Saturday, October 15, 2011

Deep Clean: Toilets

Who here loves cleaning their toilet?  Whoa!  So many hands up in the air!  I know it is so much fun.  All joking aside, even toilets need a little cleaning quality time every once in a while. Here is how to get your toilet squeaky clean.

  1.  Squirt a little soap into the bowl, take your toilet brush and scrub to your heart's content.  Get it as clean as possible and then flush!  Do this again but leave the suds in the bowl.  You want the inside of your toilet super clean before you start because you will be getting down and dirty and a dirty toilet bowl generally doesn't smell too good.
  2. Sweep around your toilet.  Get rid of as much hair and dust as you can.  Hair and dust plus water equals gunk and that will make your process infinitely more nasty.  
  3. Get a big bucket of hot, hot water with some vinegar (1/2 a cup) and some soap (just a little squirt). Throw a big rag into the bucket and get your trusty toothbrush (have one in the bathroom for this purpose, don't use your kitchen toothbrush).
  4. Starting with the toothbrush scrub all of the little crevices that you can't reach well with the rag.  This includes around the base, where the lid screws in, and where the toilet is screwed in.  This can also include the water valve and pipe at the back of the toilet.
  5. Once these areas are scrubbed take your big wet rag and give the entire toilet a good wipe down.  Get the outside nice and soapy if you can, rinse your cloth out frequently and keep working until your toilet gleams.  You will probably notice once you are down there that the outside of your toilet is quite dirty.  Don't worry about it, just clean it!
  6. Once you are done giving the toilet a good wash down you will probably notice that the area around the toilet is quite wet.  Rinse your rag out in clean hot water (under the faucet will do) and give this area a good wipe down to pick up the excess water.
  7. The final step is to take a disinfecting spray and spray the rim of your toilet.  Wipe this down using toilet paper until it gleams, throw the toilet paper into the toilet and give it one final flush.
Voila!  You have a toilet so clean you could literally eat off of it.  Note: I am not recommending eating out of your toilet.