Toilets will stay clean without any staining if you swap bleach for 1 natural 'magic' item
Toilets often become stained as a lot of households do not know how to clean them properly, and it is actually better to swap out bleach for a cheaper yet highly effective item.
Many people default to dumping bleach into the toilet, but there are smarter ways to keep it clean without overloading it with harsh chemicals. Bleach is a disinfectant, meaning it kills germs, but it does not actually tackle any buildup in a toilet, so it might not be as hygienic as it seems.
Toilets can often have limescale inside them, a grimy stain made of minerals from hard water that tends to cling tightly to surfaces. This type of buildup cannot be removed with a toilet brush alone, and bleach is ineffective at breaking it down, meaning it needs to be cleaned away as it can trap bacteria and grime. However, Kate, a natural cleaning expert and founder of Green Eco Friend, has revealed that you can remove these stains in minutes by pouring vinegar down into the toilet bowl instead.
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Kate said: “Bleach is not great for the environment and if you’re not careful you can get quite dizzy when using it if your bathroom isn’t well ventilated. So what to do to clean the loo? Here’s where a combination of baking soda and vinegar can start to work their magic.”
Limescale is made up of mineral deposits left behind when hard water evaporates, and bleach is not designed to be able to remove these stains.
Bleach will simply whiten limescale so it appears to have been removed, but it will harden over time in a toilet and trap more microorganisms in the bowl, making it harder to clean.
However, vinegar contains acetic acid, which will react with the calcium carbonate minerals in limescale, so it will begin to break down quickly.
Vinegar will soften the limescale, allowing it to begin dissolving and making it much easier to scrub away, without having to spend ages cleaning the toilet.
Baking soda is often used with vinegar because it is a deodoriser and will get rid of any smells in your bathroom, rather than masking them as a lot of cleaning products do.
How to remove toilet stains properly
All you need to do is pour 125ml of white vinegar and one tablespoon of baking soda down the toilet.
Let it sit in the toilet for around 20 to 30 minutes, as it will give the products more time to soften the limescale and break it down.
Once the time is up, give the toilet a gentle scrub with the toilet brush and any stains should quickly disappear without having to do much cleaning.
Vinegar is really useful for removing stains, but be very careful to make sure there are no other cleaning products in your toilet before using it.
It can be really dangerous to mix vinegar with other cleaning products like bleach as it can form chlorine gas. Just make sure not to use them separately and rinse the toilet thoroughly before using different cleaners.
