Homemade Vinegar And Washing Up Liquid Bathroom & Shower Cleaner

If you’ve spent any time on Pinterest at all and you follow any boards with cleaning or diy tips, there’s no doubt you’ve seen people spruiking the wonders of using Dawn and vinegar to clean their shower.

I’ve seen enough pins of this idea to pique my interest and get me wondering how well it might work. But, when I first saw someone using this cleaning solution in a dish wand, I just knew I had to give it a go!

First things first, I’m in Australia. Most of the recipes for this type of bathroom cleaner call for Dawn washing up liquid. This might be a surprise to any Americans reading this, but we don’t actually have Dawn dish liquid here in Australia!

Not to worry, I did my research, and it turns out that we have the same product here in Australia but here it is branded as ‘Fairy’ dishwashing detergent. 

It seemed to be important in most of the pins I found that you use the ‘blue Dawn’ so I bought blue Fairy washing up liquid, which seems to be ‘antibacterial’ which I figured would come in handy when it comes to cleaning bathrooms!

I also bought a brand new dish wand – the type where you can fill them up with detergent. I think it only cost about $2-$3 at the supermarket, but you can get a fancier one here if you prefer. 

I teamed my new dish wand and Fairy liquid with just some regular white vinegar I had in the pantry.

I’m not much of a one for measuring, but the ratio is 1:1 for this cleaning solution, so I basically squirted my Fairy dish liquid into the dispenser until it was about half full and then added vinegar on top to fill it up.

Give it a bit of a shake to make sure the two liquids combine.

Then it’s just a simple matter of scrubbing this mixture all over any bathroom surface you want to clean.

And then wiping it off.

Now for the scary part – I’m going to have to show you my dirty bathroom! It’s the only way to show you how well this cleaner works. Here’s some before and after shots of my bathroom and shower.

But the most notable difference was in cleaning the glass shower screens. It was only when trying to photograph the after shot that I realised how effective the shower cleaner was – it kind of looks like I’ve just taken a photo of the toilet but the photo is taken through the, now very clean, glass shower screen.

Cleaning a bathroom is never fun (at least in my experience!) so I will admit I’m often looking for new and novel ways to clean it. If nothing else, it gets the job done and I find it mildly more interesting as I’m using a new technique.

I’ve used different types of cleaning cloths and different bathroom cleaners over the years, including natural ones and essential oils.

I don’t think I’ll ever find the perfect bathroom cleaner – one that stops me experimenting and looking for the next new and exciting way to clean, not because there might not be such a product, but because I enjoy trying new ways to clean – it adds to the novelty of an otherwise fairly dull chore.

That being said, I have so far kept using my dish wand filled with dish liquid and vinegar. It’s quick and easy to use and certainly seems to work well.

I doubt I’ll use it for the rest of my life as I’ll probably find another method I want to try (or maybe I’ll win the lottery and employ a cleaner!) but it will certainly remain a part of my bathroom cleaning arsenal, in fact I might even fill a dish wand and keep it in the kitchen too! 

Not keen on making your own bathroom cleaner? Try Koh – you won’t be disappointed!