10 Low-Effort Japanese Products That Keep Your Home Clean

Looking to freshen up your home without breaking a sweat? Check out Japan’s novel household products which help you keep the house clean with a lot less elbow grease.

Do you feel overwhelmed trying to keep your home in Japan clean? Are you tired of chasing dust bunnies in your mansion or scrubbing the mold off the walls of your bathroom? Honestly, there’s nothing like the sparkling feeling of a freshly cleaned home after exerting yourself in the end-of-year oosouji (big clean) or spring cleaning. But our lives are busy and it can be hard to find the time and motivation to keep up that level of cleanliness on a regular basis. Luckily, there is a wide range of ingenious, low-effort Japanese products that will do much of the heavy lifting for you.

Use these grime fighters to help keep your home clean without having to do much other than purchase the product and leave it to work its magic. Read on below to find your new favorite time—and labor-saving cleaning goods.

1. Look Mildew & Black Mold Shower Room Cleaner

If you have trouble motivating yourself to clean your ubiquitous Japanese shower room, look no further than this product by Look cleaning brand. This easy-to-use product, notable for its quirky mascot character of a pumped-up cloud, just requires you to set it inside the shower room in water and let it smoke out your mold. The product claims to prevent 99.9% of mildew and mold build-up.

• Price: ¥1443 (for a pack of 3)

2. Magic Rin Foaming Bath Tub Spray

Shower rooms are always a hassle to clean, so why not make it easier with a handy cleaning spray? It comes in different scent options, from unscented to green herb to rose. Just spray this cleaning agent all over your shower walls, bathtub, floor, doors and especially that extra dirty shower drain. After spraying, the product’s website says that your shower room will stay germ—and black mold-free for at least a week.

• Price: ¥748 (spray bottle and refill included)

3. Febreze Bathroom Mildew Resistant

If even the spray feels like too much work, try this one! With all the high moisture and humidity, of course, the bath area is a fertile ground for mold growth. Febreze makes a bath cleaner that can stop mildew and mold from forming at the start. Just place it on the ground, hanging on a bar or on an adjacent window or wall and the product will release a bio-coating that stops mold in its tracks. The effect will last about six weeks, after which you will have to replace it. 

• Price: ¥828 (one unit)

4. Kobayashi Bluelet Liquid Toilet Bowl Disinfectant EX

If cleaning the toilet bowl gets you down, this is the best item to keep it clean and fresh at all times with no elbow grease required. All you need to do is attach the product to the tap on the top of the toilet. As you flush the toilet, Bluelet will slowly release the cleaning agent into the tank, creating a disinfectant coating that is especially effective against black mold. The company claims that one application will last you about three to four weeks.

• ¥1713 (bulk purchase of four packs)

5. Quickle Washbowl Cleaner

The bathroom sink is another area that often fills with grime. With this sink cleaner, you can quickly get it sparkling with little effort. This product is effective at cutting through many common types of bathroom grime, such as limescale, soap scum, skin cells and slime. Light enough to administer with one hand, this product combines the cleaning liquid with a built-in sponge for ease of use. Take off the cap and use the sponge top to spread the cleaner all over the sink. Once you rinse with water, it will be as good as new! 

• Price:  ¥1120 (one unit)

6. Pipe Cleaning & Odor Elimination Tablets

When the drains in your kitchen and bathroom are too dirty or moldy, they can start to smell. When that happens (or preferably before!), these tablets will be your low-maintenance best friend. Stick a tablet in the kitchen or bathroom sink, toilet or shower/bath drains and wait for it to work its magic. As it travels down the drain into the pipes, the tablet will disintegrate, releasing its antibacterial cleansing agents and cleaning the area, removing slime, grime and unwanted odors. It’s recommended to pop these tablets down your drains once a week as a preventative measure.

• Price: ¥386 (pack of 20 tablets) 

7. Chin! Shitefukudake Microwave Cleaner

Since Japanese kitchens often only have two burners on the stove, the microwave becomes an especially useful appliance. However, when you’re battling grease and food caked into the internal corners, cleaning it can be quite the hassle. Enter these cleaning sheets, which you heat in the microwave itself for 1-2 minutes and then use to wipe away stubborn dirt and oil with ease. These sheets are especially effective for oil as they continue alkaline ionized water, known for its grease-beating properties.

• Price:  ¥230 (3 units)

8. Clean Planet Stove Top Cleaner

The stovetop can take a beating, especially when it’s used daily for family cooking. This one-and-done product can do more than just the usual degreasing, with its triple cleansing power able to penetrate even burnt-on grime. It is most effective on stovetops, fans, fish grills, toaster ovens and pots and pans. Just apply the cleaner liberally to the desired area and leave it for 15 minutes before wiping with a cloth to reveal a clean and shiny surface below.

• Price: ¥1080 (one unit)

9. Lec Floor Cleaning Slippers

Do you find dusting and sweeping a pain? These floor cleaning slippers may be just what you need! Equipped with a microfiber towel base, they pick up dust, grime and even water droplets as you go about your everyday business in your home. Just walk around and watch them catch dirt on your floors that you didn’t even know existed. And, when you think the slippers themselves need to be cleaned, just pop them in your washing machine and they will come out as good as new.

• Price: ¥1800 (one pair)

10. SwitchBot Robot Floor Cleaner

Cleaning robots have been around for a while, but few have been as small as this one. While multiple models are available, the K11+ is the most compact and perfect for small Japanese apartments. Measuring 24.8 cm in diameter and with a small docking base, this unit will help keep your floors clean with almost no work at all on your part. With a waste storage capacity of 4L, the company claims you need to empty it only every three months.

• Price: ¥59,800

Do you have any favorite low-effort Japanese cleaning products? Share your wisdom with us below!