Toilet cleaning is a very responsible job but not a welcoming one. Especially young adults and children skip cleaning toilets but little they do know they are avoiding immensely crucial aspects of the household.
In this guide, you will learn everything about cleaning the toilet in the right and simplest way. Here’s how you need to clean a dirty toilet!
Arranging every essential thing by your side is an important step in completing any task you intend to perform. Running to look for the intended tools in the middle of the work is never considered quality work which may further lengthen your cleaning task.
Here are some of the supplies you need to have by your side before you proceed to clean your toilet.
Cleaning the toilet is not a very alluring task and most people are found to turn their faces away when it comes to cleaning. A clean lavatory is mandatory and every one of us should be aware of cleaning it in the right way.
Scroll down to learn a step-by-step guide on how to clean the dirty toilet!
While cleaning the toilet, water along with toilet cleaners may get splattered and splashed. To avoid direct contact, you have to take extra care by wearing a protective covering. Remember to wear gloves both on your feet and hands. It should cover the entire portion such that your hands and feet are away from the mess.
Further, you need to protect your eyes by wearing eye protection. Since you are going to clean the entire toilet, you do not want any interfering objects around the toilet tank. Make sure to remove everything in and on top of the tank. Arrange all the supplies within your reach.
After you’ve worn rubber gloves and arranged every essential tool by your side, you can begin to clean your dirty toilet. Begin by pouring toilet cleaner into the bowl such that it covers the entire surface, both interior and exterior of the bowl. You have to look for the rim as well and make sure the cleaners have covered all the surfaces.
Before adding the toilet cleaner, you have to give a proper flush to the toilet by closing the lid, this way you allow the bowl to get wet evenly. If the toilet bowl is wet, the cleaner also works best on it, removing stubborn stains and dirty marks from the toilet surface.
There are varieties of toilet cleaners in the market. The chemicals they have incorporated into them may require different approaches while cleaning. This means that they might have different instructions for the use and you should be able to figure it out for your type of cleaner going through the user manual.
In general, the toilet cleaner is allowed to work for about 5-10 minutes after pouring into the bowl. However, it has been recommended to follow the guidelines or seek a consultant before purchasing and applying the toilet cleaner over the toilet.
You should know that the rim area both outside and underneath of the toilet is the most probable area for the bacteria to accumulate and hide. Such areas should be given proper attention and time while scrubbing. Further, you need to scrub the toilet drain hole opening and work on it for some minutes against the stains.
Once the cleaner is poured into the toilet bowl and allowed to work for the intended period, you have to look for the appropriate toilet brush to scrub away the stains from the toilet surface. Locate the stained area and work on such surfaces for some minutes but make sure to apply gentle pressure, or else you might end up cracking the delicate toilet surface.
While scrubbing the toilet surface, the stains and buildups get dissolved in the water. Further, the scrubbing becomes more effective if you allow some water to pass through the affected area. For this, you can employ the jet water spray of the toilet.
Once you’ve given proper and effective scrubbing, you need to flush down the toilet so that all the dissolved stains pass through the drain hole. This step is necessary because cleaning won’t prove to be effective unless you rinse away the cleaner and the loosened stains and dirt.
Your toilet seat is another most used element of the toilet. You have to raise the seat and make sure to apply disinfecting sprays all over it. Both interior and exterior portions should be sanitized properly.
Choose the best and most effective bathroom cleaner with an excellent disinfecting property so that it can sanitize all the toilet sections within a short period of time giving you a shiny and tidy toilet environment. At the end, make sure to grab clean damp cloths or paper towels and gently wipe away any remaining stains or marks.
Pumice stone is widely popular in removing hard stains from the skin. The impressive abrasive property of such stone is also popular in scrubbing away the hard water mineral deposits from the toilet. You may have observed distinguished ring-like marks on the toilet bowl.
You can simply get a stick and place your stone on one of its ends. A few gentle strokes and swipes against the mark level are found to remove the stubborn stains without having done any harm to the surface and with minimal effort.
The interior section of the toilet is important and unavoidable while cleaning the toilet since the interior portion is prone to harbor harmful bacteria and may invite internal clogging and toilet dysfunction. In a similar way, the exterior section is also as important as as internal one.
The exterior is easy to work on, you just need to grab a disinfecting cleaner and pour it all over the exterior toilet surface including the tank, handle, and edges. Allow the chemicals to work on the surface for a few minutes before wiping down using paper towels or cloths.
It has been suggested to begin by working on the sides and front of the toilet surface. Slowly continue toward the bottom edges of the floor. Remember not to miss any visible spots, around the toilet tank, seat, edges, and toilet cover, everything must be cleaned thoroughly and properly.
After every scrubbing, pouring of the cleaners and disinfectants, water spraying and flushing, you need to give yourself, your toilet, and your supplies a rest. Before you remove your dirty gloves, you may need to give them a gentle scrub using soap and mild water. This way, you get to clean your dirty gloves as well.
Before you clean your gloves, it would be best if you rinse everything that has come in handy while cleaning the toilet such as a toilet brush and a holder. This is because you do not have to get your hands dirty directly while cleaning the tools. After you’ve cleaned all the supplies, you may need to allow them to air dry before storing them in their place.
Maintaining a periodic cleaning routine of your toilet is mandatory if you are to clean the toilet in the right way. The routine can be made considering how often your toilet is being used on a daily basis. If the toilet is used daily and at a high frequency, you may have to wipe down the exterior daily or every other day.
The exterior section of the toilet bowl should be thoroughly cleaned. You need to use the best toilet bowl cleaners that can prove to be effective against any debris or stains. Many people are also found to prefer using hydrogen peroxide solution for the routine cleaning of their toilet.
You can prepare cleaning solutions simply by using a few of the ingredients that you have at your home. Yes, you can begin by picking a vinegar bottle and pouring it into the bowl. This vinegar should then go directly over the stain. Allow it to work for about 10-20 minutes and scrub gently to remove the buildups.
Similarly, you can also go for a baking soda and vinegar solution mixed to remove the stains from the toilet surface. For minor stains and regular cleaning purposes, these homemade solutions work best for your toilet. Make sure to give a gentle scrubbing after applying the solution on the toilet surface.
Many times unsanitized and dirty tools are found to be the culprit of dirty and dysfunctional toilet systems. For minor issues, you might want to look for how to plunge toilet! If you ignore and avoid cleaning and sterilizing useful tools, you can never achieve or use them to their full potential, instead, they may induce further dirt or debris to your toilet.
You need to use bleach or any cleaning solution to thoroughly clean the tools such as the toilet brush and holder. You have to use hot water and soak the tools in it after every use so that they are free from bacteria and stains. Further, such soaked-up and wet tools should be dried completely and evenly so that any bacterial growth is discouraged and avoided.
Toilet bowl cleaners you have at your home are found to have been prepared by using different chemicals and bleaches. The reaction of such chemicals with your naked skin and eyes is found to be harmful. It would be best to avoid direct contact with such cleaners by wearing protective clothing.
Some people may experience irritation in their eyes if exposed to the toilet cleaners. If left avoided or ignored, such cleaners can invite unwanted and deadly situations in your life. Your eyes may get damaged through severe irritation. Thus, it would be best to take extra care while handling toilet cleaners.
Many people ignore closing the lid of the toilet cover while flushing, especially when they are cleaning. You should know that flushing may splatter the water. And if water gets splashed while cleaning the toilet, it may wet the floor, adding more to your work.
You should remember that you are to clean the toilet, not to create a mess in the lavatory. Thus, it'd be best if you develop the habit of closing the lid of the toilet before flushing. Also, keeping the lid closed when unused is a good habit to keep your toilet clean and running.
Well, there’s not particularly any specific toilet cleaning rule except that it should be maintained clean and tidy always and after every use. Regular cleaning of the seat, toilet bowl, covering, and tank is a mandatory task to avoid any unnecessary issues with the toilet.
Further, if you are talking about the toilet which gets used pretty often throughout the entire day and night, it may need some special maintenance and cleaning. This is because such toilets are prone to become unhygienic due to heavy traffic. In such cases, make sure to deep clean it every week with a regular surface clean-up every day.
In addition to that, for a normal household toilet with significantly less traffic, you may need to deep clean it every 3 months while flushing and surface cleaning up every day. This way, you avoid heavy particle deposition, ensuring normal toilet function.
Borax is a safe toilet cleaner because it is a naturally occurring element with minimal negative effects on the surroundings. To add more to that, borax powder can be very effective in eliminating mold spores from the toilet surface. Borax powder comes at the top suggestion list from professionals when it comes to safe household cleaners.
You can make use of a toilet brush to spread the powder around the intended areas of the toilet. After application, allow the powder to work for some period, usually overnight would be best, and finally give a gentle scrubbing to remove the mold and mildew from the toilet surface.
Here’s what you need to do if you choose to use hydrogen peroxide as a toilet cleaning agent:
If there's an issue in flushing or the toilet keeps running, you might want to give a proper inspection of your toilet.
Stubborn stains on the toilet surface can be a headache. If you let the stains remain as it is for a prolonged period, the cleaning process can take ages but still, the stains may not go away easily. However, the use of vinegar and baking soda has been found to work pretty decently against such stains.
