It is common to find mold growth in showers, sinks, and other high-moisture areas which means you need to clean mold. Mold flourishes in certain environments, and your shower is most certainly one of them. Luckily, there are some things you can do to combat mold using basic household cleaning products.

No matter what you do, DON’T scrape mold with your fingers or scrub it dry with a brush as this will cause living mold spores to fly up in the air where they’ll find somewhere else to land, thrive, and give you additional headaches.

Is Mold in Your Bathroom Making You Sick?

For the most part, mold is harmless to a healthy person but some mold can make you sick and cause health issues, especially in individuals with weakened immune systems or allergies to mold.

80 of the 1.5 million known species of mold are classified as allergenic, but if you are prone to allergies the chance of mold making you sick increases significantly. Allergic reactions to mold may include flu-like symptoms, coughing, mood changes, skin rashes, sinusitis, respiratory issues, dizziness, or fungal infections of the lungs.

Chances are, the mold in your bathroom is not negatively impacting your health but that doesn’t mean you should simply let it be.

Mold Cleaning Tricks

1- Baking Soda and Bleach

It’s important to note that bleach does not kill mold, it simply removes the stain created by mold. Vinegar, as mentioned above, is a great way to kill mold. Start with the vinegar method and then move onto this method for the best results.

• Mix 1 tsp liquid soap and 1 cup baking soda. Add several drops of an essential oil, such as lavender, peppermint, citrus, etc.) and then add enough hot water to create a paste.

• Next, in a separate bowl combine 1 part bleach with 2 parts water. Add mixture to a spray bottle.

• Use the bleach solution to spray the affected areas in your bathroom. Let it sit and dry.

• After the solution dries, respray the area with your bleach solution and this time get in there with a scrub brush.

• Rinse the wall, and if you still see mold, go at it again repeating until the mold vanishes.

• In some cases, grout or caulking must be replaced.

2- Vinegar

Vinegar has been found to kill 82% of mold species! Plus, it is great at preventing mold in the first place. Vinegar contains no toxic fumes like many other agents used to kill mold, such as bleach.

• Pour mild white vinegar into a spray bottle, do not dilute with water. Vinegar’s acidic qualities make it quite deadly to mold, that’s why you don’t want to water it down.

• Spray affected surface areas with straight vinegar solution and then wait one hour. If your bathroom has windows, open them up and let it air out during this time.

• After an hour passes, use hot water and a clean towel to wipe the area. Make sure surfaces are dry to prevent mold from coming right back.

Vinegar isn’t always strong enough to get rid of mold on its own, but it is great at preventing mold from growing in the first place. Keep that spray bottle of vinegar in your bathroom at all times and use it to spray surfaces prone to mold whenever they get wet. This makes it difficult for mold to grow, which means you won’t have to waste time removing it in the first place.