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Walk down the cleaning aisle at any store and you will see a hundred different bottles — one for the glass, one for the tub, one for the toilet, one for the tile — each one promising to be the thing you cannot clean without, each costing you dear and filling your house with harsh fumes besides. But here is a thing the old people knew and we have forgotten: you can clean your whole bathroom, every bit of it, sparkling and fresh, with just a few cheap simple things you likely have in your kitchen already — vinegar, a lemon, and the like — no harsh chemicals and next to no cost. In this video I give you seven of the best old tricks for cleaning a bathroom, and by the end you may never buy a bottle of bathroom cleaner again.
I am Elias, and on this Lancaster County place we keep things clean the old plain way — with vinegar and lemon and baking soda and a bit of elbow grease — the way folks did long before the shelves filled up with all those bottles. My mother kept no cabinet of cleaning bottles; what she had was a jug of vinegar, a box of baking soda, a cake of plain soap, a few lemons, a
https://eliasyoder.com
Walk down the cleaning aisle at any store and you will see a hundred different bottles — one for the glass, one for the tub, one for the toilet, one for the tile — each one promising to be the thing you cannot clean without, each costing you dear and filling your house with harsh fumes besides. But here is a thing the old people knew and we have forgotten: you can clean your whole bathroom, every bit of it, sparkling and fresh, with just a few cheap simple things you likely have in your kitchen already — vinegar, a lemon, and the like — no harsh chemicals and next to no cost. In this video I give you seven of the best old tricks for cleaning a bathroom, and by the end you may never buy a bottle of bathroom cleaner again.
I am Elias, and on this Lancaster County place we keep things clean the old plain way — with vinegar and lemon and baking soda and a bit of elbow grease — the way folks did long before the shelves filled up with all those bottles. My mother kept no cabinet of cleaning bottles; what she had was a jug of vinegar, a box of baking soda, a cake of plain soap, a few lemons, a
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00:00Walk down the cleaning aisle at any store, and you will see a hundred different bottles and sprays,
00:06one for the glass, one for the tub, one for the toilet, one for the tile,
00:11each promising to be the one thing you cannot clean your bathroom without,
00:16and each costing you dear and filling your house with harsh fumes besides.
00:21But here is a thing the old people knew, and we have forgotten,
00:26that you can clean your whole bathroom, every bit of it, sparkling and fresh,
00:31with just a few cheap, simple things you likely have in your kitchen already,
00:37vinegar and a lemon and the like, no harsh chemicals and next to no cost.
00:43Today I am going to give you seven of the best old tricks for cleaning a bathroom,
00:48and by the end, you may never buy a bottle of bathroom cleaner again.
00:53I am Elias, and on this Lancaster County place, we keep things clean the old plain way,
01:00with vinegar and lemon and baking soda and a bit of elbow grease,
01:05the way folks did long before the shelves filled up with all those bottles.
01:10And I will tell you, the old ways clean every bit as well, often better, for far less money,
01:17and with none of the harsh stuff you would rather not breathe, nor have about your children.
01:23So let me walk you through the whole bathroom, trick by trick.
01:28Quick word before I go further.
01:30The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:36I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:42The book is the long version.
01:44If you want it, it is there.
01:46I will not mention it again.
01:48My mother kept no cabinet of cleaning bottles.
01:51I do not think she ever bought a one in her life.
01:55What she had was a jug of vinegar, a box of baking soda, a cake of plain soap,
02:01a few lemons when she could get them, and a basket of clean rags cut from worn-out clothes.
02:07And with those few things, she kept a house you could eat off the floor of.
02:12I remember the whole place smelling faintly of vinegar on a cleaning day.
02:17A clean, sharp smell.
02:19Not the choking chemical reek you get now.
02:23And how the windows shone.
02:25And how she would set us children to wiping the glass with newspaper and tea.
02:30She used to say that dirt is afraid of vinegar and elbow grease and not much else.
02:35And that all those bottles were just vinegar with a high price and a perfume on it.
02:41I have come to think she was very near right.
02:44And the tricks I am about to give you are mostly hers.
02:48Before I start, let me tell you why these few cheap things do so much.
02:53For once you understand it, you will reach for them by instinct.
02:57Most of the dirt in a bathroom is one of two kinds.
03:00There is the hard water and soap scum and lime kind, the white crusty mineral buildup.
03:07And acid is what dissolves that, which is why vinegar and lemon, both mild acids, are your great weapons against
03:16it.
03:16And there is the greasy, grimy, sticky kind.
03:20And soap and a little scouring handle that.
03:23So between an acid for the mineral crust, the vinegar and lemon, and soap and baking soda for the grease
03:30and the scrubbing, you have the answer to near everything in the room.
03:34That is the whole of it.
03:36Every one of those costly bottles is just some version of those same few things, dressed up and perfumed and
03:44priced high.
03:45Learn the few plain things and you have learned to clean anything.
03:50The first trick is for your mirror and your glass, and it is a fine old one that will surprise
03:56you.
03:56You brew up a strong batch of black tea, good and strong, several bags and a small cup of hot
04:03water, and let it cool.
04:05Then you take that tea, and instead of a store glass cleaner, you use it to clean your mirror.
04:11And here is the old part.
04:13Instead of a paper towel or a rag, you wipe it with crumpled newspaper.
04:18Now, why tea and newspaper?
04:21The tea has something in it, the same stuff that makes it bite a little on your tongue, that cuts
04:26right through the film and the grime and the spots on glass.
04:30And the newspaper, the old printed paper, is just the thing for wiping glass, for it leaves no lint nor
04:38streak behind the way a cloth or a paper towel does.
04:41It buffs the glass clean and clear.
04:44Wipe your mirror with the strong tea and the newspaper, and you may need to go over it twice on
04:51a dirty mirror, but it comes up clear and shining with no streaks, and it cost you a couple of
04:57tea bags and yesterday's paper.
04:59The newspaper trick is worth knowing, for it works on any glass, your windows too, and it is why the
05:09old folks cleaned their windows with it long before there was ever a roll of paper towels to buy.
05:14The paper is just absorbent enough and just stiff enough to buff a glass dry and clear without leaving the
05:23lint and streaks a cloth leaves, and the ink does no harm.
05:27It does not come off on a clean, dry wipe.
05:32Plain vinegar and water in place of the tea works fine on glass too, if you have no tea to
05:39spare, the vinegar cutting the film just as well, so between the tea and the vinegar, and the newspaper, you
05:46need never buy a blue bottle of glass cleaner again.
05:51The second trick is for the shower, the soap scum and the grime that build up on the tile and
05:57the glass and the tub, which is nobody's favorite job.
06:01For this, you make yourself a simple cleaner, half vinegar and half liquid dish soap mixed together.
06:09The vinegar cuts the hard water scale, and the soap cuts the greasy soap scum, and between them, they take
06:16that shower grime right off.
06:19The handy way is to put it in one of those dish wands with the soap in the handle, or
06:25just a bottle and a sponge, and you can even give the walls a scrub with it while you are
06:30in there showering yourself, which is about the easiest way there is to keep a shower clean, a quick scrub
06:37as part of your wash.
06:40Vinegar and dish soap, half and half, is the whole secret to an easy, clean shower.
06:47The shower curtain or the glass door, where the mildew and the pink and black mold love to grow in
06:54the damp, gets the same treatment, sprayed with vinegar and left to sit a bit, then scrubbed and rinsed, for
07:02the vinegar kills the mold and the mildew as well as it cuts the scum.
07:06And the great prevention there is simply air and dryness, leaving the window cracked or the door open after a
07:15shower so the room dries out, for mold cannot grow where it is dry, and a bathroom that dries well
07:22between uses fights half its own battles.
07:25So scrub with the vinegar, and then help the room dry, and the mildew has little chance to take hold.
07:34For a tougher buildup, the grimy grout lines, and the really crusted spots, you reach for the baking soda, sprinkling
07:43it on as a gentle scouring powder, for it scrubs without scratching, and a paste of baking soda and a
07:50little water left to sit on the bad spots, and then scrubbed, lifts grime that has set in hard.
07:58Baking soda for the scouring, and the vinegar and soap for the everyday wash. Between the two, you have the
08:05whole shower handled.
08:07And the real secret to an easy job is to keep after it a little at a time, a quick
08:14wipe often, so it never builds into the great dreaded scrubbing job in the first place.
08:20For a shower wiped down weekly, never gets bad, while one left for months becomes an afternoon's hard labor.
08:29The third trick is for the hard water stains on your fixtures, the faucets and the handles, that white, crusty
08:37buildup the hard water leaves behind.
08:40And the gentlest old cure for that is a lemon.
08:45You cut a lemon and rub it right on the stain, and the acid in the lemon, mild and natural,
08:52breaks down that hard water crust, and a little rubbing takes it off and leaves the fixture shining.
08:59And it is so gentle, it will not harm your hands, nor your fixtures. No harsh chemical at all.
09:07And it leaves behind a clean, fresh smell besides, far pleasanter than any chemical.
09:13A halved lemon dipped in a little salt makes a fine, gentle scrubber for a stubborn spot, the salt giving
09:20it a bit of grit to work with.
09:22And you can use the spent lemon halves left over from your cooking for this, rather than wasting a fresh
09:28one, which is just the sort of thrift the old people lived by.
09:33Nothing wasted.
09:35For a tougher stain that the lemon alone will not lift, you wrap a cloth soaked in white vinegar around
09:41the fixture, right around the crusty part, and leave it to sit a half hour so the vinegar can work
09:47on the buildup.
09:48Then take it off and wipe it clean.
09:51And for the tight spots a cloth cannot reach, the base of the faucet and such, an old toothbrush dipped
09:58in the vinegar gets right into the crevices.
10:01Lemon for the light stains, a vinegar soaked cloth left to sit for the heavy ones, and an old toothbrush
10:09for the corners.
10:10One honest caution on the vinegar and the lemon, both being acids, keep them off natural stone, your marble and
10:19your granite and the like, for the acid can etch and dull a polished stone surface over time.
10:25On the common metal and porcelain and glass and tile fixtures, they do no harm at all, but if you
10:33have a stone countertop or a stone sink in your bathroom, clean that with plain soap and water instead, and
10:40save the acids for everything else.
10:43That is the one place to mine them, and elsewhere they are as safe as can be.
10:48The fourth trick is for the small things in the bathroom that get the nastiest and that nobody ever thinks
10:56to clean.
10:57Your soap dispenser, your toothbrush holder, the little cup, the dish, those small items that sit there gathering dried soap
11:06and toothpaste and grime in the bottom until they are downright foul.
11:11Most folks never clean them at all, or only when they finally notice how bad they have got.
11:17The easy old way is to give them a good soak.
11:21You fill a basin or a bowl with hot water and a good slug of vinegar, and you set all
11:27those small items down in it to soak a good while.
11:31And the hot vinegar water loosens and dissolves all that caked on soap and toothpaste grime, so it wipes right
11:39off.
11:39And what is stubborn, an old toothbrush scrubs out of the bottom.
11:44A regular soak of all those neglected little items in hot vinegar water keeps them clean and fresh,
11:51and you will be amazed what builds up in them when you finally do it.
11:56The same hot vinegar soak handles a deal of other small bathroom things, too.
12:02The soap dish, the drinking cup, the comb, the little tray, the cap of the toothpaste, even a grimy drain
12:10cover.
12:11All of them set down in the hot vinegar water to soak and then wiped and scrubbed clean.
12:18Make it a habit, once a month or so, to gather up all the small bits and give them their
12:24soak while you clean the rest of the room,
12:26and the whole bathroom stays fresh down to the smallest thing, which is more than most folks ever manage with
12:34all their bottles.
12:36The fifth trick is for the toilet, and vinegar does this job, too, and well, for it kills the germs
12:43and the mold and cuts the lime scale all at once,
12:47with no harsh chemical and no choking fumes.
12:51You pour a good amount of vinegar down into the bowl and around under the rim where it runs down.
12:58Here is the good old trick for the rim.
13:01You soak some toilet paper in vinegar and lay that vinegar-soaked paper right up under the inside of the
13:08rim and along it,
13:09and let it sit there a good while, so the vinegar stays in contact with the rim and the upper
13:15bowl long enough to do its work,
13:17rather than just running straight down.
13:20While that sits, you pour vinegar into the bowl and scrub it out with your brush.
13:27Then you pull away the soaked paper and give the rim a scrub, an old toothbrush again, for up under
13:34the rim where the brush will not reach,
13:36and flush it all away.
13:38You get a clean, fresh, germ-free toilet with nothing but vinegar and a bit of paper and scrubbing.
13:46If you want a little extra scouring power for a stained bowl, sprinkle in some baking soda after the vinegar
13:53and let it fizz up.
13:55The two together foam and help lift the staining and freshen the bowl. Then scrub and flush.
14:03And here is a safety word I will always give you plainly.
14:07Never, ever mix vinegar with bleach nor with any of those bowl cleaners that contain bleach,
14:14for the two together make a poison gas that can truly harm you.
14:18That is the very reason I favor the plain vinegar by itself. It does the job clean and safe on
14:25its own.
14:25But if ever you have used a bleach cleaner in that toilet, flush it well away before you go adding
14:32vinegar.
14:33Keep the vinegar and the bleach far apart and better yet, just use the vinegar and skip the bleach altogether,
14:41which is the old way and the safe way both, and far easier to breathe over besides.
14:48The sixth trick is one most folks never think of at all, and it is the toilet brush and its
14:54holder itself,
14:55which is one of the foulest things in the whole bathroom and goes completely unnoticed.
15:01Think about it. That brush sits wet in its little holder all the time.
15:06And the water and filth drip down and pool in the bottom of the holder, and it grows downright vile
15:12down there,
15:13a hidden source of smell and germs right in your clean bathroom.
15:18So you must clean the brush and the holder too.
15:21Now some folks pour bleach or some harsh cleaner down in the holder,
15:26but you need none of that, for our friend the vinegar does it again.
15:30You pour a good measure of vinegar down into the bottom of the holder and let the brush sit in
15:36it,
15:36which keeps the brush itself clean and disinfected,
15:39and keeps that pooling filth in the bottom killed off and fresh,
15:44and you pour it out and refresh it now and again.
15:47Vinegar in the bottom of the brush holder keeps the foulest corner of the bathroom clean,
15:53with no harsh chemical sitting open in your house,
15:56and give the brush itself a real cleaning now and again, soaking it in vinegar or even setting it out
16:03in the sun to dry fully,
16:04for the sun is a fine old disinfectant in its own right,
16:08and a brush allowed to dry out between uses grows far less foul than one left forever wet in its
16:16cup.
16:17A clean brush and a clean holder are a small thing nobody sees,
16:22but they make the whole bathroom fresher than you would guess,
16:25for that hidden wet corner is often the very source of a smell you could never quite place.
16:32And the seventh, which is a bonus and not a cleaning trick at all,
16:36but a safety thing too important to leave out.
16:39For those of you who have your washer and dryer in or near your bathroom,
16:44it is your dryer vent and the lint that clogs it.
16:48Now you would not think it belonged in a video about cleaning,
16:51but hear me, for this one can save your house and even your life.
16:56A clogged dryer vent packed full of that fine lint is one of the leading causes of house fires,
17:03thousands of them every year,
17:05for the lint is dry and fine and catches fire easy from the dryer's heat when it cannot escape.
17:12So while you are doing your bathroom cleaning, see to your dryer vent.
17:17Pull the dryer out, clear the lint from the vent and the duct and the trap,
17:21and you can fit a cardboard tube, an empty paper towel roll, onto your vacuum hose
17:27to reach right up into those tight places and pull all that hidden lint out.
17:33Clearing that lint regular keeps your dryer running better and, far more important,
17:38heads off a fire before it can ever start.
17:41That one is not for shine, it is for safety,
17:44and it may be the most important thing in this whole video.
17:47Do not neglect the lint trap inside the dryer either,
17:51cleaning it out every single load, for that is the first line of it,
17:56and once or twice a year see to the long duct that runs to the outside,
18:00which is where the dangerous buildup hides out of sight.
18:04And step outside and check the flap where the vent lets out,
18:08that it opens freely and is not blocked by lint or a bird's nest,
18:12for many a vent fire starts from a blockage right at that outside opening.
18:17It is a half hour's work once or twice a year,
18:19and it is cheap insurance against a fire that could take everything.
18:23So I would not let another season pass without seeing to it.
18:28So there you have the whole bathroom, cleaned top to bottom,
18:32with hardly more than vinegar, a lemon, some black tea, and a bit of dish soap.
18:37The cheap old things.
18:39And your dryer vent cleared for safety in the bargain.
18:42No cabinet full of different costly bottles.
18:45No harsh fumes.
18:47No chemicals you would not want near your children.
18:50Just the plain old things that have cleaned houses well for generations.
18:55Now I will say the plain word on why we ended up with that cabinet full of bottles in the
19:00first place.
19:01There is good money in selling a body a separate, special cleaner for every surface in his house.
19:08The glass cleaner, and the tub cleaner, and the toilet cleaner, and the fixture cleaner.
19:14A dozen bottles where vinegar and a lemon would do the lot.
19:18And there is no money at all in a man knowing he can clean his whole house with what is
19:24already in his kitchen.
19:25So the bottles got all the advertising, and filled all the shelves and the cabinets,
19:31and the cheap old ways quietly slipped from memory.
19:35Not by any plot, just because nobody ever profited by reminding us.
19:40But vinegar still costs pennies, and still cleans near everything, the same as it always did.
19:47Tell me down below which of these you will try first,
19:51and whether you have an old cleaning trick of your own, handed down from your mother or grandmother.
19:57The cheap old ways of keeping a house.
19:59For I dearly love to hear them, and I learn new ones from you all the time.
20:05And let me know what part of the country you write from.
20:08For the hard water that crusts the fixtures is far worse in some parts than others,
20:13and I am curious where my viewers fight it hardest.
20:17I read what you write.
20:19Next time, I want to take these same cheap old ways into the kitchen,
20:24and show you how to clean the whole of it, the counters, and the sink, and the stove, and the
20:29rest,
20:30with the same plain vinegar and lemon and baking soda.
20:33No costly bottles.
20:35The way the old people kept a clean and wholesome kitchen.
20:39Long before there was an aisle full of bottles for every little task,
20:43folks kept their houses clean and fresh and wholesome with vinegar and lemon and a bit of effort.
20:50And their homes were none the worse for it, and their air was the better.
20:54There is a quiet, good sense in cleaning your home with plain, simple things you understand,
21:00that cost almost nothing and harm no one, rather than a cabinet of costly chemicals.
21:06The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.
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