Recipe 21 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book
Homemade Bathroom Floor Cleaner for Sticky Floors and Dusty Baseboards
Sticky bathroom floor, gray film on the baseboards, that smell around the toilet base? Put 2 tablespoons borax in the bucket, pour 1 gallon hot water over it, then add 1 teaspoon dish soap. Do the baseboards and toilet base first and the open floor last. Pets or crawling kids? Rinse with plain water after. Not for unsealed hardwood, bamboo or laminate.
What it fixesSticky bathroom floors, dusty film on baseboards, and the ammonia smell around the base of the toilet.
You need
- 2 tablespoons borax (20 Mule Team, laundry aisle)
- 1 gallon (3.8 L) hot water
- 1 teaspoon liquid dish soap
- bucket
- flat mop with a washable pad, or a microfiber cloth
- old toothbrush for corners
Mix it
- Put the borax in the empty bucket first.
- Pour the hot water over it. Hot is required. Borax barely dissolves in cold water and you will end up mopping with sand.
- Stir 30 seconds until clear, then add the dish soap and stir once more.
Use it
- Sweep or vacuum first. Hair on a wet floor becomes glue.
- Wring the mop pad well. The floor should look damp, not wet, and it should be dry in about two minutes.
- Mop out from the far corner toward the door in overlapping passes.
- For baseboards, dip the cloth, wring it hard, and wipe the top edge and the face. That gray film is body oil and hairspray overspray, and borax cuts it in one pass.
- Use the toothbrush dipped in the bucket for the seam where the baseboard meets the floor and around the toilet bolts, then wipe it dry.
- Dump the bucket in the tub, not the toilet, so you can rinse the grit straight down.
Dale's noteDo the baseboards and the toilet base first and the open floor last, so all the dirt you knock down gets picked up on the final pass. Borax cuts the film that mildew feeds on better than plain soap does, which is why I use it here. In a pet free, kid free bathroom you can let it air dry and the trace it leaves behind slows mildew from restarting. Anywhere a paw or a hand touches the floor, rinse it off.
Don'tDo not use this on unsealed hardwood, bamboo or laminate flooring, since the water plus alkaline salt will swell the seams and lift the edges permanently. If you have pets or crawling kids, rinse the floor with plain water after this and do not leave a borax film behind, no matter what you have read about residue discouraging mildew. Borax is genuinely harmful licked off a paw or a hand, and a dry film on a bathroom floor is exactly how that happens.
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