How To Super-Clean Your Toilet

Follow these steps when it’s time for a deep clean

Periodically, it’s important to do a much more detailed cleaning of your toilet. Here’s how:

1. Remove the tank lid and pour white vinegar to about an inch from the top of the tank. Turn the water off at the valve and put the tank lid back on – you’ll be coming back to this later.

2. Spray or squirt the bowl cleaner of your choice in the toilet bowl, being generous under the rim. Don’t scrub yet.

3. Using cloths or paper towels, an old toothbrush, and the cleaner of your choice, wipe down the top and bottom of the seat lid and the seat, and scrub the hinges and the bumpers (the raised parts that create a gap). A great green cleaner for this is Speed Cleaning’s Red Juice.

4. Now remove the entire toilet seat – it’s easier to clean while it’s still attached to the toilet – and clean the bottom of the hinges. Wipe down the entire outside of the tank, bowl, and base, using the toothbrush around the screw holes where the seat attaches.

5. Remove the bolt caps from the base; clean the caps and around the bolts.

6. Using a cloth wet with cleaner over something thin like a screw driver or scraper, wipe between the tank and the bowl. Remember, this is a deep clean so be sure to hit every nook and cranny of the base.

7. Clean the inside of the toilet bowl with a good-quality brush like Speed Cleaning’s Large Angled Toilet Brush. The angle helps to really get under the rim. Now flush, keeping in mind you turned the water off so the tank won’t refill.

TIP: Let the brush drip dry over the bowl

by placing the handle between the seat and the bowl.

8. Lift the tank lid off again and scrub the inside with a scrubbing pad or the toothbrush – the vinegar will have loosened much of the build-up. Turn the water back on and flush a couple of times.

Stand back and know you’ve accomplished something that you won’t have to do again for a while. Check out more of Speed Cleaning’s articles for useful tips and product ideas!