LITTLE ROCK — Cleaning bathrooms
On vacation this summer, I noticed how clean and tidy the motel and hotel restrooms were. Are there any tips on how they manage that? I wish I could keep my bathrooms looking like that.
HGTV.com went for just such advice to experts Jenny Botero, resident manager of the 697-room Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va., and Erika Jacso, director of style for the W New York Union Square, with 270 rooms. They provided 10 tips for keeping sparkling bathrooms:
If W Union Square receives a complaint, it's usually about finding hairs on the bathroom tile or floor. So their team works from top to bottom, dusting light fixtures and shelves with micro-fiber cloths before vacuuming floors and crevices.
Heating tile and tub 10 degrees above air temperature "doubles the effectiveness of alkaline cleansers," Botero says. So her staff runs a couple of inches of the hottest possible tap water into the tub and lets it sit for a few minutes. Jacso's staff throws hot water over the tiles, shower and tub.
Drain the tub, then spray an antibacterial cleaner on tile walls, tub, counters, sink, toilet and floor. Again work from top to bottom, starting atthe top of shower walls then down to the tub and inside the toilet bowl.
Use a sponge or cloth to spread the cleanser around evenly on tile.
Because disinfectants need contact time to work, Jacso's staff let the cleanser sit for five to seven minutes on surfaces and inside the toilet bowl.
Use a scrub brush or nonscratch abrasive pad to scrub every square inch of the tub and tiles. Botero and Jacso swear by Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, especially for rings inside the tub.
Botero believes rinsing is the most important step. The chemicals in cleansers are designed to attract soils and particles, she says, so that if you don't rinse well after spraying the cleanser, dirt is going to stick, build up, and "be even more troublesome."
Dry. Use clean, dry cotton cloths or rags to thoroughly dry all surfaces. Botero recommends using color-coded cloths for cleaning - blue for glass and mirrored surfaces, yellow for the toilet and pink for tub and sinks. That way, you won't wipe off the sink with a cloth that was used to dry the toilet.
Spray the mirror and other glass with glass cleaner and wipe dry.
Exit the bathroom by rinsing, wiping and drying the floor.
HomeStyle, Pages 44 on 09/26/2009