The bathroom is the most dangerous room in your house. The majority of fatal and crippling accidents happen in bathrooms, because they are sleek, slick, and wet, which is a recipe for slips and falls, but that’s not the only killer lurking in your restroom. There’s also the fact that it is the one place in the house where we go to dispose of all our filth, making it a disease-riddled petri dish at the best of times. Every time you flush your toilet, you saturate the environment with aerosolized feces, and that’s only the worst offender in a room full of grime. Steps must be taken to keep this room clean, or you risk becoming patient zero for any number of bacteriological and viral outbreaks.
Keeping a bathroom clean is difficult in the best of circumstances. The sheer nature of the space makes it a place where filth accumulates, and short of cooking the whole room with microwaves, you’re never really going to get it sterile. Rather than scrubbing on your hands and knees, enjoying a nice bleach-fume buzz as you kill off brain cells, we suggest you work smarter and let these 18 remarkable buys help keep the body and germ count low in your inside outhouse.
Violife Style Zapi Luxe UV Toothbrush Sanitizer
The head of your toothbrush is a filthy place. While the simple solution is to rinse it in hydrogen peroxide or keep it in a container, there’s also this handy little sanitizer. It gets all the nooks and crannies where bacteria can hide. Baking the head in UV rays, you’ll be assured of a cleaner mouth with no bacteria coming in with the cleaning crew. Purchase: $32
California Home Activated Bamboo Charcoal Deodorizer
You can crack open a box of baking soda and leave it in your bathroom to absorb odors, but this is a more quaint, tasteful way to accomplish a similar feat. The charcoal helps filter the air and remove the chemicals that cause smells to linger. It’s more natural than caustic sprays, and doesn’t cover up smells with floral scents, just eliminates them. Purchase: $11
GermGuardian UV-C Air Sanitizer
If you must clean your air, the UV-C does it by circulating air through it and saturating it with light. This avoids harmful chemicals, or cost-exhaustive filters. Buy it once, plug it in, and let it do the killing for you. Purchase: $38
Steripod
A couple of bucks gets you a snappy little head for your toothbrush. This way you get fewer contaminates in that need to be cleaned. Goes anywhere. Purchase: $14
TubShroom
Every drain in your entire world needs one of these. It catches hair gunk and all the other garbage that is going out and keeps it from clogging your pipes, or discarding their disease elsewhere. Reduces plumbing concerns many times over. Purchase: $13
Finether Cordless Multi Purpose Household Power Scrubber
A little elbow grease is fine, but to get something edibly clean, reach for a power scrubber. It obliterates mildew, caked on soap scum, and digs into grout for a fresher surface further down. Less overall dirt means less places for bacteria to find shelter, and less breeding grounds for viruses. Purchase: $59
Croscill Fabric Shower Curtain Liner
Shower curtains are the quiet bane of a clean bathroom. They soak up wet filth and then hang in dark rooms. By adding this liner, you now have a fabric that inherently resists mildew, and can be quickly thrown in the washing machine for a complete clean every time. It’s easy, it’s simple, and works with any setup outside of having a glass shower door. Purchase: $13
Black+Decker Max Lithium Flex Vac
Black+Decker’s rebranding as a company for tools but also for domestic products has yielded no shortage of spectacular results. A powerful vacuum with an extra long hose, you can really get behind your toilet and into the edges of your bathroom with this. Plus, it’s helpful in cutting dust in any room. Purchase: $114
OXO Good Grips Shower Curtain Liner Splash Guard Clip
Germs, viruses, and bacteria all like water, which is part of why they love the bathroom. Keep water from spreading, and you contain the threat. Simple clips hold your shower curtain in place to stop spray from contaminating the room. Purchase: $6
Tidee Tubb Splash Guards
Whether soaking or standing, it’s never a bad time to think about keeping water where it belongs. Tubs and shower basins are easy to clean. Less so with the floors outside. Plus, soaked rugs are never fun, and tripping is more likely when there’s water about. Purchase: $13
Toto Washlet C200
Toilet paper is a fine start to your cleaning regiment, but a bidet is the way to really pamper yourself, and get a more thorough wash. Heated seats and dual spray nozzles are just the beginning of what you can experience as you sit atop the C200. It strips the experience down to cleaning and comfort, without driving up the cost through needless accoutrement. When clean is what you need, here’s your tool. Purchase: $420
Buff Pro Multi-Surface Microfiber Towel
A stack of handy cleaning towels, you’ll never again waste money on paper towels, and you’ll get a more effective way to clean every surface in your entire home. They grab dust, they scrub grime, they absorb fluids, and they’re more durable than average bar rags. Step up to professional grade and see the cleaning difference. Purchase: $14
Peace Lilies and English Ivy
Any plants are good, but these two are natural air filters that will take out many of the pollutants in the area. They help promote a low-scent environment, oxygenate the air, add atmosphere, require limited light, and stop pollutants. They’re a natural choice over an air purifier, which is often a weak cover for poor cleanliness.
Bissell PowerFresh Steam Mop 1940
Really give those floors a scrub they won’t soon forget. Bissell has cornered the market on steam mops, and this simple beauty is their pride and joy. A flip-top scrubbing surface digs into tough spots and gets at dirt that’s made its way into grout. The heat slaughters the maximum amount of germs, with a 99.99% kill ratio that uses no chemicals. Add in a handful of features, like steam output controls and digital display, and your floors are covered. Purchase: $89
Unicorn Gold Toilet Spray
If smells and the airborne pathogens that go along with them concern you, the pre-treating Unicorn Gold could be the answer. You use it before putting the bathroom to use and it holds vapors below the water level. Less smell to worry about, less germs to seep into your oxygen supply. Purchase: $15
Culligan Filtered Shower Head
Drinking filtered water is better than ordinary, and so is dousing your body. This way you don’t add in contaminants from the city water supply, and can keep better control of what enters your home. It will also reduce cleaning on the shower, since less harmful chemicals are getting through. Purchase: $30
Pro Breeze Mini Dehumidifier
Yet another way to fight wetness, avoiding mold, mildew, and rot can be done easily with this little runner. Capable of handling 1100 cubic feet worth of space. Purchase: $50
NeverScrub Automatic Toilet Cleaning System
Truth in naming, keeping this supplied means the cleaning is done at the basin level, keeping your hands forever clean. Purchase: $13
