How to Clean a Toilet the Right Way (2024)

A toilet brush that’s not past its prime: A good toilet brush lets you get under the lip of the bowl to scrub out grime that you can’t see and covers a wide enough area that it won’t take forever to eliminate the grime on display. Also, make sure your toilet brush hasn’t lingered past its effectiveness: If the bristles are bent or the overall shape of the brush has warped, it’s time for a new one. You should replace a well-maintained and regularly cleaned brush (or brush head) about every six months.

Bowl cleaner: A cleanser specifically made for toilet bowls will do the majority of the work to remove bacteria and hard-water buildup. The experts we talked to recommended any cleaner with some form of bleach, but you can find plenty of bleach alternatives, as well. I personally use Lysol Hydrogen Peroxide Toilet Bowl Cleaner.

All purpose cleaner with bleach: The inside of your toilet isn’t the only part of the throne that you should clean regularly. Be sure to wipe down the outside of the bowl, the tank, the toilet seat, and especially the flushing handle. Also disinfect the toilet brush itself after using it. The experts we talked to recommend spraying the brush head with disinfectant, waiting about a minute, and rinsing it with hot water in your tub or shower. (Then, maybe, clean that area well.)

Rubber gloves: Experts we’ve talked to recommend using rubber gloves when working with any product that contains bleach.

A bucket: To ensure that the entire bowl gets clean, you need to reduce the water level before applying the cleaner. This allows the disinfectant to do its work undiluted. To empty your bowl, quickly pour a half-gallon of water inside, which will trigger the flush action without the tank pouring any new water in to replace it.

Disinfectant wipes, a reusable rag, paper towels, or a sponge: Whatever tool you use to wipe down the exterior of a toilet, make sure it’s either washable, such as a reusable rag, or easily tossed, such as paper towels or disinfectant wipes. If you prefer a sponge, be sure to clean it thoroughly afterward, to separate it from other sponges when you store it, and to keep it dedicated to this one task.

Depending on the brand of bowl cleaner you’re using, this project should take only about 15 to 20 minutes. Some cleansers’ instructions recommend letting the solution sit for up to 10 minutes, but you can work on wiping down the exterior parts of the toilet while you let the disinfectant do its job.

For the toilet bowl cleaner to do its work in sanitizing the porcelain, it needs to be undiluted, so you have to drain the water in the toilet. You have a few ways to accomplish this, but the easiest and quickest I’ve found is to fill a bucket or empty storage bin with about a half-gallon of water and quickly pour it into the toilet, aiming toward the back, where the water leaves the bowl. This step will trigger the flushing action and drain the water out without new water filling in from the tank.

Start at the top of the bowl under the rim and apply around the circle, letting the cleaner drain down the sides. Some cleaners come in bottles with an angled spout that makes this task a bit easier, but squeezing out the fluid still requires quite a bit of hand strength. If that’s an issue for you, aerosol sprays might make this step a bit easier. If you’re trying to get rid of more stubborn stains, let the disinfectant rest for up to 10 minutes.

Using your brush, scrub firmly to make sure you’re lifting any particularly stuck bits of gunk from the surface, but to avoid splatter, keep the brush’s head inside the bowl as you work. Be sure to get under the lip and down into the drain. Then it’s time to rinse, and luckily toilets have a built-in feature for this—just flush! (And as is the case any time you flush, be sure to close the lid beforehand to avoid a “toilet plume.”)

Using either disinfecting wipes or a combination of disinfecting spray and a rag, paper towels, or a sponge (that you reserve just for this task), wipe down all of the external surfaces of the toilet, paying special attention to any areas you touch regularly such as the seat and the flushing handle. You can also use an old toothbrush to scrub hard-to-reach places like the toilet seat hinge, but make sure to mark the utensil clearly for its purpose and keep it far away from any other toothbrush in the house to avoid any confusion during your morning routine.

When you’re done with the toilet brush, spritz the head with disinfecting spray, let it sit for a minute, and then rinse it with just hot water in the bathtub or shower. Also, be sure to spray down the toilet brush basin with your disinfectant to make sure nothing festers inside the nooks and crannies there.

We don’t recommend using tank additives, those tablets or discs that can turn your toilet water so blue, it looks like a Smurf is slowly decomposing in your tank. These discs seem like an easy and maintenance-free option, as they’re designed to be dropped into the tank, where they dissolve over time, spreading disinfectant around the toilet bowl with every flush. But according to James Walsh, vice president of product management for toilet manufacturer American Standard, the reality is more complicated. “We do not recommend using in-tank cleaners because they will void your warranty,” he told us during an interview. “They will attack the working tank trim in the tank itself.” Basically, such tablets turn all the standing water in the tank into a caustic liquid, which can warp the rubber components required to keep the flushing mechanisms functioning. Over time this can lead to leaks and occasionally prevent the toilet from flushing entirely.

We also don’t recommend using disposable toilet-cleaning wands, which are an environmentally wasteful (and expensive) way to get the job done. In addition, we’ve found that toilet brushes with silicone bristles are too soft to scrub well.

Cleaning a toilet is an unappealing task, but if you make a regular routine of it, the work becomes much lighter. As someone who has been told, “Your apartment seemed really clean, except your bathroom looked gross,” I’ve learned the value of staying on top of this particularly crappy chore.