Looking for tips on how to clean your bathtub? Bar Keepers Friend is my favorite cleaning product for cleaning bathtubs!
Ever since I first used Bar Keepers Friend and it completely revitalized a nasty dirty stainless steel pizza pan, I’ve been a big fan! I’ve used it to remove scratch marks from dishes, clean copper bottom pots, easily remove grime from my pans, and more. My favorite use for it though is cleaning my bathtub!
Our bathtub gets especially grimy where our shower curtain liner meets the tub. It’s like all the dirt collects there and multiplies. We tend to get this buildup of black grossness between cleaning the tub. 
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After I finally took the time to clean our shower curtain liner, I again cleaned the bathtub with Bar Keepers Friend. I love using it because it works so well and doesn’t require me to scrub much at all! And I can clean the whole tub in minutes. As someone who hates cleaning the bathtub and shower walls this is a very big deal.
How to Clean Bathtub with Bar Keepers Friend
Materials needed to clean bathtub
- Bar Keepers Friend (powder or liquid)
- Green Scour pad
- Water
- Towel
Instructions for Cleaning Bathtub
1. Wet the tub walls and sides. Turn on the shower head for a minute and spray around, or turn on the tub, or fill a cup with water and splash it around. Doesn’t matter. Just get it wet.
2. Sprinkle on the powder Bar Keepers Friend. A little goes a long way. You do not need to coat the entire bathtub. You’ll spread it around once you start scrubbing. Or squirt the liquid version in some key areas (that may be extra grimy and soap scummy) but do not coat your bathtub!
3. Wet the scour pad (or sponge or washcloth) and start working in the Bar Keepers Friend. Don’t forget to get the tub walls, and all ledges and sides of your tub.
4. Rinse the tub with water. Again, do so as in the manner most convenient for you. I typically turn on the shower and fill a cup and get water where I need it. Rinse all the water and residual Bar Keepers Friend down the drain (again another reason to go light – less rinsing time).
5. Dry with a towel of some kind.
You’re done!
Please be aware that the little circles (maybe from some sort of suction cup bath mat someone had used prior?) that appear in my photos are permanent and have been there since we moved into our apartment and nothing has worked on removing them. The tub itself is very scratched and damaged, but it clean (for my tub) after I use Bar Keepers Friend!
Here’s a video I did for Hometalk showing how to clean the shower head (and a few other things in the bathroom)!
For more tips on how to clean, especially in your bathroom, check out these awesome cleaning tutorials:
- How to clean a bathtub with a Magic Eraser
- How to clean showerheads
- How to remove hard water stains from windows
- How to clean grout in the bathroom
- How to remove black mold in your shower caulking
- How to clean porcelain sinks
- How to remove rust stains from porcelain sinks
- How to shine bathroom faucets
- How to clean a curling iron
Leslie says
My old tub had stains from an old bath mat when we moved in as well. I was able to take them off this past weekend. I first used bar keepers friend, but then followed it up with a mixture of vinegar and Dawn dish soap. If you aren’t familiar with this method, use equal parts of heated vinegar and Dawn dish soap. Spray on tub and shower area and leave for an hour or two. I’m not even joking, old stain wil just wipe away. I did use a scratch pad on the old stains, but they are gone!
Katelyn Fagan says
Huh! If we hadn’t moved, I would have to try that!
Liz says
We have a fiberglass tub for the first time, used to porcelain. I’m not sure how to clean the bathtub rings that have occurred without damaging the fiberglass. Quick solutions?