My Eco Friendly Bathroom Cleaner
My shower cleaning routine used to be the same as many of yours: Tilex Bathroom Cleaner for soap scum, and Tilex Mold & Mildew (or some other brand) for deep cleaning.
As much as I like the whole "spray and walk away" thing, the fumes from my bathroom sprays bothered me so bad that cleaning my bathroom was like launching some kind of scorched earth attack. I would start spraying the area furthest from the door, backing my way closer to the exit, eventually having to evacuate when the fumes started to suffocate me, my eyes started to burn, and my head started to hurt. The bleach in the Tilex did me in every time.
Then after cleaning, I would have to avoid the bathroom for the rest of the day because the residual fumes where so bad. Needless to say, this was not gonna work for me. So the hunt for an alternative bathroom cleaner was on.
My first experiment was Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Shower Cleaner with the Lemon Verbena Scent. Its cleaning ingredients are lemon, lemongrass, and fir oils. It does contain some preservatives, methylisothiazolinone and benzisothiazolinone, but it's worlds better than the traditional stuff.
I liked the smell in small doses, but after spraying an entire shower with it, the scent was a bit cloying. More importantly, it didn't dissolve the soap scum as effectively as I'd hoped. I had to put it more elbow grease than I'd like into wiping the shower down. And it did nothing to solve my mold and mildew problem.
Next, I did research on what kills mold: * Bleach, the smell of which makes me gag,
* Ammonia, which bothers me nearly as much as bleach,
* Vinegar, a possibility, but smelly,
* Baking Soda -- is there anything baking soda won't fix? -- and,
* Tea Tree oil, which sounded good in theory, but suspiciously too "eco" to actually work well.
As much as I prefer "green" cleaners, I really wanted something that would be effective, and didn't have time to mess around. Unfortunately, bleach is one of the most effective ways to kill mold, and it's the effective ingredient in most bathroom mildew sprays. It's hard to avoid.
Faced with this, I turned to the resource I always turn to for this kind of research, the Environmental Working Group (EWG). They grade household products on their toxicity and potential harm. The choices were so stark that the decision was actually pretty easy.
1) Bleach-based cleaners (all graded "D" or "F")
2) A Baking soda-based cleaner called Concrobium Mold Control, rated "A," but Amazon reviewers said it didn't work on their mold, and
3) Attitude Bathroom Mold & Mildew Cleaner [Amazon],(also called "Attitude Eco Friendly Bathroom Cleaner"), a Tea Tree oil-based cleaner, rated "A"
I like the scent of Tea Tree oil, and I knew it was a disinfectant that's good for killing topical fungus, so I figured it could handle mold with no problem.
The Attitude cleaner is awesome! It smells great, and it cleans well. It actually dissolves soap scum, which Mrs. Meyer's didn't see to do. After spraying and leaving it for a few minutes, a light wipe is all it takes to get the tile clean and shiny. And it kills mold in the grout, too.
It's a little pricey at $5 a bottle, but that's a price I'm willing to pay for not having to hold my breath while cleaning or make a hasty retreat from the bathroom to avoid the fumes. Attitude also makes a shower cleaner containing only 4 ingredients: Water, Caprylyl glucoside, Myristyl glucoside, Alcohol, Fragrance. (A quick perusal of EWG shows low health hazards of the 2 glucoside ingredients.) They also have kids' soaps and lotions, shampoo, dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, and a host of other products to detoxify your home of harmful chemicals.