Last Updated on October 20, 2022 by acechapman
You don’t need to inhale bleach or other harsh chemicals to clean your toilet. It is easy to make a homemade toilet bowl cleaner that is inexpensive and less hazardous for your health.
How to make a DIY toilet bowl cleaner
Although everyone loves a clean house, our obsession with cleanliness may be detrimental to our health. People with allergies can be sensitive to harsh chemicals found in toilet cleaners. These products often contain sodium hypochlorite (bleach), sodium lauryl ether sulfate, and sodium hydroxide. These chemicals can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, and mouth, as well as permanent damage to the skin, eyes, and lungs.
You don’t need to buy the best toilet cleaners from the shop. Many homeowners are making their own toilet cleaning products to avoid potentially dangerous ingredients and unpleasant scents.
While making a homemade toilet bowl cleaner will not net you a lot of cash, it will give you a safe and natural solution to stains at an affordable price.
Do not be intimidated by the additional work required to clean your toilet bowl. This recipe is simple and inexpensive and can be made quickly with common household ingredients like vinegar or baking soda.
Steps to make DIY toilet bowl cleaner
This simple recipe makes good use of things you already have at home. You can make a batch and reduce the number of cleaning products you need to do specific tasks. This will also limit your family’s exposure.
Materials and tools required:
- Baking soda
- Essential oil such as lavender can be disinfected
- Wooden spoon
- Glass storage jar
- White vinegar at 20%
- Toilet brush
Mix all ingredients in a bowl except the Vinegar.
Add 2 cups baking soda to a glass bowl. 100 drops (roughly one teaspoon) of disinfecting essential oils can be added. These oils include tea tree oil or lavender oil, orange oil, pine oil, or a mixture of oils. Your mixing bowl should be glass and not made of stainless steel or plastic. Essential oils can react with metal, and plastic can be damaged by them.
Combine all ingredients well
Mix the oil and baking soda with a wooden spoon, breaking up any clumps along the way. However, you should not add vinegar to the mixture. Vinegar and baking soda react chemically, so the ingredients should only be combined in the bowl for cleaning.
Keep the mixture in an airtight glass container
There should be enough powder to last you about 30 times. Transfer the powder to a glass jar so that it can be kept fresh. Other than that, excessive moisture from long baths or steamy showers can cause clumping or uneven distribution of ingredients.
How To Use Your Homemade Toilet Bowl Cleaner
The key to achieving the best results is to use the correct method to clean your toilet bowl. Learn how to make a homemade toilet bowl cleaner to transform your grimy toilet bowl into a porcelain throne.
Add your homemade toilet cleaner to the bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon of the mixture to the bottom of your toilet bowl. Sprinkle some powder on the walls of your bowl, and then use your toilet brush for spreading it around.
In a bowl, add 1/2 cup 20 percent vinegar.
Next, add 1/2 cup of 20% vinegar to the bowl. You can also buy it online. This is not the typical white vinegar you find in the supermarket. It’s used for cleaning and killing weeds. You can find 5 percent distilled vinegar at your local grocery store, but it will not work. For each cleaning, you’ll need 2 cups.
When the vinegar reacts with the baking soda, the contents of the bowl will start to fizz. If there is no fizzing, it could be that the toilet water is diluting the mixture or that your baking soda is too old. Add another tablespoon of powder to the mix and spread it out.
To scrub the bowl, use a toilet brush.
After the homemade toilet bowl cleaner has fizzed, you can use the brush to remove any stains or marks in the bowl.
Let it sit for 15 minutes before flushing.
Allow the mixture to sit for 15 minutes before flushing the toilet.
Tips on How to Use Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Once you have created your nontoxic, natural toilet bowl cleaner, follow these tips to increase its cleaning power.
Clean the brush.
Now that you have the bowl clean and sparkling, what about the brush? You don’t want to spread bacteria with a dirty brush. To kill bacteria in the bristles, soak it in vinegar overnight after use. You can trade your old brush for a new one if it is worn and damaged.
The tank is important.
The toilet tank can be a breeding ground for bacteria and mold. The feces will spread to your bowl if it isn’t cleaned. You can clean it by putting a cup of your homemade cleaner into the tank. After that, flush it several times.
A pumice stone is a good choice.
A pumice stone can be used to remove stubborn hard water stains.
Homemade Toilet Bowl Cleaner Safety Tips
All-natural toilet bowl cleaners are less acidic than commercial cleaners but still pose health risks that you need to be aware of. Although distilled vinegar is mildly acidic, 20% cleaning vinegar can be much more potent. If it comes into contact with your eyes, a 20 percent solution can cause severe corneal burns. It can also cause dermatitis for those who are allergic to vinegar. It’s important to use safety goggles and gloves for this high-concentration of vinegar.
Essential oils should be handled with care. Essential oils, despite their soothing scents, can cause poisoning if they are ingested. This can lead to symptoms such as vomiting, seizures, and shallow breathing.
Baking soda, the third ingredient in DIY toilet cleaner, is safe unless you consume a lot. Although vinegar and baking soda can cause a dramatic reaction it is actually quite benign. It produces primarily carbon dioxide, salt, and water.
Toilet Bowl Cleaner vs. Toilet Bowl Stain Remover
To restore your toilet bowl to its original white porcelain state, you can use the same chemicals that are used in toilet bowl stain removal. You can also use your homemade toilet bowl cleaner to remove hard water stains, but it will take some time. Add the baking soda and vinegar mixture to the toilet bowl and let it sit for at least 30 minutes to remove the tough stains. The chemical reaction between vinegar and sodium bicarbonate will remove stubborn water stains.
Let it sit for a while, then scrub the bowl with your toilet brush. Finally, flush the toilet to check if the stains have vanished. You can add half a cup of hydrogen peroxide to the stain and sprinkle 1 cup of baking soda on top. Allow the mixture to sit for at least 15 minutes before you scrub your skin and flush it. Do not mix hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. This will cause peracetic acid to be created, which can cause severe burns to the skin, eyes, nose, throat, and skin.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I make my old toilet bowl white?
It may not be possible to remove stains from toilet bowls with homemade cleaners or stains. Mix 2 parts borax and 1 part lemon juice together, then spread the paste on any stained areas. Let the paste sit for at least 2 hours before you rinse it off.
Is it possible to remove toilet bowl stains with no scrubbing?
Although scrubbing is the best method to remove toilet bowl stains (and it’s usually the best), you can also use toilet paper and vinegar. Put the toilet paper in vinegar, and then stick it to the stain. Let it sit for four hours before removing the toilet paper.
What is the strongest component of this homemade toilet bowl cleaner recipe?
Vinegar is the strongest ingredient in homemade toilet cleaner. It has mildly acidic pH levels which make it natural and powerful. Strong disinfectants include essential oils. These are both acidic and alkaline.
Wrapping Up
Your homemade toilet bowl cleaner is safer than other toilet bowl cleaners and more friendly to the environment. However, homemade cleaners can still pose a risk to your health if they aren’t used properly to protect your skin and eyes. When mixing your toilet bowl cleaner, wear gloves, safety glasses, or goggles. Keep any extra cleaner out of the reach of children in a tightly-fitting glass jar.
Pick A Toilet may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page.
