Hotel Housekeeper Secrets Part 2

The bathroom order

Remember, you sprayed the bathroom before starting the bedroom, so the products have been working for 10 minutes. Now go in this order, cleanest to dirtiest:

1. Sink and counter
2. Mirror
3. Shower or tub
4. Toilet
5. Floor

The logic: you never carry toilet germs to the sink, and you never drip dirty water onto a surface you already finished.

The streak-free mirror trick

Housekeepers spray the cloth, not the mirror. Spraying the glass directly leaves drips that run to the frame and dry into streaks. Use a barely damp microfiber cloth, wipe in the S-pattern from part 1, then buff with a dry one.

For a fast shine on faucets and chrome, wipe dry right after cleaning. Water spots are just minerals left behind when water evaporates. No water, no spots.

Why the toilet goes last (and outside first)

Pros clean the toilet from the outside in and top to bottom: flush handle, tank, lid, both sides of the seat, the rim, the base and the floor around it. The bowl itself is last, with the brush. That way the dirtiest cloth touches the dirtiest surface at the very end, then goes straight into the laundry.

Hard water ring? A wet pumice stone gently rubs it off. Keep it and the porcelain wet the whole time.

Never pour bleach into a toilet that still has an acidic bowl cleaner in it. Flush and wait between products.

The squeegee habit

Housekeepers squeegee shower glass after cleaning. At home, the real hack is squeegeeing after every shower. Ten seconds, and soap scum and hard water spots never get a chance to build up. Hang the squeegee on a hook inside the shower so it is impossible to forget.

Finishing touches that make it feel like a hotel

These take two minutes and make a huge difference to how “clean” a room feels:

• Towels folded in thirds and hung evenly, or rolled on a shelf.
• Toilet paper folded into a point. Silly, but it tells everyone the bathroom was just cleaned.
• Clear counters. Hotels have almost nothing out. Put daily items in one tray or a drawer.
• Empty trash with a fresh liner, with a couple of spare liners folded at the bottom of the bin.
• One scent, lightly. Hotels smell clean, not perfumed. A clean drain and a dry bath mat do more than any spray.

What hotels do weekly that you can do monthly

• Descale showerheads (a bag of vinegar tied over the head for an hour, then rinse).
• Wash the shower curtain liner on warm with a couple of towels to scrub it.
• Scrub grout. Our no-scrub grout trick makes this easy.
• Wipe the exhaust fan cover.

Your hotel-style cheat sheet

Spray first, let it work. Cleanest to dirtiest. Spray the cloth, not the mirror. Toilet outside-in, last. Squeegee daily. Floors out the door.

Want it on paper? Our printable weekly cleaning checklist uses the same order.