Hi Moms,
We're currently in a rental home. Our tub has sliding glass doors and we typically shower our 3-year-old son and then time permitting, let him play for awhile with the water running lightly. He LOVES this time as do I. We love that he has so much fun and enjoy watching him get creative in his play.
No matter how much we and the occasional professional housecleaners scrub, there are permanently stained areas in the tub that make it appear less than squeaky clean. I also obsess over the disgusting germs lurking in the areas where the shower door meets the tub -- breeding ground for all kinds of nasties.
I'd like to start doing baths for my son as I feel the play it fosters is important (not to mention, it would be practical to be able to start bathing our 6-month-old daughter at the same time). I'm just having a hard time getting over the cleanliness issue. Can't stomach the thought of her touching these disgusting germs and then mouthing and slathering herself with them. I do realize they lurk everywhere our kids play, be it at home or out in public... but the bathroom thing just grosses me out to no end.
Anybody have experience with having their bath professionally recaulked or can you think of any other solutions, other than me getting over this drama in my head? :) Additionally, anybody use an effective bath cleaner that would be considered baby-safe? Drawing a bath after CLR has been smashed into its surfaces scares me.
OK, I'm crazy. :)
p.s. Don't yell at me -- I would definitely get our landlord's permission/input before having any kind of work done.
Ok, I agree with you that shower doors on tubs are just plain ugh! But.... you've cleaned the tub, it's stained, what exactly are you grossed out about? Yes, it's in the bathroom, but nobody pees on the tub or the door track, so all the "ick" is in the toilet (or around it, if you have guys that don't aim too good). You've done what you can. It's OKAY!
Don't sweat the small stuff. The "dirty" stain is just cosmetic!!
I think if you have cleaned the tub then it's clean. Stains are not dirt. They are stains. I think your child probably gets more germs from chewing on her hands after touching the floor or other areas of the home.
There are germs all kinds of places we don't often think of. You'll need to get some kind of cleaner that had bleach in it so you can feel better about the whole thing. But truthfully, they are fine.
Kids kept too clean have a much stronger chance of developing MS later in life. There is much research on this and it seems there is a strong correlation. Both of my friends that have it had very clean home environments growing up.
One had a governess and nanny that just didn't think it proper for the children to go run amok. The other one's parents would not let her ever go outside and play. They constantly made her wash her hands and stay within a very small area to play. They would have been mortified if she ever went out and ate dirt or something.
I hear 'ya. Showers and tubs in rentals can be a little gross.
I don't think you really need a "professional" to recaulk the tub. My husband has recaulked our bathtub and shower. You just pull the old caulking out and use a caulking gun and recaulk. It's really pretty easy.
After you pull the old caulking out, and before recaulking, I would use one of those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers for the bathroom. They are great. I use them to clean the soap scum off my glass shower and bathtub doors and they work great! They should get you where you need to be to feel comfortable putting the children in the tub!
I also found once by accident that Lysol toilet bowl cleaner will get stains out of the bathtub. It's funny because it ONLY works where you pour it on. In other words, where it pours out and hits the tub will get clean, but trying to spread it around to clean other areas like you would any cleaner, it won't work. The only part that will get clean is exactly where it poured from the container onto the tub. Still haven't figured that one out! FYI, I don't have a porcelain tub; I have a plastic. It's harder to clean, but much safer for the kids. It's not slippery and if they do happen to fall and hit their head, they don't hurt themselves because it's a much softer surface than porcelian.
If you have a nice landlord you could ask him to take the doors down. They are not safe anyway.
The doors should be able for you to fairly easily lift from the tracks and replace after cleaning them and the track. As for disinfectant, I use a product from Melaleuca.com that I like. It's called Soluguard, and is totally organic, using citrus oils and herbs, so I consider it completely safe to use around kids. If you need something that does more scrubbing of film and dirt, use CLR or whatever other cleaner works for you, then do several total rinsings to be sure you've gotten the residue from the cleaner off before letting your kids use the tub.
I hate my glass doors. OUrs have actually fllen out when my 3 yr old pushed on them and it fell on my 8 yr old.
You're not crazy! Well, OK maybe you are, but I'm right there with you! :)
We had/have shower doors in what became our baby's bathroom. We removed the doors (just the doors, not the frame) and are still storing them in the garage to put back up when she's a teenager :) In the meantime we use a BabySmart Cooshee Tub Guard to cover the door frame's bottom pointy edges. It comes with a matching little pad for your knees on the hard bathroom floor, too. We got this from OneStepAhead.com. It's squishy foam and it's GREAT!
As for the germs, I would use a bleach solution around the edges, then rinse them like crazy, let it dry, then re-caulk over the ugliness. We re-caulked ourselves and it really does look brand-new. Very easy -- just a tube of waterproof caulk at Home Depot and you're done. As for the other stains, personally, I'd use whatever cleanser necessary to get it off, then RINSE, RINSE, RINSE and re-clean it after with a gentle soap to make you feel better that the harsh chemicals are "washed down the drain." You've gotta figure that whoever lived there before probably used harsh chemicals at some point. And over time you have rinsed/washed them off. So just do that for your kids in a shorter timeframe :)
Hope that helps a little, and good luck!
Oh dear, well, I'm afraid you are way over the top! You need to get over it momma, germs are everywhere and from the sound of it, that tub is pretty much as clean as it can be. My kids "swim" in lakes and at the ocean. Do yours? Do you have any idea what goes into their mouth in those places. All forms of fecal matter and nasty parasitic bugs such as giardia. Yuck! Still, we like the water and we are swimming, bugs or not. The problem isn't your bathtub. Possibly a visit or two to a counselor or meds might help if you can't talk yourself down of the ledge over this issue. Good luck! I have things in my own life that are irrational and I have to work everyday to overcome them. I know it's hard but you can do it!
Maybe you could remove the doors and store them somewhere for the time being. Then you can get down and dirty with the door tracks and keep them as clean as possible. Our last rental had shower doors and I too felt I could never truly get them clean. Maybe you could lay an old shower curtain over the edge while they bathe too??
Recaulking is easy and then it will cover up those stains around the door. In one house we lived in we recaulked when we were selling it and it made everything look so nice. I wondered why I did not do it earlier! Just go buy a tube of white caulk! For getting the tub very white you can use "magic eraser". For a safe abrasive cleaner you can use Bon Ami.
