Why are toilets and kitchen sinks impossible to clean behind?
Bathroom and kitchen fixtures are often built with narrow gaps against walls and convoluted curves around plumbing bases that make physical access impossible. Trying to reach these tight spaces forces people into awkward physical positions and leaves trapped dirt and dirty water permanently out of reach.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Replacing fixtures with straight-sided alternatives
- 2Taking out the bottom half of pantry shelves to hold a trash can
- 3Refusing to install glass shower doors during bathroom redos
- 4reading books from the library
- 5watching short-form video creators on TikTok and YouTube
- 6asking parents for guidance
- 7learning through direct trial and error
- 8dropping a cleaning sponge with dish soap and shaking
- 9descaling
- 10using citric acid or denture pods
- 11using cleaning beads
- 12soaking in vinegar overnight followed by dish soap and a thin bottle brush
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I have personal beef with 1. Cabinets that dont reach the ceiling 2. Textured concrete floors 3. Badly laid out tiny mechanical closets.”source ↗
“Bathroom designs where you have to hug the toilet to clean behind it. 🤮”source ↗
“I have a kitchen that has no designated space for a rubbish bin…”source ↗
“And why do toilets have to have curves and crevices in the base for the plumbing?”source ↗
“Everything about our kitchen sink is poorly designed for cleaning. There's a tiny space between the back of the sink and the wall that just gets covered in weird dirty water...”source ↗
“I used to clean this bottle frequently but as you can see here the corner is not able to be reached for cleaning. Does anyone have any idea how to clean this part?”source ↗
“I used a brush which can be curved to reach there but still it has some limits.”source ↗
“So I moved to a second floor apartment, and I wanted to clean the outside of these UPVC windows.”source ↗
“There is no latch, hinge or button to open it and slide it to the side.”source ↗
“This is driving me crazy!!!”source ↗
“too much info at once or trying to overhaul my life can make me freeze up and spiral in shame lol.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Why does the house still look dirty after cleaning?
- 2How to clean thick dust off a screened patio
- 28How to clean a room when you are too depressed
- 4How to clean a really mouldy rental shower and fix the caulk
- 6How to clean bathroom floors without getting on the hands and knees
- 4How to clean an empty house quickly before moving in