There is of course no doubt about the fact that toilets get dirty. After all, when you consider what some people do to them, it’s no surprise that they end up looking the way they do. When you go to clean your toilet, what you probably do is take that nasty little brush, scrub the toilet, and then just stick that brush right back into its container.
Does this sound a little disgusting to you? Well, it should.
Today we want to talk about why you may want to avoid using one of those classic toilet brushes. Moreover, we’re here to talk about some of the best ways to clean your toilet without a brush.
Why Avoid Using a Toilet Brush?
So, for as long as you’ve been alive, you’ve been using the toilet brush as the primary way of cleaning your toilet. Yes, of course. This makes sense as this is exactly what toilet brushes are designed to do and it’s what they’re advertised to us for.
Sure, using a toilet brush is definitely very easy. All you have to do is scrub the inside of your toilet and then pop it back into the container. However, with that being said, there are some big drawbacks to using toilet brushes, mainly related to hygiene and sanitary issues.
Toilet Brushes and Hygiene
For one, did you know that toilet brushes are technically designed to clean under the rim of your toilet and in the piping below? What we need to say here is that if you have been using your toilet brush to clean up leftover brown stains off of the inside of the bowl, you aren’t using it right. What you’re doing here is covering your toilet brush in poop and then sticking it back into that container.
When you put a dirty and poop-covered toilet brush back into its container, those germs and bacteria can fester, and in some cases, they can pose some pretty serious health risks. At the very least, that toilet brush is going to stink, really bad. It’s bad enough that the bathroom smells like that occasionally, so you definitely don’t need a nasty toilet brush creating a perpetual stink in your bathroom.
Moreover, toilet brushes just naturally look dirty and nasty. They get all yellowish-brown and discolored over time. That is not something nice to look at every time you go into the bathroom, and your guests definitely don’t want to look at it either.
Something else to consider here is that when you brush the inside of your toilet, all of those bristles fling water and waste particles into the air. Yes, when you use a toilet brush, even if just minimally so, chances are that you will spray yourself with some nasty toilet water and old waste particles. The main point you need to know is that bristle toilet brushes are a thing of the past.
Possible Damage to Your Toilet
Now everything we have talked about up until this point has been related to hygiene, but there is also another very big reason why using a toilet brush in your toilet is not recommended, particularly for a long period of time, and especially if you keep using the same toilet brush.
As you probably know, in order for those bristles to scrape away stuck-on waste from the inside of your toilet, they need to be quite tough. Now in the beginning they won’t damage your toilet. However, as you keep using it, and as those bristles wear down and become blunt and become very rough at the ends, those bristles do have the ability to scratch the lining of your toilet.
Once the lining on the interior of the toilet starts to come off, the toilet itself starts to become more susceptible to cracking and breaking, and of course, you don’t want any leaks happening. At the very least, those scratches created by an old toilet brush are great places for germs to hide, thus creating even more of a mess and smell.
9 Best Ways to Clean a Toilet Without a Brush
Hopefully, we’re now at the point where you just threw that nasty old toilet brush in the garbage. Let’s get through and find out some of the best ways to clean your toilet without using one instead.
1. Rubber Gloves and a Cloth
Perhaps one of the easiest ways to clean your toilet without a brush and with spending minimal money or the need for equipment is by using some good old rubber gloves and something like a microfiber cloth. Folks, unless you have something really stuck on your toilet, a simple cloth and a bit of liquid should be enough to allow you to get that toilet nice and clean.
Put on some waterproof rubber gloves, suck it up and get in there with the club. If you want to, you can always wash out the cloth so you can reuse it. Plus the rubber gloves are reusable too. This is perhaps one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to get your toilet clean without one of those nasty brushes.
2. An Old Scouring Pad
If a simple microfiber cloth or an old T-shirt is not enough to remove all the stains and waste from the inside of your toilet. Something else you can try using is a simple scouring pad. Yes, here we are talking about the scouring pads that you use on your dishes.
Now, if you don’t have a super rough scrubbing pad, you can use the rougher side for those hard to remove stains, although we recommend using the softer side if possible.
Yes, using a scouring pad does mean that you have to get up close and personal with things, so you probably want to put on some rubber gloves. Moreover, you probably don’t want to scrub your toilet with a scouring pad and then take it back to your kitchen sink. This is a one-time use kind of thing.
3. Magic Eraser
If you are familiar with Mr. Clean’s magic erasers, these work very well for cleaning a wide variety of surfaces including ceramic, tile, porcelain, countertops, floors and so much more.
Yes, Mr. Clean magic erasers are more or less just really high-quality scrubbing or scouring pads, so we’re going to spend much more time focusing on this. However, once again, with the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, you will have to get up close and personal with things, so a good pair of rubber gloves is probably called for.
4. A Gentle Pumice Stone
Yet another method for cleaning your toilet without a brush is by using a gentle pumice stone. Sure pumice stones are great for moving that dead skin on your feet, but they’re also great for scraping off calcium, lime, rust, and stuck on waste on the inside of your toilet. If you do plan on using a pumice stone on your toilet, make sure that it is one designed specifically for this task.
Some stones are rougher than others, some are softer than others, and some are more or less porous than others. Simply put, the kind of pumice stone you use in a toilet is not the exact same kind as you would use on your feet. Once again, these require you to get up close and personal, so get those rubber gloves. With that being said, this is probably one of the best alternatives to a brush, especially when it comes to stuck-on waste and stubborn stains.
5. Toilet Stamps
OK, so now we have covered all the ways in which you can manually clean your toilet without a toilet brush. However, there are also ways to clean your toilet, or at least to keep it clean without having to get your hands in there at all. One great way to do this is with a toilet gel stamp or a toilet gel puck. These are just two words for the same thing.
These are like little pucks of cleaning gel that you stamp on the inside of the toilet bowl. All you have to do is place it there and it will stick. This way, every time you flush, some of the cleaning agent will be released from the puck and keep your toilet bowl clean. With that being said, this is kind of a preventative measure more than it is a cleaning measure. However, if your toilet is already clean, it will definitely keep it that way.
6. Overnight Toilet Tank Cleaner
Keep in mind that if your toilet tank is dirty, every time you flush your toilet, that dirty water is going to make the bowl dirty. Therefore, if you want to keep the bowl from getting dirty due to nasty toilet tank water, a good thing to get is an overnight toilet tank cleaner.
This is more or less a really harsh chemical that will remove all the stains and waste from the inside of the toilet tank, thus cleaning the water in the tank, and preventing the rest of the toilet from suffering the same fate. Of course, when it comes to toilet cleaners like this, just keep the environment in mind.
7. Disposable Toilet Wands
Yet another thing you can use to clean your toilet is a disposable toilet wand. In essence, this is something like a Mr. Clean scrubbing pad on the front of a handle. Yes, it has a handle just like a toilet brush, but instead of harsh bristles on the front, it has a scouring pad.
The scouring pads are disposable, so yes, it is going to cost you a good bit of money each time you clean your toilet. That said, in terms of hygiene, these are great because they are disposable, so you get rid of them as soon as they are dirty. Moreover, if you get the right kind of toilet wand, they can actually clean toilets with great efficiency.
8. An Electric Toilet Scrubber
If minimum work and being lazy sounds great to you, then you can try getting an electric toilet scrubber. Now, this might not fit into the theme of this article 100% because these are pretty much just electric toilet brushes. It’s like using a power drill instead of a manual screwdriver.
That said, electric toilet scrubbers do often come with their own cleaning components (designed to clean the scrubber).
9. A Variety of Cleaners and Liquids
Of course, it also needs to be said here that there are a wide variety of cleaners and liquids that have the ability to clean your toilet, or at least to keep it clean once it has already been cleaned. Baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, and various essential oils can all work to remove toilet waste and stains.
Mistakes to Avoid, Tips, and Tricks
Right now, we want to go over some great toilet cleaning tips and tricks to help make your life just a little bit easier:
- Something that you never want to do is to clean your toilet after you’ve just used it. Always flush your toilet first before cleaning it.
- Never use super harsh scrubbers that look like stainless steel wool. These will scratch your toilet past the point of no return.
- If you do still plan on using a toilet brush, the least you can do is clean it thoroughly after each cleaning toilet session.
- If you are extremely concerned about hygiene, you can also wear a mask or a respirator when cleaning your toilet, so this way you can avoid getting any moisture or particles in your mouth.
Summary
The bottom line here is that there are many different ways to clean your toilet without having to resort to one of those smelly and dirty brushes!
Before leaving this site, you might also want to learn how to prevent poop from sticking to your toilet.