Are you searching for how to clean a toilet bowl? This article features some of the most practical ways to do that.
Here, you will also learn about the top-recommended products for cleaning and disinfecting badly stained toilet bowls. Keep reading!
Hard water stains, dirt, and grime can make your toilet bowl look quite messy. And with all of that, comes bacteria of different kinds, offensive odor, and health risks.
To keep yourself and your family safe from germs that can be gotten from the toilet bowl, you should clean it regularly.
READ: How to Clean A Toilet Without Brush
How Often Should I Clean My Toilet Bowl?
The toilet bowl is one of the seats in the house that is used frequently. In a home with lots of persons (including kids), it would be almost impossible to count the number of times it is used in a day. This is the major reason it has to be cleaned and disinfected regularly.
Speaking of how often that should be done, it is important to note that cleaning and disinfecting are two different things. While cleaning the toilet bowl has to do with removing dirt, grime and stains from it, disinfecting has to do with getting rid of germs from it. Though they often go together, they can be done separately too.
Based on the number of times the toilet is used in a day, you can decide to disinfect it once or twice a week. Cleaning, on the other hand, needs to be done quite regularly. If possible, every day.
What You Will Need For Toilet Bowl Cleaning
To properly clean and disinfect your toilet bowl, you will be needing some materials and equipment.
Below are some of the top recommended supplies and tools you need for that.
- Clorox Toilet Wand
This disposable toilet wand comes preloaded with Clorox Cleaner. It enables you to scrub under the rim and all around the bowl, and get rid of dirt and germs from those places.
Instead of using a brush that you will have to clean and disinfect with water, you can use this disposable wand to do the scrubbing.
The good thing about Clorox Toilet Wand is that it doesn’t just clean your toilet bowl alone, it also disinfects and deodorizes it. So using this is like using a brush to clean, a sanitizer to kill germs and an odor eliminator, all at once.
- Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner Triple Value Pack
This toilet bowl cleaner is highly effective against tough stains and germs. When used in cleaning a toilet bowl, the formula deodorizes and disinfects at the same time. Due to how powerful the product is, it will leave your badly stained toilet bowl sparkling in a very short while.
Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner will not harm your plumbing or septic tank systems. So feel free to use it in cleaning your toilet bowl.
- 2000 Flushes Bleach Chlorine Antibacterial Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner
2000 Flushes Bleach is what you need to sanitize your toilet bowl. The formula kills 99.9% of bacteria. Once applied to your toilet bowl, it will keep on eliminating germs from the surface for up to 4 months. Thanks to the power of the Chlorine Bleach.
You can use this to disinfect your toilet bowl, moments before cleaning it or after.
Chlorine is a well-known killer of bacteria and several other germs. You can get the product on Amazon for just a couple of dollars.
- Turbo Plunger And Bowl Brush Caddy Set And Cleaning Pads
This combo pack by Mr. Clean contains both a bowl brush and a plunger. With these, you can thoroughly scrub and remove stubborn dirt from the toilet bowl, including hard water stains.
This is an alternative to the disposal toilet wand which we mentioned earlier.
Can I Use A Homemade Formula For Cleaning My Toilet Bowl?
Yes, you can use a DIY cleaner for cleaning your toilet seat. Preparing this will require a couple of ingredients that are readily found at home.
To make a DIY cleaner, you would need 1 cup of white vinegar, 3/4 borax, 5 to 10 drops of any essential oil of your choice. Once you have all the ingredients ready, mix them in a container and stir well.
When cleaning your toilet bowl with a homemade cleaner, you will have to apply it all over the surface and give it some minutes to work before you scrub. More of that is explained in the full procedure.
How to Clean Toilet Bowl Stains With Coke
Coca-Cola contains citric and carbonic acid which remove stains and dissolve mineral buildup respectively.
- Open a bottle/can of coke and pour its content into the toilet bowl
- Ensure all the stains are well covered
- Allow this to rest for an hour to allow the acids to attack the stains
- Scrub the stains using a toilet brush
- Flush the toilet and Fiam! Everything is clean and shiny.
The Procedure For Cleaning A Toilet Bowl
Once you have everything (supplies and tools) needed for the cleaning ready, the next thing is to learn how to properly clean the toilet bowl.
In case you are wondering how to do that, you will find a complete step by step guide on that below.
Step 1: Put On Your Gloves
Since the toilet bowl always has different germs on it, you would be making a great choice by wearing hand gloves before cleaning it.
Depending on the type of chemicals you intend to use for the cleaning, it may even be necessary for you to also wear a face mask to prevent you from inhaling the fumes.
Step 2: Start With Outside
It is so easy to channel all your attention and energy towards cleaning the inside of the toilet bowl that you ignore or don’t do a good job on the outside. I think that the outside deserves to be given almost the same attention as the inside.
Apply the toilet cleaner on the outside of the toilet bowl. You need to watch out for dirt and stains on those parts of the outside that are not always easy to see, especially towards the back and the down part of it.
After applying the toilet cleaner and sanitizer (whether commercial or homemade cleaner) all over the outside, let it sit for a few minutes. If the outside of the toilet bowl is badly stained, you may have to allow 5 to 10 minutes to pass before you start scrubbing.
Once you are done with that, rinse the outside with clean water to reveal a very sparkling surface on your toilet bowl.
Step 3: Clean The Inside Of The Bowl
This is always the part of the toilet bowl that demands a lot of work.
To clean this part, you will have to first get rid of the water on the inside. This will help the formulas you are using for the cleaning reach those stains covered by the water faster. Of course, you can still clean with the water on the inside, but it’s much better without it.
After draining, apply the toilet cleaner and sanitizer there and give them time to work on the dirt, stains, and germs.
If there are rusty ring stains on the inside, you should already know they are not always easy to remove. That’s why you need to give the cleaning formula up to 10 minutes or more to work.
While applying the toilet cleaning product, ensure you do not leave out any area on the inside, especially those directly under the surface of the toilet bowl. Let the formula reach all those areas.
Once the time you set for it is due, you can start scrubbing the surface beginning from the top. You can also use the Clorox disposable wand, the Turbo Toilet Plunger And Brush; to do the scrubbing as we mentioned earlier in this guide.
Pay attention to the hard water stains on the inside and get rid of them. Do not skip any part to scrub later, You could forget that and only discover that after you are done with the cleaning.
Once you have completely gotten rid of all stains, you can then rinse the inside with clean water.
Step 4: Clean Your Tools
If you are using disposable supplies, you may not need cleaning them. But for other types of tools like your toilet bowl brush, you will have to clean and disinfect them. This eliminates any bacteria that may have jumped on it while you scrubbed the toilet bowl.
Once you are done cleaning the brush and any other tool you used, rinse and leave them to dry.
In Summary
When it comes to housekeeping, most people often find it very uncomfortable to clean the toilet bowl. While we agree that the task is not really among the most enjoyable ones to do at home, knowing the best way to do it can help make it easier.
Are you searching for how to clean a toilet bowl? We have revealed the best way to do it, without spending your entire day on it. Here, we also discussed the best supplies and tools to get it done. I hope you find this guide useful.