How to Clean a Toilet

Your toilet is exposed to human waste numerous times every day. Flushing eliminates most of the waste, but contaminants linger.

In addition, hard water stains, limescale and toilet rings are problematic in many homes.

A filthy toilet is more than an eyesore. It emits unpleasant smells and can spread germs into the air each time you flush. The bowl and seat often receive the most attention when cleaning a toilet, but other areas require attention as well. How do you clean a toilet the right way?

What Happens If You Don’t Clean Your Toilet?

Deep cleaning your toilet only takes about 10 to 20 minutes, but it’s easy to procrastinate doing this chore. If you don’t clean your toilet regularly and frequently, stains and messes are much harder to remove. In some cases, the toilet may be permanently stained. This means that it will still look dirty even after you’ve recently cleaned it.

In addition, germs build up in a dirty toilet, and this results in more germs spreading through the air in your bathroom with each flush.

How Often Should a Toilet Bowl Be Cleaned?

Ideally, your toilet bowl should be cleaned at least once a week. If you spot problem areas, address those areas promptly. You might assume that you can go longer between cleaning sessions if you don’t use a toilet frequently, but this isn’t the case.

Your toilet bowl maintains a level amount of water, and this water contains hard minerals that accumulate in the bowl over time regardless of whether you use the toilet or not.

How to Clean a Toilet

Before you start cleaning the toilet, remove all items sitting on the tank lid. You also need to flush the toilet one time. This moistens the toilet so that it is easier to clean. Be sure to wear rubber cleaning gloves.

Inside of the Toilet

Spray the interior of the toilet bowl with your regular toilet cleaning product, covering the entire surface.

Don’t forget to cover the top of the bowl as well. Use your toilet brush to scrub the bowl from under the rim to the drain hole. When the bowl is clean, close the lid and flush the toilet.

Outside of the Toilet

The outside of the toilet includes the tank sides and lid, the handle, the top of the lid, the trunk of the toilet and its base. Spray all of these surfaces with a general-purpose cleaner. After several minutes, wipe these areas thoroughly with a paper towel.

Toilet Seat

The toilet seat comes in direct contact with your body, so it needs to be sanitized regularly. Using a general-purpose cleaning solution, spray the top and bottom of the seat.

This is also a good time to clean the bottom side of the toilet lid. After letting the cleaner sit in place for a few minutes, use a paper towel to wipe the surfaces clean.

Toilet Tank

Because some of the components in the tank are metal, do not use a bleach-based cleaning product.

Add four cups of undiluted vinegar to the water in the tank. After an hour, turn off the water supply valve to the toilet. Then, flush the toilet until no water remains in the tank.

When no water remains, spray the tank with a non-bleach cleaning product. After 15 minutes, scrub the tank floor and walls. Use a cleaning rag or paper towel to wipe down the working components. Turn the water supply valve on, and the tank will fill up. Flush the toilet several times to remove the cleaning spray from the tank.

Explore these extra cleaning techniques from Melissa of CleanMySpace to help you tackle your toilet cleaning with ease:

How to Remove Stains in the Toilet?

Toilets are susceptible to several types of stains, including rust, hard water, mold, mildew and toilet rings. What are the best way to deal with these stains?

Rust

If you notice signs of rust in the bowl or tank, use hydrogen peroxide to break down the stain.

For bowl or tank stains, pour a cup of hydrogen peroxide in the water. After roughly 30 minutes, use the toilet scrubber to remove the rust stains.

Hard Water

Hard water stains are comprised of mineral deposits. While they are very common, they are also more difficult to remove than other types of stains.

To tackle hard water stains, add a cup of baking soda and a cup of undiluted vinegar to the toilet bowl water. After 15 minutes, use the toilet scrubber to remove the stains.

Mold & Mildew

Removing mold and mildew stains requires a different approach. While you want to remove the stains, you also need to kill the spores.

Borax is a fungicide that works well on moldy toilets. Apply a liberal amount of powdered borax to the toilet bowl. Use your scrubber brush to rub the borax across all surfaces in the toilet bowl, but do not flush the toilet. After roughly eight hours, scrub the toilet again. Then, flush the toilet with the lid down.

Toilet Rings

Toilet rings often remain stubbornly in place when you clean the toilet with your regular cleaning product. However, the ring can be removed with a combination of vinegar and baking soda or with borax powder and lemon juice.

Apply your choice of vinegar or lemon juice on the ring stain. Scrub the ring, but don’t flush the toilet. Then, sprinkle the powder on top of the ring. The two elements will break down the ring stain, making it easier to scrub off.

Let the toilet sit undisturbed for at least 10 minutes before scrubbing it again. Then, flush the toilet to rinse the grime away. If you still see part of the ring, repeat the process. However, this time, scrub the stain with a wet pumice stone using light pressure.

Tips How to Keep Your Toilet Clean

After cleaning your toilet each time, sanitize your toilet brush using bleach or another disinfectant.

• Clean the tank regularly to minimize toilet rings and hard water stains.
• Clean the toilet weekly so that grime doesn’t have time to accumulate.
• Invest in a water softener if hard water is problematic in your area.
• Always close the lid before flushing the toilet.

Keeping your toilet and the rest of your home clean is a never-ending job, but you don’t need to do the messy work yourself. At Tidyhere, we are your trusted source for Boston housekeeping services. Whether you want to pass over some of your dirtiest chores to us or you want us to clean your entire house, contact us to schedule your first service today.