15 Aug Your Bathroom

Your bathroom is your sanctuary—a place where you groom yourself, can be completely alone with your thoughts, and enjoy total uninterrupted “you” time. It goes without saying that this room of your house should be held to the highest standards of sanitation, but yet it always seems to be the first one to get disgusting. Your bathroom is an extension of you, and a reflection of your cleanliness overall—respect yourself (and your guests) and don’t ignore the following things:

• Splattered water and toothpaste is sitting on the mirror and sink from your morning tooth brushing session—don’t be an animal and just leave it there. Keep a designated cleaning towel nearby and get in the habit of wiping everything down after shaving and brushing your teeth. When you are done reading your newspaper, instead of just throwing it into a pile, use it with some glass cleaner to clean off your mirror.

• Unless you’re pretending your bathroom is one at an Aerosmith concert, put the toilet seat down and close the cover—end of story. Even if you stand to pee a hundred times a day, take the extra second to close the lid and cover; when you leave if open, it allows bacteria from your toilet to fill the air. Let me tell you, that is not something you want clinging to your toothbrush.

• Keep your shower and/or bathtub clean. When you shower or bathe, even though soap and water are spattering everywhere, it’s still a very dirty place. Walk into your bathroom right now and see if there is mildew, soap scum or stains on the wall—if so, get yourself a sponge and a bathroom cleaner and start scrubbing. Additionally, make sure to keep the drain cleaned and functioning; don’t let too much hair or other foreign objects go down there and plug things up.

• Change your shower curtain and lining at least once a year or every six months. Those dark spots that started growing at the bottom overtime? It’s called mildew and its gross. It’s unhygienic and increases the chances of bacteria floating around in your bathroom, aside from the fact it looks disgusting. Make sure to change the curtain rod and rings as well; the last thing you want is a rusty shower closure.

• Keep the areas where you store your products extra clean. Sanitize around your products and make sure that your toothpaste, face creams and anything else is sealed properly with the cap screwed back on tight—you don’t want water residue or other bacteria getting into your products and ruining them. Ensure that all of your grooming tools, including clippers, trimmers and blow dryers, are squeaky clean with their cords organized. (A tangled mess is an eyesore.)

• Keep the floors cleaned. No one wants to be stepping on your old toenails, your pubic hairs or your girlfriend’s long stray strands. When you mop, pay extra close attention to the floors around the sink, and most importantly, the toilet. Have you looked behind your john recently? Ask yourself if it’s as clean is it can be, because unless you’ve gotten down on your hands and knees with a sponge in the past week, chances are, it’s not. As my mom always says, your bathroom floor should be so clean that you can’t eat off of it. Don’t forget about the baseboards—I’ll bet there has been some hair and dust accumulating there as well.

• If your towels and bathmats are starting to feel like sand paper, then its time to step up your game, go to the mall, and replace them. Guys, “a towel is a towel” is not an acceptable life motto. Think of how many showers and baths you have taken in your lifetime (hopefully a lot) and ask yourself the last time you’ve washed your towels, let alone bought new ones. What, you’ll feed yourself a nice sirloin steak and buy yourself a new car, but you won’t treat yourself to a new a goddamn towel to wipe down your clean body? Don’t forget to wash your bathrobe often as well, and switch out your bathmat every week…and whatever you do, do NOT step on it with shoes that you’ve worn on the subway platform.

• Organize your medicine cabinet at least once a month. I’ll bet if you look in there, you still have your allergy prescription from three years ago, cough medicine that is ancient, expired sunscreen and about fifteen other things you never use. Throw out everything you don’t use that’s causing extra clutter, then keep or replace only what you know you need—this way, you can see what you have and help keep things orderly. While you’re at it, purge and replace excess products sitting around in your shower too. When’s the last time you’ve changed your loofa, sponge and soap? If you’re not sure, it’s time to switch them out.

• Get a trashcan with a cover. Have you ever used a bathroom in a house or apartment where one or more female lives? Have you ever seen an uncovered trash bin?…Exactly. While you’re at it, put a garbage can liner in the bin so when it’s time to take out the trash, you can just tie it up and toss it.