Soap scum is that stubborn creamy glaze that coats your shower walls and tub. It's extremely hard to clean because it's made up of different things like mildew, mineral deposits, hard water, soap talc and body oils. There are several techniques for getting rid of this multifarious sludge, but prevention is key.
The best thing you can do to prevent soap scum is to stop using bar soap and switch to liquid gel cleanser. If you have the patience, wipe down your walls, door and tub everyday after bathing to stop the scum build-up so you don't have to clean as often. Use a terry cloth towel to wipe away the scum in the bathtub and use a squeege on your shower walls. If you apply lemon oil to your shower, the acid will break-up any scum so it will be easier to wipe away. To prevent mildew build-up on your shower curtains, always pull the shower curtain closed. Otherwise, mildew is fast to grow in the dark wet folds of a curtain. Another little know fact, synthetic, cotton, and vinyl shower-curtain liners can put in the washing machine. Use hot water and a mild detergent. Also, keep bathroom windows and doors open to decrease moisture levels and increase light and air circulation.
If you've already let the soap scum build in your shower, there are several techniques for cleaning. It's important you use an acidic cleanser and some sort of abrasive substance, like detergent, or a brush to combat the sludge. Vinegar is a simple and cheap acidic cleanser that works almost anywhere in your house. One person suggests dipping paper towels into white vinegar and sticking them to the shower walls. Then letting them sit for 30 minutes. The vinegar should break up the scum so you can use a brush to scrub it away. Another person suggested using a pumice stone on fiberglass tubs or using an old credit card to scrape the scum in hard to clean areas. It's rumored that Avon’s “Skin so Soft” body oil is a great cleanser and has a lovely smell as well.
Whenever you clean, remember to wear gloves and to wash your hands afterward. Also, make sure to rinse your shower and tub with water after a good cleaning.
Please feel free to share your tips for bathroom cleaning with the Apartment Therapy community!
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Don't use vinegar if you have marble or stone tiles, it will permanently damage it! Found this out the hard way...
The best thing you can do to prevent soap scum is use a water softener, but that's not an easy solution. Soap scum is the fatty acids from soap reacting with the calcium in hard water. A water softener replaces calcium ions with sodium ions, and what you get as a result would be water soluble.
Lemon oil will not clean soap scum. It has no acid in it. Lemon juice would work, as would vinegar or ammonia. Or, you know, Scrubbing Bubbles.
Detergents work because they're surfactants. Detergents have nothing to do with abrasives. And speaking of abrasives, using a pumice stone on a fiberglass tub will ruin the gelcoat and make your soapscum problem much, much, much worse.
Lastly, Avon Skin So Soft is one of those perennial magic potions. It's not effective as a bathtub cleaner, or a mosquito repellant, or treatment for head lice.
i happened to run out of ajax last week while cleaning my bathroom and found a random recipe online. it worked AMAZING!!!
1/4 cup baking powder..? soda...? not sure
1tablespoon of detergent
and mix in just enough white vinegar to create a thick paste.
my tub, sink and walls required NO SCRUBBING. just one light pass with this concoction and a sponge and everything SPARKLED like never before!
i just tried a magic eraser in the tub today, and oh my god where has this been all my life?! No detergents necessary :)
magic erasers and elbow grease
Magic Erasers or Shower Power. Shower Power's a little bit more difficult to find but works wonders.
i use magic eraser then wash it off with hot water. so easy and fast. 5 mins max.
I tend to just use dish detergent and hot water. Weird, I know, but it seems to work better than most commercial bathroom-targeted cleaners I've tried.
That's the most beautiful faucet I've ever seen. Does it cost $2000?
I rarely use the tub, but for the shower stall (glass door, textured on the OUTSIDE), I squeegee after every shower, which reduces soap scum and mildew. (The less moisture left behind, the less those things can propagate.)
I use "body wash" not soap, which also helps.
And I used a spray-on citrus cleaner and Magic Eraser sponges when I recently decided a thorough cleaning was due, even if things looked pretty good without it... Worked fine.
(Then, when really clean, I applied a automotive finish -- I think it's called Lightning or maybe White Lightning and is by ArmorAll -- to reduce the need for other maintenance for a while. This is the stuff that makes water bead up on your car. I'd try it on any scuffed or worn porcelain or fiberglass, too... What the heck?)
OK, I've seen the words 'magic eraser' so many times now.. what are they and who makes them. I don't think I have ever seen one.
Who can think of soap scum when looking at a bathroom as yummy as this turquoise one with the hot little red chair in it?!
PS: Ditto on the "Magic Eraser"...I use it for everything. My grocery store also offers generic knockoff's from the MR Clean version that work just as well.
Where's can I get that chair?
Thank you for the magic eraser suggestion! I was on the fence buying one for our porcelain kitchen sink but will get some now that I can use them on the glass shower doors.
Lemon oil is also perfect if you have those awful frosted glass sliding shower doors. Just wipe it on with a cloth and wipe back off.
I want to see more of the bathroom in the photo that accompanies this entry!
For glass shower doors, all I need is baking soda (I use the box from the fridge when it's time to switch out to a new one) and a damp sponge -- one of those blue scotch brite ones.
Wet the shower door, sprinkle baking soda on your sponge and wipe. Adjust amount of baking soda to the level of grossness on the door, but it doesn't really require any elbow grease and it's non-toxic to boot!
I'm too lazy to squeegee.
Oh. Wow. I want to have that bathroom's babies. It is nuts how beautiful it is, and how much I want to shower in there.
Living in a place with relatively hard water, I find that baking soda really does wonders for cleaning. A simple paste in the bathroom of b. soda and water. I add some to the dishwasher and to the laundry. It is cheap, non toxic and effective.
I love that term, "multifarious sludge." Very descriptive.
I second the comment about dishwashing detergent. We use bar soap in the tub and sink because of eczema, so I put on rubber gloves, use a dish sponge (designated bathroom only) and scrub the bathtub with really hot water and dishwashing detergent every week. I also use it to wash the vitreous porcelain sink. It's really clean and soap scum just disappears.
Borax works better than baking soda or vinegar by themselves. It's a little stronger, and you don't have to scrub very hard. I just use a scrubby sponge and it works beautifully.
FYI if you're looking for Shower Power...which works really well for soap scum and hard water stains, you can find it online here: http://www.buyshowerpower.com
Bar Keepers Friend works really well in our home, and the powder has not creates scratches on any surface.
http://www.barkeepersfriend.com/
Okay, I've tried magic erasers multiple times and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Even with hard scrubbing, all they do is disintegrate without taking away much dirt at all. The only thing I think they're good for are scuff marks on painted walls (but you can't scrub too hard, since they take some of the paint off as well).
So, when you use them, how wet should they be? What temperature water should you use? Do you wipe gently with them, or do you really get in there and scrub?
I clean with vinegar and baking soda, and when I need to get in and really deep-clean something, the super toxic, chemical-laden Scrubbing Bubbles stuff can't be beat. I don't have any pets or kids, so I can keep that stuff around without poisoning anyone, hehe.
got something that works great for clear shower doors,LIMEAWAY (full strengh) wear gloves, and u might need a mask, if your closed in the shower, wet your doors down good, pour this stuff in a small plastic butter contanier, and your sponge/with a good hard scrubber,and dip it in your container and coat your whole door with this stuff and alittle elbow grease,as your putting this stuff on and scubbing you will see great results, don't forget to rince real well, mainly if you have a tub and u take baths, this stuff will sting your skin, so rince real well, thats the best i found for shower doors.
I wouldn't suggest putting lemon oil on your shower doors. You could slip and fall and hurt yourself.
I mix lemon juice and salt together in a bowl and dip a dish-scrubbing brush (or a toilet brush, but a clean one, not the same one I use in the toilets) and scrub. Never thought about using baking soda or borax in the tub, although I use them for other things and have huge boxes of them sitting around.
phosphoric acid, Edfred, works wonders in any severely mineral coated surface. not "green" but effective to get things under control quickly.
I just saw this post from food.com
http://www.food.com/recipe/tub-and-shower-magic-434275
I haven't tried it, but people are raving about it.
I have another product that works very well at removing soap scum with very little elbow grease. I've used Dawn Direct Foam on my soapy, scummy porcelain tub and tile with great results. There are a few caveats though: 1. This stuff works best at removing soap scum as well as grease (in the kitchen) with as little water as possible. 2. This product very is very sudsy in water so a little goes a long way! 3. WEAR gloves so you don't strip the natural oils from your skin! I apply it with a dry cloth to a dry or dryish tub and tile. I wipe it on the surface but I don't need to use massive amounts of effort and then rinse it away. I find that if you use cold water it is easier to rinse the product away. Using hot water produces lots more bubbles.
I found this stuff called water armour (www.waterarmour.ca) that does a great job of preventing soap scum, mildew, and all kinds of stuff in the first place. It has saved me a lot of time and effort. Definitely recommend it!
A lot of the products mentioned have that nostril stinging fume effect, has anyone tried Wet & Forget Shower? What's nice is you don't have to scrub and there's no bleach.
It's a weekly shower spray that removes soap scum, grime, mold and mildew, and body oil. Here's a video on the brand new weekly shower spray.
http://youtu.be/bYcI_OWm1Io?hd=1
I found that Johnson's Baby Oil works brilliantly to clean caked on, black soap scum from the bath. I suppose a cheaper baby oil would work, but Johnsons was the only one I had on hand. I squirted the bath with it, left it for a bit and then put some loofah gloves over my rubber gloves and just wiped/scrubbed the scum away.
Then a quick rinse with hot water and it's all clean. If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it.
Actually vinegar won't dissolve soap scum because it is acidic and soap scum is alkaline. Like dissolves like in chemistry. A great new cleaner is Bioworx.us shower cleaner that is designed to dissolve soap scum and it’s green as well. They show laboratory proof on their web site that heir cleaner dissolves soap scum. It is available on Amazon. It melted the soap scum off my shower door. I tried about 10 different cleaners and this is the only one that worked. The others didn't touch the soap scum.