Daily: Flush your toilet every day (even if it's not in use) to discourage the growth of bacteria. Weekly: Deep-clean your toilet once a week or biweekly—this includes the toilet bowl, exterior and toilet seat. Yearly: Clean your toilet tank twice a year.
Pour a half cup of bicarbonate of soda into and around the bowl and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Then, apply white vinegar over the baking soda. This produces a fizzing reaction that activates the acid and can break down the most stubborn build-ups of limescale.
Over time, if your toilet isn't cleaned, the minerals in the toilet water can stain your toilet bowl. These stains pick up and trap dirt particles and bacteria, making your toilet dirty and unhygienic. Mold growth. Mold grows quickly in moist environments, and a damp toilet bowl is a perfect place for mold to grow.
Using either disinfecting wipes or a combination of disinfecting spray and a rag, paper towels, or a sponge (that you reserve just for this task), wipe down all of the external surfaces of the toilet, paying special attention to any areas you touch regularly such as the seat and the flushing handle.
Replace every few months
Toilet brush: You should replace your toilet brush every few months or when you see the bristles start to bend—whichever comes first.
People should still flush their toilets at least once a day. "Things like to grow in urine and after a while the chlorine will inactivate in the toilet bowl water. It will being to bubble away and things will begin to grow. The odor will increase so it can get disgusting, smell bad and stain your toilet," he said.
Professional cleaners often use the same household supplies as you would: toilet-bowl cleaner (or bleach), disinfectant wipes, rubber gloves, as well as a nonscratch scrub sponge, a microfiber cloth, or paper towels. A handheld scrub brush or a pumice stone can get to especially tough stains.
Because water deposits build up under a toilet's rim, it can take only 24-48 hours for colonies to start breeding. As it grows, you will see what looks like black debris or rings inside the bowl. This can cause respiratory problems for people as the mold and mildew release tiny spores into the air.
But the filthiest culprit in our homes is the kitchen sponge or cloth. According to Gerba, there are about 10 million bacteria per square inch on a sponge, and a million on a dishcloth. In other words, a kitchen sponge is 200,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat, and a dishcloth is 20,000 times dirtier.
The inside of a toilet tank should be cleaned at least twice a year to maintain cleanliness and to prevent hard minerals from building up on and deteriorating the seals and working parts.
"The biggest don't when it comes to toilet tanks is bleach — do not use bleach or products containing bleach inside the tank, as it can corrode the internal parts of your toilet," says Patty Stoffelen, a bath fixtures merchant for The Home Depot to Martha Stewart.
Leaving bleach in a toilet overnight is fine, but you shouldn't leave it any longer, or else it might corrode your toilet. If you do decide to leave it in the bowl overnight, let other members of your household know so that they don't use the toilet and accidentally mix the bleach with ammonia from urine.
Frequently asked questions. Can you put bleach in a toilet bowl? Yes, Clorox® Bleach is safe to add to the water in the toilet bowl. Always flush the toilet first before scrubbing, and then again when toilet cleaning is finished.
The most commonly recommended natural and non-toxic way to clean a toilet is with vinegar and baking soda. Simply poor two cups of vinegar into a toilet bowl, and pour one cup of baking soda. When the solution stops fizzing, spread it over the bowl with a toilet cleaner brush. Leave for 10-15 minutes and rinse.
The Surprising Reason Why Your Toilet Gets Dirty Fast
The high mineral content in hard water is usually to blame for those colored rings and tracks that form in your toilet bowl seemingly overnight, and make it appear dirty even if it was cleaned recently!
Dishwasher tablets are meant to dissolve hard water stains, so they're the perfect solution for cleaning toilets. Besides cleaning dishes and toilet bowls, you can use dishwasher tablets for a few more cleaning projects around the house.
"The biggest don't when it comes to toilet tanks is bleach—do not use bleach or products containing bleach inside the tank, as it can corrode the internal parts of your toilet. If you are aiming to remove tough stains from the tank, I also recommend white vinegar diluted with water."
To remove limescale from the bottom of your toilet you will want to pour vinegar into your toilet bowl and leave that on there for three to four hours. After the vinegar sits, you can scrub those stains with either a toilet brush or a wet pumice stone and flush the toilet.
There are important reasons you should flush after using the restroom, such as being able to avoid bathroom germs that could make you sick. Although some individuals may flush the toilet out of habit—or at least use one that automatically flushes—not everyone does it.
There is no “normal” number of bowel movements. Many healthcare providers agree that healthy bowel movement frequency can range from three times a day to three times a week. However, your 'normal' pattern may be different from these numbers.