Weekly Focus Room: First Floor Bathroom

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced a concept called my weekly focus room.

{Click HERE and HERE to see the rooms I’ve tackled so far and why I came up with the idea.}

This week’s room didn’t get as much attention as I would have liked, but I was able to get some extended time in there later in the weekend. I had things going on almost every morning this past week, so extra time was limited. And since it’s the end of the month, I didn’t have any extra money to spend on it either. I’m hoping to work on some organizational things and maybe purchase some decor items next time.

The room definitely needed some extra attention though, so I’m glad I was able to get some things done on it.

My Third Room: First Floor Bathroom

Our first floor bathroom is currently the only operating bathroom in our home. We have a bathroom on the second floor of the house, but we are in the process of putting it all back together after having to gut it before moving into this house 2 years ago. Since we ended up doing a lot of other unplanned renovations on the first floor, we ended up running out of time and money and so the second floor bath hasn’t been finished yet. We’re slowly trying to tackle it as money becomes available. Needless to say, being that the first floor bath is the only functioning bathroom, it gets dirty quickly.

Here are some before pictures.

You can’t tell much from this shot, but it definitely needed a good cleaning and a little organizing.

The shower tile wasn’t in bad shape because Kev and I have been doing well with our daily ritual. It really does help keep the soap scum at bay on the tile and takes less than 1 minute each day. Give it a try if you dare!

The tub itself needed some work and the shower liner was pretty “scummy.”

The inside of one of the medicine cabinets {there is 1 on either side of the mirror over our pedestal sink} needed to be wiped down and organized a bit.

What can I really say about this? Toothpaste on the sink drain – yuck!

I chose the first floor bathroom for this week’s focus room because it does get so much use and it really needed a good cleaning. I do my best to keep it from getting real bad, but there are just some weeks when it’s really quick. It really needed some extra attention, so I dove right in. Like the rest of our 1940’s home, it’s small, or cozy, depending on how you look at it.

Again, this week, I mostly stuck to the basics.

Here are the after pictures.

You can’t tell from this shot, but I decided to wash the shower curtain and the cafe curtain on the window. The cafe curtain was pretty dusty and had never been washed, so it looked more “fresh” afterwards.

I did clean the shower tile, floor tile, and tub, but like I said, the shower tile wasn’t bad at all.

I found an article on Pinterest about how to clean a vinyl shower liner and I was pleased that it actually worked. The website said to let it soak in the detergent/vinegar solution for 2 hours before continuing the laundry cycle, but I was in a hurry and only let it soak for 1 hour. It still came out great! No more orange scum and I was thankful it meant I didn’t have to spend money on a new liner! 🙂

I pulled everything out of this medicine cabinet, wiped it all down, and then re-organized a little bit when I put the items back in. Next time, I’d like to put some shelf liner down and buy a couple of containers from the Dollar store to help with organization. But, for now it looks better that it’s been straightened up a bit.

Yeah! The toothpaste is gone. 🙂 I try to keep the sink wiped down on a daily basis so it doesn’t get too bad, but sometimes I can’t keep up!

I also dusted the light fixtures above the sink and cleaned the mirror. I am the world’s worst about dusting, so it looks so much better!

This is the medicine cabinet and towel bar to the right of the sink. With the door open, it’s covered, so it isn’t visible as you are looking into the bathroom. Next time, I’m hoping to invest in some extra towels in a contrasting color and perhaps a small towel rod for hand towels closer to the sink.

I’d like to also add some decorative touches to the bathroom, specifically on the well on the left as you walk in but also behind the toilet and maybe on top of the medicine cabinets. I’ll need to keep things simple so that it doesn’t make the space look cluttered.

I’d ultimately love some sort of paneling or beadboard to help protect the walls, but that’s definitely not high on the project list. Right now, I’m just glad it’s all cleaned up and a little more organized.

This week’s focus room: Living Room

I’ll report back next Monday to show you how it went.

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How often do you clean your bathrooms?