We’ll forever remember 2020 as the year that germs spread throughout the world. While the ongoing pandemic still rages across the globe, many of us are upping our hygiene game. We’re washing our hands and wearing masks, and most of us clean our home regularly – we hope. In this post, we’ll give you ten practical toilet cleaning hacks for your home.
The toilet is an area of the home that needs constant attention. If you leave your toilet without cleaning for awhile it could start developing stains on the porcelain. You need to ensure you keep it clean throughout the year to avoid disease.
#1 Did You Know Coke Can Clean Your Toilet?
Crack open a refreshing Coca-Cola right now. Wait! Don’t drink it; pour it down the toilet (that’s where this sugary beverage belongs anyway). Over time, lime and calcium buildup on your toilet can lead to some unattractive stains.
Source : cradiori.co
Pour the Coke or a bottle of Gatorade into the toilet bowl and let it sit in the water for 10-minutes. The mild acidity in the soda starts to break down the deposits. Scrub the bowl with a scouring brush and the stains will lift.
You can use this hack to remove toughened stains from any porcelain surface on the toilet, including the bowl and cistern.
#2 Get Rid of Hard Stains with Vinegar
Sometimes Coke won’t have the strength to lift the stains. Hard stains around the toilet look terrible, but fortunately there’s a natural cleaning solution. White spirit vinegar has so many uses around the home and it’s suitable for cleaning those hard stains from the porcelain.
Source : yourproplumber.com
The acidity in the vinegar kills germs on contact, including virus cells. Instead of wasting your money on those expensive liquid toilet cleaners, you can get the same, if not better results using cheap vinegar instead.
Avoid using apple cider or brown vinegar, as both will stain your toilet a light brown color and that’s what we’re trying to avoid with this exercise. You can pour the vinegar directly into the toilet bowl for cleaning or fill a spray bottle.
If you have stubborn stains that are challenging to remove, try adding half a cup of baking soda to a cup of vinegar and a half-cup of water. The baking soda adds effervescence to the water, allowing the vinegar to penetrate the stain.
#3 Scrub Away Grime with a Pumice Stone
A pumice stone is a light, porous volcanic rock. If you have a porcelain toilet, this stone will scrub away the stains in seconds. However, it’s important to note that the abrasive stone will damage marble, fiberglass or laminate toilets.
Source : cleanmama.com
Buying a pumice stone is one of the most affordable toilet cleaning hacks available and using it is easy. Follow these steps to get the best cleaning results from your pumice stone.
- Start by putting on some rubber kitchen gloves to protect your hands.
- Wet the pumice stone before you start cleaning.
- Dip the stone in a bowl of warm water and leave it for a few minutes.
- Set a bowl aside containing your vinegar/ baking soda/ water solution discussed in the previous section.
- Scrub away the stains, keeping a tight grip on the pumice stone as you work.
- When scrubbing, you’ll notice a paste start coming from the pumice stone if you’re using water.
- Leave the paste on the toilet for 10-minutes before rinsing clean with fresh water.
- Flush the toilet after you finish.
Pro Tip – Remember to re-wet the pumice stone as you work. Letting it dry out will damage the stone and possibly your toilet as well.
#4 Toss Out the Bleach and Use Hydrogen Peroxide
Lysol sales are through the roof this year. However, cleaning your toilet with bleach might not be the best option. Bleach is a toxic substance and its residue gets all over everything when you clean with it.
Plus, bleach has that clinical, sterile smell to it that makes your bathroom smell more like a doctor’s office than a room in your home. We recommend swapping your bleach out for hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is just as powerful at killing germs and it’s the safer choice for use in your home.
Hydrogen peroxide is available from your local drug store for pennies. This agent’s cleaning power offers your home and toilet protection from bacteria, viruses and mold.
#5 Build a Homemade Toilet Bomb
Our next toilet hack involves building a bomb – wait a minute, don’t get carried away with other thoughts. We’re talking about a toilet bomb. What is a toilet bomb? It’s an effervescent cleaning tool that cleans stains, absorbs odors and leaves a pleasant fragrance in the bathroom.
You can buy pre-made toilet bombs at the grocery store. However, these products come with plenty of chemicals and many of them are unsafe around children. Why not go natural with your toilet cleaning duties?
Source : blogspot.com
Here is our recipe for the best homemade toilet bomb:
What Ingredients Do I Need for My Toilet Bomb?
- 1-cup of baking soda
- ¼-cup of citric acid
- Four drops of tea-tree essential oil
- 4-tablespoons of freshwater
How Do I Use My Toilet Bomb?
- Mix the citric acid and baking soda in a large mixing bowl
- Add the essential oil and keep mixing
- Sprinkle a ¼ of a teaspoon of water over the ingredients
- Keep mixing
- Eventually, you’ll get a white paste starting to form
- Shape it into a ball and leave it to dry overnight
- You should get four to six balls out of this mixture
- Toss the toilet bomb into the bowl and let it fizz away the stains
- After it stops fizzing, scrub rigorously using the toilet brush
- Flush the toilet twice after you finish scrubbing
#6 Get Fruity and Wash Away the Germs
Why spend your hard-earned money on expensive toilet cleaners when you can use effective natural alternatives? Grapefruit isn’t only great for breakfast – they make great toilet cleaning tools too!
Source : theseamanmom.com
Cut a large ruby grapefruit in half. Coat the cut face with a generous amount of sea salt and start scrubbing the toilet using each half of the grapefruit. The citric acid in the fruit helps to lift stains as you work. After cleaning, leave the juice to soak for 10-minutes before washing down the toilet a final time.
As a bonus – Your bathroom will have a fresh citrus smell after you finish.
#7 Unclog Your Toilet with Hot Water
Is your toilet backing up? If you hesitate to flush the toilet, chances are there’s a clog somewhere in the pipes. If the clog turns into a blockage, it could back the toilet up all over the bathroom floor. Can you imagine if it gets into your home? – what a mess.
Fortunately, there’s a simple toilet cleaning hack to fix this issue. Boil some water in a kettle and pour the contents down the toilet bowl. The boiling water helps to dislodge any clogs, freeing your pipes from potential blockages.
Pour the water into the toilet bowl, wait a minute and then flush. You might have to repeat this hack several times if there’s extensive clogging in your pipes.
#8 Clean the Siphon Jets
The siphon jets under the rim of the toilet bowl are where germs love to hide. You can clean the jets using duct tape and vinegar. Scrub down the toilet with the vinegar/ baking soda/ water mixture discussed earlier.
After you finish, place the duct tape over the siphon jets, and pull it off. The adhesive on the tape will remove any stains on the jets.
#9 Don’t Forget to Brush!
Cleaning your toilet is always a satisfying experience. However, the job isn’t over until you finish cleaning the toilet brush. Many people never think about cleaning the brush and they should because it’s a source of germs and disease.
Take a bucket and fill it with hot water and a cup of vinegar. Let the brush top soak in the bucket for an hour before taking it out and rinsing it dry. When returning the brush to its holder, add some toilet cleaner to the holder to sterilize the brush after you finish using it. The toilet brush should not be forgotten about when it comes to toilet cleaning hacks.
#10 The Final Touch
After cleaning your toilet, you have the reassurance that no pathogens are lurking around the bowl. However, using many of these natural toilet cleaning hacks won’t produce much fragrance. Therefore, to keep your bathroom smelling lovely throughout the day, add a few drops of lavender essential oil to the toilet water.
The fragrance will spread throughout the room and it smells much better than commercial toilet cleaning products.
In Closing
Cleaning your toilet is a vital part of your home hygiene. We hope these toilet cleaning hacks make the challenge of lifting stains and freshening the bowl that much easier. From natural cleaners to homemade toilet bombs, we think we covered everything you need to know to keep your toilet clean.
Give a few of these hacks a try and let us know how they worked out for you!
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