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How to Make Your Toilet a Porcelain Throne of Cleanliness

A woman wearing rubber gloves and cleaning a toilet bowl with a scrub brush.
Serhii Krot/Shutterstock

Toilets get gross fast. That’s why cleaning your bathroom at least once a week is always a good idea. While bacteria and germs spread all over the bathroom, the toilet gets a direct hit, which is why you want to make sure it gets a thorough scrubbing.

Before you start cleaning, you’ll need the following supplies:

  • Rubber gloves
  • Scrubbing sponges
  • Paper towels or rags
  • Toilet bowl cleaner
  • Bathroom cleaner
  • A toilet brush

Now, let’s tackle that bowl!

Start with the Bowl

Clorox toilet cleaner being used to clean a toilet.
Clorox

The toilet bowl is where most of the germs are hanging out. You’ll want to let some toilet cleaner sit in there for a few minutes before giving it a good scrub down. You can use any cleaner you like, but Clorox cleaner with bleach will have your commode looking shiny and clean in a flash.

Just squirt some in the bowl and make sure you get it up under the rim and coat the entire inside. Use your toilet brush to scrub the cleaner around good. Get up under the rim with the brush and down into the bottom of the bowl.

Let it sit for 5-10 minutes, while you move on to other areas, and then flush.

Clean the Outside From the Base Up

Mr. Clean Clean Freak cleaner being used to spray down a toilet.
Mr. Clean

You’ll also want to make sure you clean the floor around the toilet, especially if you have kids. Don’t forget to put on your gloves before you start. They’ll protect your hands from the harshness of cleaners, not to mention all the germs you’re cleaning up.

Spray the floor around the base of the toilet and the toilet itself with a good bathroom cleaner, like Clean Freak from Mr. Clean. Scrub tough messes with one of your scrubbing sponges. You can use paper towels for easy cleaning jobs and drying.

As you work your way up, don’t forget to get under the seat and lid, between the seat and tank, and under the seat and tank lids. Don’t forget to clean the handle, too—everyone touches it with dirty hands.

Remove Tough Stains

Powerhouse Pumice stone on back of toilet
Powerhouse Pumice

If your toilet is prone to stains, whether from hard water or not having enough time for regular cleaning, you can get them out with the right product and a little elbow grease. You can use your usual cleaner, but you might want to pair it with a tool that’s a bit more powerful than your basic toilet brush.

For tough toilet bowl stains, grab a Powerhouse Pumice cleaning stone. It’s just like the kind you use on your heals, but with a handle, which makes it an excellent scrubber. This thing will help you remove even the most stubborn stains.

Keep the Bowl Cleaner, Longer

Scrubbing Bubbles gel tab in a toilet.
Scrubbing Bubbles

As we mentioned above, it’s a good idea to clean your bathroom at least once every week. Of course, life often gets in the way. That’s why you might want to pick up some products that will help keep your bowl looking cleaner for longer.

The Scrubbing Bubbles toilet cleaning gel stamps are perfect for this. You get six gel stamps per dispenser. You use the dispenser to stick the gel stamp in your toilet bowl. Then, you just add a new one after the previous one washes away. Each dispenser offers two months’ worth of extra toilet cleanliness.


A clean toilet means fewer germs floating around in your bathroom. While cleaning once a week is a great way to go, if someone is sick in your home, you should clean it every two to three days to help keep those flu germs from spreading to the rest of the family.

Yvonne Glasgow Yvonne Glasgow
Yvonne Glasgow is a professional writer with two decades of experience. She has written and edited for nutritionists, start-ups, dating companies, SEO firms, newspapers, board game companies, and more. Yvonne is a published poet and short story writer, and she is a life coach. Read Full Bio »
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