Zen & The Art of Glass Shower Cleaning

I have a glass shower in the basement bathroom. It’s a pretty amazing unit. The water pressure is incredible and the heat control is very precise.

Having spent the first 18 years of my life in a house with only a bathtub, I resolved that my adulthood would be spent in homes with showers. And for the most part, it has worked out that way.

My current shower is half rounded glass and half tiles. And because of the way the bathroom lighting works, any soap scum that builds up on the glass is clearly visible, and quite frankly, a bit gross.

A very small part of the last year has been spent experimenting with different ways to clean this glass and keep it that way. And it’s been a journey.

The first thing I tried was Windex because well, it’s Windex and this is glass. But one of the things I found out about soap scum is that it does not fear Windex because it’s much tougher.

So I went on line and did a search. One of the things I found out there is that the soap scum is actually capable of etching itself into the glass making it almost impossible to remove if it’s left there long enough.

I also found some weird recipes using baking soda, lemon juice and, of course, that old standby, white vinegar. But I thought that was too much hassle and if it didn’t work it would only piss me off.

A few months ago my wife told me she had discovered that if you use a wet Bounce dryer sheet that would do the trick. So I tried that and it did an OK job but thought it was kinda gross too.

But I was shooting for perfection, and why not.

They Don't Call It Home Of The Handyman For Nothin'

One of the things I knew I needed was a squeegee and I had one but it disappeared under mysterious circumstance one day. So I went down to the big Home Hardware store on Scott Street to see if I could find a new one.

I then moved to the household cleaner aisle and came across the item you see in the background.

Glorioski. I had the solution. Or at least I had what I thought was the solution.

I know this sounds stupid but I was actually excited about this because have always prided myself on little makeshift solutions, like putting masking tape over the hinges on my sauna to keep any cold air from seeping in while it was heating it up. And that was great because it literally shaved half an hour off the heat up time.

The Big Test

Anyway, I got on my rubber gloves, (always recommended), soaked down the glass and sprayed it with a Scrubbing Bubbles. Then I waited the requisite 3 minutes for the Scrubbing Bubbles to live up to their name and then attacked it all with the nylon mesh covered foam side of the squeegee. Then I rinsed it.

And what do you know? The shower glass wasn’t just clean, it was freakin’ sparkling. And it wasn’t just me deluding myself, I have corroborating testimony from my wife.

So now, I repeat this process once every couple weeks and, after every shower, I use the nylon mesh side of the squeegee and just rinse it down.

I know this might sound like a mad dash around the Trivial Pursuit game board, but I take a shower pretty much every day and our water is a little on the soft side, so soap scum is a bit of an issue.

But the best part of all is that I came up with a safe, simple and easy solution for something that had bugged me for quite a while.

So now that I have written this post and passed along my little bit of domestic insight, I can forget about it.

Have a nice weekend. I’m all about the snow blowing this weekend. That shit just keeps falling, here on the quiet side of the lake.

jim out

He is also a partner at Bullet Proof Consulting. www.bulletproofconsulting.ca

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