disinfecting, and then rinse thoroughly with warm water. Finally, you’ll want to let it air dry and then repeat, if necessary, on heavily soiled surfaces.
Next, we cleaned and disinfected the whole shower using Clorox® Clean-Up® Cleaner + Bleach. To clean and disinfect you’ll need to first use the spray bottle and a cloth and remove excess dirt. Next, you’ll spray product 4–6 inches from surface until thoroughly wet and let it stand for 30 seconds. Then you’ll rinse or wipe clean (we preferred to rinse it clean since it is, after all, the shower).
And now, here are AFTER photos of our shower…
Next up was cleaning and disinfecting the toilet fixture (inside and out). Here is the BEFORE photo of our toilet…
To clean and disinfect the surrounding area of your toilet and your toilet seat with bleach, you will first need to wipe your toilet with a wet sponge and flush before you begin. Next you will pour 1/2 cup of Clorox®Regular Bleach2 with CLOROMAX® into one gallon of water and wipe the surface with bleach solution. Then, we cleaned the toilet bowl using Clorox® Toilet Bowl Cleaner with Bleach. To clean, sanitize and disinfect our toilet bowl, we first flushed the toilet before cleaning. Next, we applied 6 oz. under and around rim to coat the inside of the toilet bowl. Then we scrubbed the entire bowl and allowed to sit for 5 minutes for sanitizing (or you can let it sit for 10 minutes for disinfecting). Do not allow pets or children to access the toilet during this time! And finally, flush your toilet! Voila!
And now, here’s the AFTER photo of our toilet…
And finally, our last fixture was sanitizing our sinks. Here are the BEFORE photos of one of our sinks…
I do our sinks last on purpose, as it’s a strategy I learned from my wise Auntie Alice when my cousin and I would clean the upstairs of our house every Saturday morning for two years! We cleaned and sanitized our sinks last because we used the sink to drain, wring out and clean our sponges and cloths used to clean the shower and toilet. I didn’t want to clean it first, then get it all dirty after cleaning the shower and toilet. And the good thing about using Clorox® Regular Bleach2 with CLOROMAX®, you will find those nasty bathroom counter messes are easier to wipe up.
Before disinfecting our sinks, we needed to remove all that mold and mildew first with bleach using Clorox® Regular-Bleach2 with CLOROMAX®. First, you wipe down the surface with a wet sponge. Second, you’ll need to mix 3/4 cup of Clorox® Regular Bleach2 with CLOROMAX® with 1 gallon of warm water. Third, you wet the mold and mildew areas of your shower with the bleach solution. Fourth step is to wait 10 minutes for disinfecting, and then rinse thoroughly with warm water. Finally, you’ll want to let it air dry and then repeat, if necessary, on heavily soiled surfaces. Thankfully, we did NOT have to repeat these steps like we did with our stand-up shower. Whew.
Next, we cleaned and disinfected our sinks using Clorox® Clean-Up® Cleaner + Bleach. Same steps as above: spray, wipe away and poof!
Here are the AFTER photos of one of our sinks…
Ah, much better! Now that the secret’s out, I have to hold myself accountable to keeping it clean since EVERYBODY on the internet knows. Eek! It’s my first priority when we do our weekend chores. At the end of the day, a clean, less-germy bathroom comes first. What comes next is everything.
Leave a comment below and share your dirty little secret with us, it’s time to come clean (no pun intended haha)!
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