Is Your Bathroom Back To School Ready: Tips for Heavy Usage and Health and Wellness

Back to school is a crazy time. With so much to do, there's one section of your home that probably gets neglected: your bathroom. You don't want to let things get messy when you have kids and parents fighting over prime bathroom time. Luckily, Bathroom Butler is here to help! Here some questions I asked Bathroom Butler to help us all get organized for the new school season.

• Q: Tell me more about Bathroom Butler and any health and wellness solutions you provide. 
• A: Bathroom Butler's Heated towel racks provide a healthier and more hygienic self-care experience for you and your family. Our Dry Element Technology allows the heated towel rack to heat up in 10 minutes and uses less electricity than 2 light bulbs. Bathroom Butler's heated towel racks are more hygienic and environmentally friendly - giving your family the best health and wellness bathroom experiences that are designed to optimize your self-care regime. 

• Q: What are the germ and bacteria concerns for bathrooms. 
• A:  There are many areas in the bathroom that should be of concern, but one that is often overlooked is damp towels. Damp towels are a breeding ground for unwanted bacteria. Used damp towels develop an unpleasant, musty odor as the bacteria build up on the surface. To prevent bacteria build-up, towels need to be dried properly after each use. Our heated towel racks do just that  - drying your towels effectively, reducing the bacteria by up to 90%, making them more hygienic and fresher between washes. 

• Q: What are some challenges that families and busy moms face with wear and tear on bathroom accessories from their kids, and even sanitation needs for their children, when it comes to their bathrooms. 

• A: A child's day is filled with outdoor activities that can cause a substantial amount of mess in the bathroom when it comes to bath time. Busy mom's don't have the time or the energy to constantly wash towels to keep up with the high demand. Not to mention the cost implications and negative environmental impact that multiple loads of laundry can create - it's simple unsustainable and inconvenient for the busy modern-day mother. Heated towel racks provide the ultimate solution of reducing towel washes by drying your towels between uses so that you reduce the number of towels you wash and create a more hygienic and enjoyable bath time experience for your child and the whole family too. When your kids get to experience having a dry towel with a comforting touch of warmth after every bath, it will encourage them to hang their own towels up. A common problem we find with chrome plated bathroom accessories is that they often don’t wear well over time and potentially start to show ugly pit marks. For this reason, we make all our bathroom accessories from grade 304 stainless steel which is an extremely durable and hard-wearing material. As there is no coating on the natural polished finish, there is no chance of any pitting or flaking of the surface – essentially it will last you a lifetime. Then also comes the issue of bathroom accessories that frequently come loose on their mounting and need to be constantly retightened. Bathroom Butler recognized this as a product design problem more than 12 years ago and developed what we now call our RIGID Loc mounting system. When correctly installed, once it is tightened on its mounting it will not come loose – no more paper holders falling off the wall at the most inconvenient time.

• Q: What are 3 tips you can give busy moms to help their bathrooms to be more durable and sanitized. 

• A:1. Install stainless steel bathroom accessories for optimal bathroom hygiene - Stainless steel bathroom accessories are more durable and anti-corrosive. This high-grade material is perfect for the humid environment of the bathroom because its natural corrosion resistance properties prevent rusting, staining, peeling, flaking or chipping. Stainless Steel is a non-porous material which means nothing can stick to it and therefore does not collect bacteria or algae, which makes it ideal for any bathroom space. Furthermore, it does not corrode and is easy to keep clean. But be sure to check what grade of stainless steel the product is made from, you should only be buying grade 304 or 316.
• 2. Use high-quality cleaning products - ensure you use high-quality cleaning products that are environmentally friendly (and safer for your family). Simply wipe your stainless steel bathroom accessories down with a warm, damp cloth and then buff dry. You could also use a touch of Chlorine-free stainless-steel cleaner for your stainless steel appliances to maintain the gorgeous shine. It's not advised to include any Tile grout cleaner or Chlorine-based chemicals, do not use them on the finish as these will cause permanent damage. 
• 3. A quick daily cleaning routine - the bathroom is one of the areas in the home whereby daily cleaning needs to be done in order to prevent unwanted dirt, mold and bacteria from spreading and causing health complications. Create a daily habit of wiping down your surfaces to help maintain your bathroom finishings and prevent dirt build-up. This will provide a more healthy environment for your family. 

 

Book Review: Minimalism: Right Decluttering for More Order, Time and Freedom.

It seems like there just aren't enough hours in the day, and it's hard to keep organized and clutter-free. This book talks about ways to achieve those goals, and free up the time you take searching for things in a pile of clutter (or cleaning it all!) 

The book mostly contains a lot of common-sense things one can do to clean quickly and get rid of clutter (like asking yourself if this object you're holding onto really serves any purpose in your life and makes you happy). It also goes into the KISS method and talks about minimizing more than just the clutter on that shelf or table. The inbox, for example, is a huge issue for a lot of people, and Tolga gives tips for taking back control of it. Plus, he talks about learning to say no, 

The author's straight-forward style can seem a bit dry at times, and I do think some advice goes a bit far (I still am distrustful of putting everything in digital format. Even with cloud, things can happen). Still, there are gems in it, and I found the advice in this book inspiring. Too often, we let the small chores that can be done in minutes until they balloon into things that will take ages to get through. He advocates doing these little things as you go along, so that they don't end up taking up big chunks of your day. It's a hard habit to get into, but I firmly agree with him about it being an important one.

The explanation of the KISS method is accessible, and really does need to be applied in pretty much any situation. While I read it in one shot in order to be able to type up this review, I certainly recommend reading a bit at a time and doing the activities in the book as your reach them.