Bathrooms are generally the smallest rooms in a house, and yet they pose some of the biggest cleaning challenges with their range of surfaces and materials. Here are some tips on enhancing your cleaning efforts this spring:

Green Clean. Bathrooms are small, enclosed spaces that usually poorly ventilated. It’s better for your health if you choose green cleaners that don’t emit noxious fumes. It’s also better for the planet.

Gather Your Gear. Get everything from your tile cleaners to your scrub brushes to your rags all ready at once so you don’t have to keep interrupting your cleaning to grab a missing supply.

Add A Soundtrack. Cue up a favorite band on your music system or start up an audio book on your MP3 players. Cleaning time passes a lot faster when you’re getting entertained too.

Start with Linens. Remove all the bath towels, the shower curtain and the bath mats to clear your space and get them started in the washing machine while you clean the rest of the room. Be sure to check the washing instructions on cloth shower curtains and if the liner or your main curtain is plastic, think about replacing them. Cleaning plastic shower liners and curtains requires a lot of elbow grease to remove lime, mold and such.

Group Similar Tasks. Clean the tub and sink consecutively because they use the same cleansers. Wipe mirrors, glass shelving and windows together to get more mileage out of one rag. Clean walls and dust together. Do the floor last as it’s where errant bits of dirt from everything else you’re cleaning will land.

Grout Strategies. Before you start cleaning, inspect the grout between tiles and around the edge of your tub. If there’s mold in spots, grab an old toothbrush and use a green cleaner or white vinegar to get it off. If the floor grout requires a lot of scrubbing, use a memory foam bath mat to protect your knees. Keep an eye out for any grout that’s not cleaning up or even peeling because you’ll have to replace it.

Even Trash Cans Need Cleaning. Moist cotton balls, wet tissues and any other liquid saturated trash attract molds and mildews that can grow on trashcan walls and emit odors.

Polish the Fixtures. Handles and faucets get foggy from hard water residue. White vinegar does a great job of cleaning them. For more stubborn stains, pour white vinegar in a zip-top bag, rubberband the bag over the showerhead or tap and let it soak for about an hour to deep clean.

Doctor the Medicine Cabinet. This means not just removing items to dust shelves, but examining each item to see if it’s still healthy to use. Vitamins, medications and sun blocks all have expiration dates; if any of yours are past date, toss ‘em.

Worst for Last. The toilet’s the most germ-infested spot in the bathroom. There’s less chance of accidentally transferring microbes and bacteria from it to other parts of the bathroom if you clean it last. Any rags or brushes you use on the toilet should never be used anywhere else in the bathroom or home.