How to Clean Your Shower Door

One of the cleaning questions I get pretty often is “How do you clean a shower door?” 

Truth is, until I moved into our current home just over 2 years ago, I never HAD a shower door.  I always had curtains.   I hadn’t realized the struggle all the shower door owners had until I had to keep my own clean. 

My husband and I are diligent about using a squeegee after every shower to get the water off the door, and minimize dripping, but soap scum still gets onto the surface, and it stays and takes up permanent residence!   It seems to be stronger than most typical cleaning products; even my Magic Eraser can’t beat it. 

So, I thought I’d let my soap scum go a bit a longer this time and give you a good Before and After, so that you can see what I do to get my shower door looking BRAND SPANKING NEW! 

Ours tends to look just great until you get to the bottom foot of the door.  I put a brown towel (for clean up) on the floor, because I thought you could see the fuzziness and haziness of the soap scum better in the pictures. 

So, what did I do? 

First, as I said, we work hard at cleaning between showers, just through a simple squeegee at the end of our showers (it hangs on our shower head). 

Second, I use a pretty simple cleaning product, but I have to prepare it myself:  It’s a mixture of White Vinegar and Blue Dawn. 

• I keep an empty spray bottle for just this task (it lives under the sink in the bathroom with the shower door)
• I take about a cup of white vinegar, in a glass measuring cup, and I HEAT IT IN THE MICROWAVE for about a minute.  It does not need to boil, just warm up significantly. I then pour it into the empty spray bottle
• I add a few squeezes (it is probably about a quarter cup) of Blue Dawn into the hot vinegar.  NOTE –  some people may recommend a 1:1 ratio, but I always decide to go weaker, knowing I can make it stronger.   I also know that this whole amount will probably end up being more than I need, so I don’t want to waste the Dawn.  
• I shake the heated vinegar and Dawn together in the spray bottle well, and off I go.

Third, I spray the door liberally.  Just spray the heck out of it.  You may want to be cautious about the door sides and handle.  They’ll be fine with the cleaning product on it, but you don’t want the product to sit on it, so wipe those parts down after completing your spraying. (You can see from my pictures I have a towel on the floor to capture drips. That’s just a good idea.)

Fourth, I WALK AWAY for an hour.  I make sure the fans are on in the bathroom, open a window, etc.  

Fifth, I come back, and use a sponge with some texture (I happen to use one with nylon netting on it, but any natural or textured sponge will be fine) and I come back and scrub gently in circles to work the last of the spray into the door, and start to remove the soap scum. 

Sixth, I rinse well with the sponge or with the shower door spray itself. 

Seventh, I behold the awesomeness of the shower door!

You may find your efforts need to go through this a full second cycle, depending on how bad your “Before” was, or how strong your Dawn mixture was.   Remember that spraying liberally and leaving to let it work are both very key.   It may take you a few times to master this secret, but it will change your dread of this task AND your door!

What do you think?   Would you give this a try and let me know if it helped YOU??  Send me some before and after pictures of your own!