The toilet is one of the easiest places for germs and bacteria to fester in your household. Although a simple wipe down might suffice, sometimes there are stains and odors that persist against your best efforts.
Here’s the information you need to know when understanding how to clean a toilet.
Necessary Supplies
When cleaning your toilet, you’ll need the following list of supplies to properly disinfect it:
- Rubber gloves: the last thing you want is to get your hands dirty
- Bristled brush: this will help you scrape away contaminants
- Wipes / Paper Towels: for cleaning away excess residue and wiping away disinfectant once it’s done
- Scrub sponges: for the particularly difficult stains
- Toilet bowl cleaner: the stuff that will actually get your toilet squeaky clean
- Cleaner spray: to wipe down other parts of the toilet
- (Optional) Pumice stone: some people swear it’s the best way to clean a toilet, but you need to be careful otherwise you can risk scratching your toilet
Process of General Cleaning
There are a few steps involved when you want to know how to clean a toilet bowl. Take a moment to review the process before getting started:
1. Pour Cleaner in Toilet Bowl
You aren’t going to start scrubbing yet, but you want to pour your chosen cleaner into the toilet while you work on other parts of the toilet. It is common to allow the cleaner to rest for five to ten minutes while it breaks down contaminants in the bowl.
One trick-to-the-trade, is to use Quick Job’s True All Purpose Cleaner, by spraying it inside your toilet bowl, as well as spraying the outside of the toilet as well. That way, you only need one cleaner to clean every aspect of your toilet.
2. Clean “Hot Spots”
It’s important to spray down commonly used locations on the toilet such as the handle. If there are other handles, appliances and items that you commonly use after flushing the toilet, it would be a good idea to clean those as well.
3. Clean the Exterior
Cleaning the outer portion of your toilet can be just as important as cleaning the inside. Every time you flush the toilet, contaminants are flung across the bathroom in the nearby vicinity.
To prevent bacteria from lingering around your toilet, you can spray down the areas around your toilet and spray the toilet itself. Giving the exterior of your toilet a wipe afterwards is advised, but if wipes aren’t available in your area, using paper towels is also sufficient.
4. Tackle the Lid, then the Seat
Now that the exterior is finished, you’ll want to follow the same procedure with the toilet lid and then the toilet seat. As you finish each one, prop them up so they’re not resting on the toilet bowl. You can lower them back down after cleaning the toilet bowl in step 5.
5. Scrubbing the Toilet Bowl
After your cleaner has had a sufficient amount of time in the bowl, you can take your bristled brush and scrub down the sides of the bowl. Make sure to wear your gloves while you do this!
6. Close it Up…and Flush!
You’ll want to close the lid and flush the toilet once you’re done scrubbing.
Difficult Stains
Sometimes, you have more than just an odor or a dirty toilet, and you need to know how to clean not only the toilet bowl for daily use but also how to clean toilet stains.
Stains can become pretty nasty if left alone for long periods of time, and they only become harder to remove if you ignore them.
Different stains are caused by different reasons. Rust might be building up in your bowl because of the minerals in your supplied water, or a toilet bowl ring stain might have been left behind by a family member who forgot to flush.
Pumice Stones
The first recommended way to remove stains in your toilet bowl is to use a pumice stone. Pumice stones are very effective in scrubbing down remaining contaminants and can leave your toilet free of rust and other persistent stains.
Commercial Cleaning Products
Another recommended way to remove stains in your toilet is to simply purchase some commercial cleaning products, which are more often than not just as effective, and scrub down the toilet bowl. Purchasing a toilet bowl stain remover is an easy way to approach cleaning a stain in your toilet, however there are very effective all purpose cleaners that will get the job done.
Removing Toilet Bowl Rings
If your toilet holds hard water or if the water is left sitting for a while in between each use, it can be very easy to get what’s known as a toilet bowl ring.
The question that accompanies this situation is naturally, “How to get rid of a toilet bowl ring?”
The best way to prevent one is to throw a little bit of cleaner in the toilet after every use, but if you already have a toilet bowl ring, scrub it down like you would with any other stain and it should come out.
Clean the Cleaning Supplies
Every time you flush your toilet, contaminants and bacteria are flung across the bathroom. Once your toilet is clean, your gloves and any chemical containers you’ve chosen to use probably have bacteria resting on them.
Although it requires some more time, it’s recommended that you clean your cleaning products once you’re finished cleaning your toilet.
How Often?
Once you know how to clean a toilet, you need to set up a schedule for cleaning it to prevent the buildup of bacteria and mold.
Typically, you want to clean your toilet once a week or every other week. This will ensure that not only your toilet, but your bathroom, will stay relatively clean.
However, it’s especially important to clean your toilet often when someone in your household is sick. When someone is sick, it’s recommended that you clean your toilet (and your bathroom!) once every two or three days.
The Takeaway
Cleaning your toilet is an important and necessary process that can help you prevent stains, contaminants and bacteria from creating odors or festering in your bathroom.
Taking the steps above will ensure you have a clean toilet so you can use the bathroom without worrying about germs.
