This non-toxic shower cleaner magically melts soap scum, tub rings, and shower buildup, no scrub needed! Plus, it uses only two natural ingredients and rates an “A” on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) scale.
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Raise your hand if bathroom cleaning is your LEAST favorite housekeeping task. I love my bathroom to be bright and shiny, but hate scrubbing tub rings and toilets.
I used to purchase a foaming bathroom cleaner to get my tub and shower spotless with very little effort, then I began to investigate the harmful ingredients in cleaners and I was shocked…. my commercial bathroom cleaner rated an F on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) scale. I had to find a substitute!
All-Natural Bathroom Cleaner
I hopped onto Pinterest for DIY shower cleaners and tried making cleaners with:
- lemon and salt
- hydrogen peroxide and tea tree oil
- vinegar and rubbing alcohol
None of them cleaned well, so I went back to cleaning with my Natural All Purpose Cleanser. It does an amazing job, but requires some elbow grease.
Pinterest Shower Cleaners
I found a popular no scrub shower cleaner recipe on Pinterest and was intrigued. The cleaner is made from Dawn dish soap and hot vinegar to clean the shower with no scrubbing. I wanted give it a try but there were two problems:
- I did not want to use Dawn because it rates poorly on the EWG scale.
- I did not want to heat up vinegar to clean, I wanted a version I could store under my bathroom cabinet.
Sal's Suds
I decided to try the recipe with one of my favorite commercial household cleaners. Sal's Suds is made by Dr Bronner's (they make my favorite Castile soap) but it is a detergent instead of a soap.
Detergent vs Soap
- Soap is made from vegetable or animal fats and oils, synthetic detergents use man-made chemicals. Soap has been around since around 2800 B.C., synthetic detergents have been around since 1916.
- Soap will break down and lose it's cleaning power when it is mixed with vinegar, detergent has a different chemical makeup and does lose it's cleaning power in a mixture with vinegar.
- Sal's Suds is a detergent that is made from plant-based surfactants (not petro-chemicals like many detergents) and does not contains synthetic dyes or fragrance. It is 100% cruelty-free and rates an A on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) scale.
No Scrub Shower Cleaner
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 cup Sal's Suds (or any all-natural hand washing dish detergent)
Directions
- Pour vinegar and Sal's Suds into a spray bottle and swirl to combine.
- Spray the mixture onto the shower and tub, wait for a few minutes then rinse and prepare to be amazed.
Tips
- Use this cleaner on areas that are easy to rinse like sinks, tubs, showers and the inside of your toilet.
- Test before using on natural stone surfaces, vinegar can damage some stone finishes.
- For tough stains allow it to sit for 10-15 minutes then scrub and rinse.
- This cleaner smells like vinegar, add 15-20 of essential oil to scent and add cleaning power. Lemon, thyme, rosemary, tea tree, eucalyptus, peppermint, and lavender are all great choices. I use 10 drops eucalyptus, 5 drops lavender, and 5 drop of rosemary for a spa-like scent. Use a glass bottle if using essential oils, see my DIY glass spray bottle for cleaning.
No Scrub Results
Let me first say it is hard to photograph a bathtub or shower, I apologize. My (lack of) photography skills aside, this cleaner is AMAZING!
Bathtub Cleaning
- The tub above is in my kids' bathroom, they are in charge of cleaning so it is not the most spotless place in the house. Notice the pink shower gunk rings from the shampoo bottles and the soap scum build up on the overflow drain.
- Now look at the after picture. I sprayed on the cleaner and let it sit for about 5 minutes then rinsed with the shower heap. Shower gunk and soap scum GONE!
Shower Cleaning
- The shower stall in our master bath has a floor that is made of white plastic. It has a slight texture that tends to attract dirt, especially when we wash our German Shepherd in it.
- I clean it every week and it looked clean, until I spray it with one squirt of No Scrub Shower Cleaner (see the very top picture). I rinsed it with water and KA-POW it was bright white where the cleaner landed. I completely cleaned one side (see the before-after above), built up dirt and soap scum GONE!
Toilet Cleaning
- The cleaner also works great in toilets. The Sal's Suds helps the vinegar cling to the sides of the bowl allowing it to work on mineral deposits and hard water stains.
- I sprayed the inside of the bowl focusing on the top ring where hard water tends to build up and waited 10 minutes. I then brushed and rinsed, hard water stains gone!
Cleaning the bathroom may not be fun, but it can be greener and EASIER with this Non-Toxic No Scrub Shower Cleaner. I hope you try it in your home!
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I just stumbled onto your site and I am so glad! I love seeing all your natural non-toxic cleaning solutions! I wish you had more (lol) but I pinned just about all of them 🙂
Thanks Nancy! I’m adding more all the time. I hope you enjoy the posts.
This site is so wonderful!! Thank you Thank you
Thanks, Kendria! You are too sweet!
Hi! I am thrilled to find your site! I have been working to eliminate toxins from my home for years, but it is somewhat cyclical because I use the homemade cleaners for a while, them get fed up with how ineffective they are and how often I have to mix them (like a new batch to scrub the tub every time I clean it!) So I give up and buy commercial cleaners, use them for a while, become disgusted by the chemicals, and go back to homemade. Your site just might be the answer to my troubles! Your recipes are simple and seem more effective than the ones I as previously using, and I love that you don’t include borax! Thank you!
I do have a question about this shower cleaner. I have used the dawn/vinegar combo a few times, but it irritated my throat and nasal passage, and made me cough a lot. I just tried this new recipe with Sal Suds and it had the same effect on me. I don’t mind it, necessarily, as long as it’s not toxic. I’d rather cough for a minute than scrub the shower and tub for 10 🙂 But I’m curious if that happens to other people, and if it’s possible that the vinegar and an ingredient in the Sal Suds combine and make a harmful gas?
Thanks again for your wonderful site! I am so glad I found it! Your dishwasher detergent is fabulous, and I’m excited to try your all purpose cleaner too.
Thanks for your lovely compliments, Amy. I do love simple cleaners and easy cleaning alternatives. It’s my lazy side :). Your coughing is probably caused by the vinegar in the mist, it is a bit harsh! You can try watering down the mix to make it less concentrated. I am personally not concerned about inhaling it, better than commercial cleaners, but I do try not to breathe deeply when spraying in the shower because of the potent smell. Hope this helps! Thanks for stopping by to comment.
Thanks for your quick reply! It worked wonders on my bathtubs yesterday so keep using it for sure 🙂 I also made your furniture polish yesterday, which made my family heirloom (read: beat up) piano look so much better than it has in years, and your all purpose cleaner, which cleaned the grout I have not been able to get clean with any other product or concoction! I’m hooked. Thank you!
Thanks Amy! I am so glad you enjoyed the cleaners. It can be a challenge to find ones that work great and are not too complicated.
Thank you for this question AND answer. I had the same thing happen and wondered if it was just me! I’ve also used Dawn in the past so I appreciate learning a natural alternative.
Thanks, Stacey! I’m glad you found it helpful.
I had similar reaction with this spray. I would try diluting it, but I don’t want to lose its effectiveness. I do like this recipe more than the others, but it does take a lot to rinse it off. Other than that, it’s great.
Thanks Kris. You can try doubling the vinegar to make it easier to rinse while still keeping its cleaning power.
Thanks. I’ll give that a go!
Oh My Gosh! I can’t thank you enough for this. I have a shower stall and it’s always been a pain to clean and using store bought cleaners I would wear my flip flops in the shower because I didn’t want the chemicals on my feet (should have been my first clue). I didn’t get really serious about using all natural cleansers until I recently acquired my little dog. She loves to hop in the shower with me and play in the water not to mention lick it up. I absolutely didn’t want her ingesting all those chemicals. This stuff is amazing. I think the shower is actually cleaner than it was when I moved in! It actually shines now. Again thank you for doing all the work to figure out the best ways to keep a home not only clean but healthy as well. Now on to the floor cleaner because her favourite room in the house is the kitchen and she’s constantly licking that floor.
I am so glad you like the cleaner, Kerry! I agree, having a pet makes you think differently about the cleaners you are using near them. I recently read about air freshener not being safe around pets. I make my own room freshener and my own dog shampoo and dog treats too. Can you tell my dog is my baby? 🙂
Hi Bren…I tried out using baking soda to clean up the kitchen sink and it really did a great job. However since I live in Texas, we have very hard water. Is there anything natural that can be used to remove hard water or stubborn stains? I am also not a fan of toxic cleaners or having different chemical cleaners in the house. I do not have any children but do have fur babies so do not want any fumes. And also our female dog has a bad habit of licking the floor so we do not use chemicals on the floor. I do have to say that I can be a germ freak but I have resisted using chemicals or items like borax. Any advice you can provide for hard water stains in the kitchen / bathroom sink or tub / shower doors would be appreciated. Also are you a fan or have used hot steam cleaners? I have seen professional home cleaning companies on YouTube that use hot vapor steamers to clean up horrible build-up on sinks or tubs in the homes of some of their clients whom unfortunately were not able to keep up with cleaning up their homes. Thank you in advance and I truly enjoy all your information.
I used to have a Shark steam mop, but I was never thrilled with the way it cleaned. Maybe a more commercial steam cleaner gets better results, however I have been hesitant to try a more expensive brand since we have very hard water and I am sure the cleaner would get lots of mineral build up. When we moved into our current house all the sinks, drains, tubs and shower head were caked with hard water build up and had water stains. Even the refrigerator ice maker had hard water build up! To clean the white mineral build up left behind by hard water I wet sponges or rags with white vinegar and lay them on the area for a few hours. You can then wipe the hard water build up away. I use a baggie half full of vinegar to clean shower heads. Just pull the bag over the shower head so the head is in the vinegar and then use tape or rubber bands to secure the bag around the arm of the shower head. Wait a few hours and remove the bag. I also use CLR to clean stubborn hard water stains, it’s a green cleaner (read more about how I use it to clean my dishwasher here). I also use carbon water filters in our showers to remove chlorine and minerals, they cost about $30.00 and the replaceable filters last for up to 6 months. (I have been very happy with the results. I have to clean the showers a lot less. ) Every few months I pour vinegar in our sinks to just cover the drains while I vacuum/dust then clean the bathrooms. This gives the vinegar enough time to dissolve the minerals. The house may smell a little vinegary but it works great and is better for pets. Hope this helps!
Hi Bren, I am floored by how much faithful work you put into your blog. I wish I had the determination to keep up with this kind of undertaking. I was directed to your blog by something on Pinterest and could not stop reading, AH!
I just wanted to put in a vote for you to investigate putting all your great recipes up for sale in an EBOOK through Blurb or something. Great way for us to have them all in a reference format and be able to print single pages when needed, and recoup some expenses for all your time as well! Go-Bren-DO!
Thanks for the kind words, Laura! I will definitely look into the ebook suggestion… though I can promise that won’t get done until after the holidays (Hee, hee!). I am so glad you found the site!
Thanks Bren for posting all these awesome recipes. I was wondering if there were an alternative to the Sal Suds product. I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Only the Bronner’s Castile soap. And it’s either sold out online or excessively priced. ( I live in Canada). I’m really hoping to try something that works for my shower stall.
Ginny, you can use any hand washing dish detergent in place of the Sal’s Suds (not Castile soap, it breaks down in vinegar). I would suggest a non-toxic hand washing dish detergent such as Seventh Generation, Honest Company or Attitude (I think Attitude is a Canadian company). Good luck!
Hi Bren, can i use this on glass shower screen?
I use it to clean my composite shower with tile walls and a frosted glass shower door.
I noticec you said you rinse the shower after the shower cleaner with water and a product call Kapow – where do you purchase Kapow?
Hi Debbie! I meant I rinsed the shower with water and “wow” it was clean! Ka-pow is just the expression I used, not a product. Sorry for the confusion! 😉