Hi there! It’s Kimberly from A Night Owl and I’m back again this month with another easy and helpful household tip! So far I’ve shared my tried and true tip on how to keep a windshield crack from spreading, how to soften butter quickly for great baking, how to remove ink stains from clothing, and today we’re going to cover How to Keep your Toilet Clean!
As a mother of two boys I struggle with the bathroom situation. Anyone else here in the same boat? You know what I mean, right? On TOP of that, I also live in Arizona which has what they call “hard water.” That means that the water has high mineral count, which can lead to things like calcium build up and hard spots wherever water is present. Double bathroom bummer. But recently I set out to tackle my bathroom issues and want to share some tips with you on how to keep your toilet clean! This will save you time and effort in the long run.
What you’ll need? Vinegar (cleaning vinegar is stronger and works best), a scrub brush and some duct tape. Yes, duct tape! Stay with me here. You’ll also need TIME. Do all of this right before everyone is down for the night because near the end you’re going to want to let things sit overnight. But I get ahead of myself.
The FIRST step? Turn off the water to your toilet. You know, that little hose and knob behind the toilet. It’s probably a little dusty like mine here. Once you’ve turned off the water, flush the toilet so your water tank empties and then pour a gallon of water into the toilet bowl to flush all the water out.
Now deep clean! You’re going to want to scrub under the toilet rim and clean out the siphons. Those are simply the holes in your toilet and are the KEY to keeping your toilet clean and what we’re going to work on today. Then dry underneath the rim, because next up we’re going to duct tape them closed.
Now that your rim and siphons are clean and dry, tape them off with duct tape. Cover each siphon with duct tape around the rim and make sure they’re secure.
Now pour vinegar into the toilet tank and flush the toilet! This allows the vinegar to run into the siphons and the duct tape will keep it there!
Then let the vinegar sit in the rim and siphons overnight. The next morning you can remove the duct tape, turn the water back on an flush the toilet a couple of times to get everything back to usual. And you’re done! Now you’ve deep cleaned the siphons, which will help you keep your toilet clean in the long term!
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Gah – I totally need to do this!! I’m all for keeping my toilet clean LONGER!
Thanks, Kimberly! For more great projects from her be sure to head to A Night Owl, and for more info about her go HERE.
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ENJOY!
Can’t wait to try this! Question: how much vinegar do you pour in the tank?
How much vinegar in the toilet tank?
I’m not actually sure. This is from a contributor. Here is her info, if you’d like to know the exact amount…Kimberly, http://www.anightowlblog.com/. Hope that helps!
This is interesting but my husband was wondering if this will do damage to rubber parts. We had to replace the flapper a year or so ago because of damage from the cleaning discs from clorox.
I’ve just started potty training my snuggle angel and this is a really great help. I prefer all natural products than strong chemicals. Thanks for this Kimberlys.
i couldn’t get the duct tape to stick to the porcelain 🙁
I’d be very concerned about leaving this overnight. Vinegar is highly acidic, and left in contact that long with the metal flange rod and rubber gasket could ruin both.
That was my thoughts as well. I ruined a rubber O-ring on my Hoover FloorMate years ago using vinegar instead of the cleaning solution. So much for being frugal
I love this trick, but being someone in California, I love being and seeing others be smart water minded. The part where you say to use another gallon of water to flush the rest of the water down does work, but you could plunge the extra water through very easily. A gallon of water saved is a huge thing if millions do it!
Will this work on rust also …I have a well with hard rust water? I use our softener but it still isn’t enough. Lol my tub is as bad, I’m always scrubbing it. Can you give me some good ideas for the tub also please . Thank you for your help.
A pumice stone works for that without scratching the porcelain.
The works toilet bowl cleaner from the dollar store was the ONLY thing I could ever get To work on my rust stains When I had a well. Vinegar And bleach seemed to always fail. I hated using the chemicals but it worked on my toilets, sinks, and tubs.
I’ve never seen Heinz Cleaning Vinegar anywhere? Is this something new?
its at walmart…
Wal Mart has it.
Thank you Ella!! Hope that helps 🙂
It’s in pickling supply’s, ask the grocer
I found cleaning vinegar at Walmart in the cleaning supply isle at Walmart. At my Walmart it was by the ammonia on the bottom shelf. Probably look at the bottom shelves because it is an item that doesn’t sell much (stores do this so that the popular items are more visible.)
This will not work in a one bathroom house with people get up in the middle of the night
You’ll have to revert to the olden days and get a bucket LOL
Is this safe for my septic ?
I’m sure it is, otherwise I don’t think she would do this. But, you could always ask Kimberly at A Night Owl, who did this post…she could tell you for sure:)
Thank you so much for the tips. Have tried the vinegar trick and it worked perfectly. You are champ!!
Ha..I will pass that along:) I’m so happy to hear that!! Thank you!!
Hi there,
Hand sanitizer worked on an old ink stain on a shirt I had sitting in my closet. I don’t normally use hand sanitizer on my hands. But it worked so well on that shirt. This will certainly save on dry cleaning. Thanks for the tip.
OH
Thanks for sharing that tip!! I’ll need to try that!! Thanks again!
ditto the comments about being aware of long term effects of frequent prolonged vinegar on your tank’s rubber parts. Eventually you will have a running toilet due to leaking around deteriorated seals. I use to pour a little bleach in my tank for few hours and had to replace flapper after couple months
Thank you for sharing that tip!!
Try using some vasiline petroleum jelly on the flapper.it will seal and protect the rubber.
This is the best tip I’ve read online in quite some time. We have company coming for Thanksgiving so I’ll definitely clean my toilet this way. Can’t wait to see the results.
Thanks! I hope it works well for you 🙂 Happy Holidays!!
The best tips for Tile and grout cleaning ( toilets cleaning), Will try this.
I agree with not wanting to ruin the guts of my toilet with extra-strength vinegar or my septic system for that matter. I think the key here is to avoid the parts inside the tank by lifting the flapper and pouring the vinegar directly down it after the duct tape is applied. This also minimizes the amount of vinegar you use because you don’t really need to clean the tank anyway. That would be a complete waste of the product to fill up the tank when you just need enough to fill up the rim. Then flushing this smaller amount with a couple of gallons of water from a few flushes should dilute it enough to be less of an issue for the septic as well.
I was jus wondering for those of you that have tried it, does it really increase the time before you need to clean again?
Great toilet cleaning tips Kimberly. Yes vinegar is very useful product to cleaning bathroom, it is also protect toilet from pests.
Thanks for stopping by!!
Vinegar is the best option for the toilet cleaning. If you don’t to use it then there are different products are available in the market for the toilet cleaning like: Coles ULTRA Bleach, Duck Power Bleach, Green Action Toilet Cleaner etc.
Thanks for the tips 🙂
HI Allan
Yes I agree with you Vinegar is the best option but you can use COKE instead of Vinegar its also give you good result.
Thanks
Thanks for sharing!!
I really enjoy the household cleaning tips. Even though I was a landlord for decades & thought I knew pretty much all the tricks & short cuts, I so often learn something new here! Thanks
I am glad you do 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
Nice tips. I also use baking soda too when cleaning my toilet.
Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thank you for these tips, help me improve my toilet better every time cleaning
I am glad they did! Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you for these tips, help me improve my toilet better every time cleaning
You are so welcome! Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, Thanks for the sharing such an informative article about bathroom cleaning. You explain it like an expert. I never compromise to cleaning my bathroom. After reading this article, I found here some useful tips about cleaning the bathroom. I am going to add these in my list. Keep up with good work.
Thanks so much!!
I was a bit afraid when I had to wash the toilet, the feeling of looking at it made me uncomfortable. You are really brave when using bare hands to stick tape to it. I think vinegar and baking soda are a good combination for cleaning, but practically I only use toilet cleaning products to simplify this process. You may blame me for not thinking about environmental damage, yet I really want to quickly complete things in just a few minutes without considering too much.
In response to the concerns about vinegar in the tank. From googleing the question, it seems good to put vinegar in the tank of the toilet which allows it to clean lime, calcium, and other minerals found in our tap water that accumulate in our toilet tanks and plug up or corrode parts in our toilets water tank. I think the trick is to put vinegar in the tank and only let it sit for 15 or 20 minutes. long enough TO remove any accumulated minerals but not long enough to have a negative effect on the toilet parts located in the tank. flush it into the siphons and remove the remaining vinegar in the tank by scooping it out and soaking up with a sponge or towel. letting the vinegar sit in the siphons over night per the instructions won’t harm the porcelain and will thoroughly clean any germs and bacteria.
The best tips for Tile and grout cleaning ( toilets cleaning), Will try this…
Hope it helps!