So CLEAN that I no longer feel like holding my breath in the SHOWER!

As you know, we are now living in our Clinton house and it’s…less than ideal. Pretty much everything about it is weird, from the light switches to the short sinks and all the way up to the weird acoustic ceiling tiles that remind Madison of high school. You know I’m not going to do any major renovations to the existing house until after we add on. So we’re stuck with the master bathroom “as is” for a while. Most of it’s not terrible, but the tile in the shower (and around the bathtub that I stole to put in the Richwood house) is not my fav. Worse than the style of the tile was how gross and stained it looked. This post is sponsored by Zep.

I usually give a new house a good cleaning before using anything. But Wes lived here for a couple months before I moved in so I assumed things were ready for use. When I showered the first time and looked around, I just tried to hold my breath as long as possible before sticking my head out the door to suck in another breath. Then finished showering as quickly as I could.

I don’t mean to throw shade at Wes, he had some kind of “cleaning” spray sitting on the shower bench. The kind you spray on after you shower. He cooks and does a lot around the house — but I guess has never had to do a deep cleaning in a shower and didn’t know what to do with this.

Thankfully, Penny agreed to continue in her role as our “House, Life, Styling, Shopping, Returning and other odds and ends — Manager”, even though our new house is an extra 10-15 minute drive for her. So Penny was the sprayer, wiper and rinser (so all the actual cleaning) while I took the pictures of this deep cleaning activity!

Zep Level Clean

Zep is a brand I’ve become familiar with as we’ve dealt with septic system issues out here in our new “house on the farm”. I wasn’t aware of how many other products Zep makes. They’ve been around for over 80 years so it shouldn’t be surprising that they have developed thousands of unique formulas. They sent me two of their cleaning products to try out on my shower.

Cleaning

First, we used the Shower Tub & Tile cleaner. This is a no-scrub acid formula that removes soap scum, calcium, limescale, and dirt. It’s also awesome at penetrating stains from rust and hard water. We gave the whole shower a good coating, including the glass door.

Funny story: we got too excited about cleaning that we neglected to remove all our showering essentials. Penny started with the door and then we realized we needed to clear out the shower. I tried to help by removing the thing hanging over the shower head…with one hand while still filming. I hit the handle, turning the shower ON and gave Penny a good drenching!

TIP: empty the shower BEFORE cleaning it!

After waiting 2-3 minutes, Penny wiped everything down with a damp cloth and rinsed well. Rinsing involves a large mixing bowl of water that gets sloshed onto all surfaces. (Why does anyone ever build a shower without a handheld sprayer?) Luckily Penny was already wet so she didn’t mind the sloshing — at that point.

Stain Removal

Next, we (Penny) sprayed all the stained grout lines with Mold Stain & Mildew Stain remover. This is an industrial strength bleach cleaner that easily cleans and whitens surfaces. Basically, if you’re afraid your shower and/or grout looks like it is growing fuzzy things — this bad boy will take care of it. Again, let this product sit for 2-3 minutes and then wipe clean with a damp cloth and rinse well.

It worked awesome!

Not only does it LOOK so much better, it SMELLS better. Most importantly, I no longer have a fear that I am going to contract some kind of disease by standing in the shower. It’s still too small and the tile is not my style but it’s a clean shower it’s functional so I can’t complain.

Now I’ve got to work on cleaning up water and mold in my “workshop of horrors”. I’ll be looking at the additional Zep products that will be useful out there. Wish me luck! I’m definitely wearing a protective mask and gloves in there!