The 33 Best Bathroom Cleaning Hacks of All Time

Searching for a goof-proof way to keep your toilet bowl sparkling between cleanings? Keep a shaker of baking soda handy in your bathroom. Baking soda absorbs odors and is slightly abrasive, so sprinkling it liberally into your toilet bowl before flushing can save you from having to use your toilet brush as frequently.

Bleach pens are surprisingly versatile cleaners. Along with removing stains from your laundry and shoes, you can use a bleach pen to deep-clean grout. Just run a pen over the grout lines in your kitchen or bathroom tile and let it set overnight. Then use a sponge or cloth in warm water to wipe it clean and you’ll have bright grout lines for days.

Turns out toothpaste can clean more than teeth. Thanks to its mildly abrasive ingredients, toothpaste can remove tough makeup stains from your clothing, too. Simply cover the stain with toothpaste, rub it together, and rinse with warm water before you throw the garment in the washer.

Rice has a lot of uses outside the kitchen. Since it’s an all-natural odor absorber, you can mix 10-20 drops of your favorite-smelling essential oils—think rosemary, peppermint, or lavender oil—with 1-2 cups of rice to create a leave-it-anywhere deodorizer. Shake the mixture up inside a mason jar, then cover it in a breathable fabric (secured with a rubber band) to soak up stinky smells in your bathroom, closet, or living room.

Believe it or not, those tiny little packs of silica gel packets that come in a box of new shoes can be pretty purposeful around your home. Designed to absorb moisture and hold water vapor, storing a couple of desiccant packs inside your medicine cabinet will help keep humidity at bay—so your medications stay stable, and your razors don’t rust. Just remember to keep them out of reach from children and pets (since they’re a major choking hazard).

Even a tiny leak in your toilet can wind up being an expensive problem. Per Virginia’s Halifax County Service Authority, a silent toilet leak can allow hundreds of gallons of water to be lost every day—which can add hundreds of dollars a year to your water and sewer bills!

Luckily, if you add a few drops of food coloring into your toilet tank and let it sit for fifteen minutes, you can see if any colored water has seeped into the bowl and quickly detect a leak.

Before you throw out the used dryer sheets in your latest load of laundry, consider using them to clean soap scum off your shower and sink instead. Slightly abrasive and super pleasant-smelling, a moistened used dryer sheet is perfect for loosening and removing lime deposit residue from your bathroom tile, tub, and fixtures.

Ask any beauty queen, and they’ll tell you the same: Dried glitter nail polish is a b*tch to remove. Fortunately, when soaked in nail polish remover, even a used dryer sheet is abrasive enough to help dislodge stubborn nail polish from your fingers, counters, and carpet without causing any damage—so keep a pile handy in your medicine cabinet.

Did you know that drying your brushes upside down, instead of laying them flat, will ensure they dry quickly and thoroughly? Good news: You can use elastic hair ties to hang your brushes to air dry—no flipping necessary! Just fashion a washed makeup brush upside down on a towel bar with the help of a hair tie and simply let the water naturally drip off it—and onto a towel on the floor—until it’s dry.

A wet toilet brush packed in its holder is a recipe for bathroom mold and bacteria. Whether you’ve just used it to wipe down your toilet bowl or washed it down with disinfectant in hot water, sticking a wet toilet brush back in the holder is a big no-no. To ensure it gets totally dry after each use, sandwich the wet brush under the toilet seat and let it drip dry into the bowl before you put it away.

Few housekeeping jobs are less fun than cleaning a toilet, and tackling the dust and grime buildup around the base is arguably the hardest part. Thankfully, Apartment Therapy writer Shifrah Combiths had a stroke of genius about dusting (or vacuuming) your toilet (and the area around the bottom) before wiping it down with cleaner, so you can remove any loose debris prior to scrubbing.