Tilex works, but you'll smell it for hours

Tilex is one of those products that does exactly what it says — mold and mildew don’t stand a chance — but the application experience is its own kind of punishment. The bleach smell is aggressive in a way that a small bathroom window can’t fix. You need real airflow: open the door, turn on the fan, maybe open a second window if you have one.

The smell lingers during application and for a while after. It’s not dangerous if you’re ventilating properly, but it’s strong enough that you’ll plan your cleaning session around not needing the bathroom for the next hour or two.

The takeaway isn’t that Tilex is bad — it works great. The takeaway is that proper ventilation isn’t optional with this stuff. A cracked window won’t cut it.