I Regret Having This Modern Bathroom Feature (It’s Literally Impossible to Keep Clean!)

When I was searching for apartments in 2022, having a nice bathroom was a must-have. After spending a decade doing my makeup in an outdated tiny room with terrible lighting, I knew exactly what I wanted, what I wouldn’t accept, and what I was willing to settle for.

So I was super happy when I ended up choosing an apartment that came with a beautiful bathroom, replete with a stunning glass shower. I fell in love with it right away. This was the modern, clean energy I was looking for in my new space.

It felt like a luxe paradise at first — but three years later, the same glass shower door I once thought was modern and beautiful, turned into a total nightmare and one of the things I hate most about my place. It makes me miss — shudder! — shower curtains.

When I moved into my apartment, I assumed cleaning my shower door would be as easy as cleaning my bathroom mirror. I was wrong. With a shower curtain, I could dispose of any yuckiness easily by spraying down the curtain and liner, or, in the worst case, replacing them if needed. There were no obvious streaks; no leftover residue that everyone could see when they walked into my bathroom. 

But with my sleek glass shower door, I found it to be impossible to keep as clean as it was the day I moved in, not to mention keeping it shiny or streak-free. It would be sanitized, but it wouldn’t shine. Streaks killed my vibe after every deep clean. Was I doing something wrong? Why weren’t my typical cleaning agents working?

“The shower door is completely different,” says Jamil Clark, owner of Sweeping Atlanta Cleaning Services.

“You have more dirt [and] grime.” Michael Williams, founder and CEO of End Of Lease Cleaning Melbourne, says. “A bathroom shower screen or door easily gets dirty by scaling water drops and grout,” he says, noting that this can build up over time and look extremely dirty.

So I set out to find a solution.

As soon as I realized that cleaning it the way I currently did wasn’t going to cut it, I invested in a squeegee — the right call, according to Clark.

“I believe that a squeegee is needed in everybody’s showers,” she says. “I tell my clients to always have a squeegee and a scrub brush.”

She suggests cleaning the inside of a glass shower daily, working from top to bottom. If you prefer cleaning weekly or biweekly, don’t forget to dry completely with a microfiber cloth after cleaning.

Cleaning every day was something I admittedly didn’t do when I first moved in. So, I purchased a tiny silver squeegee that stuck to my shower wall with a suction cup. It was the same bright silver as the door handles and shower head, so despite being a cleaning product, it looked great. 

Functionally? It was a flop. I do use it, but my glass shower door is not totally streak-free. 

I rarely get my place professionally cleaned, but I do splurge on the service during the holidays. Every time, I am shocked by how well my housekeeping service was able to make the door spotless. There is not a streak in sight. That streak-free shine will last for 36 blissful hours. 

I am constantly trying to tweak the way I clean the door to make it look as good as the pros can do it — but one unnamed solution I bought to try to replicate that streakless shine made my bathroom smell horrible and was deeply ineffective. 

Williams suggests that those with a glass shower door should “use [a] vinegar and water spray to polish the door after cleaning,” so I may try that next. Clark shared that adding a few drops of baby oil to a spray bottle of white vinegar can shine the glass surface, or you can try an oven cleaner and steel wool (just be sure to ventilate the area).

While I might just try their ideas next, I think it really comes down to the design of the space — something I hadn’t noticed during my apartment tour was that my bathroom had no windows. I was so distracted by the lighted mirror and onyx wall tiles in my luxe-looking bathroom that I didn’t even notice there was no proper ventilation. 

This is not ideal for myriad reasons, but mainly because without proper ventilation, bathrooms can become damp and even prone to mold growth. But, according to Clark, it could also be behind my constantly dirty shower door. If I were moving today, I would have windows in a nice bathroom on my list of must-haves.

The bottom line? Think twice before selecting a bathroom with a glass shower door. I know if I ever buy a house it’s a no-go. I’m now dreaming of a large wet room. They are modern, open, and, more importantly for me, easy to clean.