The Vine: May 30, 2008
Sars,
I just stepped out of the shower, and I’m at the end of my soap-on-a-rope. About the shower, that is.
See, my husband, dog, and I live in a beautiful apartment in an 1887 “castle” which boasts a 5-foot-long claw foot tub. It’s simply scrumptious, and it’s now becoming a requirement for when we buy a house. It also has a shower head. You know, for showers. Trouble is, the wonderous showering has produced a nasty sort of mildew film on all of the shower
curtains.
Yes, curtainS. By necessity, we shower surrounded by 5 (yes, five) shower curtains. Two on each long side, just due to its length, and one more to cover the leaky patch in the back where two curtains meet and water dribbles onto the carpet (yes, carpet in a bathroom — a questionable decision, but still). So, encased in vinyl as we are, it’s super-nasty to see the film and growth of whatever that is on the curtains surround the shower-er.
Do you or your readers have creative solutions/products for us so we can circumvent this problem and stop feeling like we’re bathing in squalor? Are there shower curtains that are truly mildew-proof? Are there products that won’t leave me wheezing that I can use on the curtains? Does anyone else shower in such a set-up who would be able to offer advice?
Can’t use the curtains from the wedding registry for fear of mildew reprisal!
Dear Doing The ‘Dew,
I grew up in an old house and showered in just such a set-up for many years, and many’s the time I shrank away from a shower-curtain panel drifting furrily towards me on a third-floor draft.
First, let’s define some terms. Some people use the term “shower curtain” to cover any plastic or fabric with holes punched at the top which surrounds a showering area, but it’s important to distinguish between actual shower curtains and shower-curtain liners. A curtain liner is usually much more obviously plastic or vinyl and not stereotypically living-room-drapes-y; it’s the part you tuck into the bathtub, whereas a proper shower curtain, you can leave hanging outside so that everyone may get the full effect of the dolphins or posies or subway lines or whatever is printed on it.
You may already know this, in which case I apologize for talking to you like we’re in first-semester Home Ec, but you would be surprised at how many people don’t. Anyway: if you don’t have liners, consider getting them — or using only liners instead. The vinyl fumes are kind of crazy for the first few days, but the liners are far easier to clean without staining or damaging them, because that’s what they’re made for.
You have several options as far as that goes. You can try that “spray the shower every day” cleaner, which I have had little luck with in a soft-water city. You can put on your calendar every 4-6 weeks that you have to take the liners down and clean them, and here’s how you do that: run the tub full of warm water; add a cup of bleach (or your favorite environmentally correct cleanser); sponge the mildew off; rinse the liners and re-hang. It’s a somewhat splattery gig, so I used to do it naked, hit the ceiling above the tub with the same bleach solution (if you’re having mildew issues on the curtains, you should check the tub environs for it too), then shower afterwards. It sounds like a huge pain but it really only takes ten minutes from start to finish.
And even though it’s become kind of a shorthand for anal roommate behavior, it’s worth noting: when you’re done showering, close the curtains so they can dry better. If you have a window in the bathroom, leave it cracked in temperate weather; leave the door open other times, or get a tiny fan for when it’s a humid spell.
The other solution is to find a place, like a flea market, that offers liners for like a buck each, and just slap down a hundy and stock up for the year. When one liner gets grody, chuck it and hang a new one. I suspect it takes shower-curtain liners about ten thousand years to biodegrade, so you may not consider that a viable solution, but it’s an option.
To review: make sure you have liners up; make sure you’re doing everything you can to keep them dry after you shower or bathe; get some bleach or Method green-grass cleaner and scrub them with a sponge or Brillo pad once a month or so; live a happy life.
Readers? Anything I’ve forgotten?
Tags: Ask The Readers roommates
Another vote for Scrubbing Bubbles! I started using Scrubbing Bubbles when I moved into my new apartment a year ago, and I haven’t had to clean the shower walls or the shower curtain in that time. The tub itself, yes, but not the curtain. Either clean the curtains really well or get new ones, then start over with Scrubbing Bubbles.
I skipped the whole Bed Bath & Beyond fancy schmancy stuff and went to Menards to buy the serious shower curtain that said it was mildew resistant and damned if it hasn’t been. I can’t recall the brand, but it is heavy-duty, no-nonsense, comes in white only and cost a little more than usual and I’ve had it for 6+ months. I have boys who never remember to pull it straight when they finish showering, which means it lays folded over itself in a poorly ventilated bathroom most of the time, and I CANNOT get it to get mildewy. So get thee to a home-improvement store and get the old school curtain. Also, try a product called “Clean Shower” now and again. Smells good and it couldn’t hurt. It’s the chicken soup of bath products.
once they’ve been cleaned, there’s a easy solution for keeping them that way simply dry off the liners with a towel after you’re done showering or bathing. It will add an extra 5 minutes to your getting ready time time but it works and you won’t ever have to remove the liners for cleaning again.
Dew-y, I hear you on the pain that is Not Being Able To Reach. I would suggest investing in a little two-step ladder, or even two of them, if you have two stories to your house. This will help you reach some of those places while saving your sanity and, quite possibly, your neck. (Don’t tell me you don’t balance precariously on stuff “just for a second”; I won’t believe it.) I have one, and even if I have to lug it upstairs – well, it’s only two steps, and it folds; it’s not hard to lug.
Also? LOVE Scrubbing Bubbles! I love the spray best, but I’ll use the foam if I have to. I have found that if something WHITE is going into the wash immediately, a spray of Scrubbing Bubbles on the collar and cuffs takes the grodiness out. You have to be on the point of flinging the garment in the wash, though, because letting the Scrubbing Bubbles dry on it can eat through delicate garments just like any other bleach, as I have found out. :( Don’t use it on colored stuff! That’s what spray-on carpet cleaner is for! (After, of course, you have tested an inconspicuous spot first to make sure nothing runs.)
Also, Dew-y, regarding your Carpet/Grody Tile conundrum: could you talk to your landlord about replacing the carpet with a cut-to-fit piece of linoleum? I had a kitchen which was carpeted, for Pete’s sake; I got a piece of linoleum to cover it and make it (a) easier to clean up while cooking and (b) kept the carpet grunge-free. I think in a bathroom, though, it would be better to replace the carpet with linoleum, if you’re allowed (basically, just a “linoleum rug”).
So glad to see this and all the suggestions! We just moved to a new apartment – we now have a bathtub, yay! But, the grout is all mildewy from the previous people, boo. I think I’m going to pre-emptively get a fabric liner, and use the vinyl curtain (it’s cute, it has ducks on it…) as the outer curtain.
But. Question: Doesn’t closing the shower curtain keep moisture in the shower? I can see how it helps the curtain to not have folds that can trap wetness and mildew, but then don’t you get gungy walls along with your less gungy curtain?
As long as we’re already talking about mold and mildew, I guess this can’t be too gross by comparison: the pink stuff some of you have mentioned is quite likely to be Serratia marcescens bacteria.