Why do people on mumsnet hate toilet brushes? 🚽

[Chloefairydust]

So it has come to my attention that toilet brushes are unpopular among mumsnetters … I own toilet brushes, and always have done. I don’t know how you would clean a toilet without one, I see it as a necessary thing in the house.

Can anyone explain why they are hated so much?? And how else I should be cleaning my toilet? 🤔

Yep!

Well, we have one toilet brush. Which is really a utility brush of which DH has two. They are colour coded, one is for the toilets and one for scrubbing out rubbish bins. I don’t know which is which, not my department as he is the family bathroom cleaner, toilet scrubber and bin cleaner.

The toilet brush is fully cleaned and washed after each use and lives in the utility area under the sink. I hate having toilet brushes sitting out by each toilet in a manky holder stinking of bleach.

I get that there are some highly corrosive chemicals you can squirt around the toilet and just leave to burn away the shit smears….but you know the waste water treatment plants then have to deal with this unnecessary added pollution of water. So we don’t use these chemicals for environmental reasons. DH says a bit of eco-friendly cleaner, a brush and some elbow action is all that is needed.

They are vile. My partner insists on one, and I cringe with disgust every time he uses it.

Ok so I’m never using hotel mugs again 🤢

We didn’t do the mug thing - new ones were brought every day from the crockery store. But yeah - I still use dirty towels to dry off my bathroom when I’ve cleaned it. You just pick the least used towel.

I've still never worked out how you clean under the waterline without a toilet brush. Toilet paper would fall apart and either you're plunging your hand into less than clean water, or you use a rubber glove that then means you have to store it in containers that are even less ideal than a bleachy toilet brush or throw away umpteen rubber gloves per week which is a waste of money and the planet's resources.

A toilet brush seems the most hygeinic and least wasteful option to me.

Although I did recently encounter a gross one kept in a public toilet that was left to air on a bracket while it has a hard life. I did think of MN when I saw that sorry sight!

The other thread is still on about this, stick some bleach down there leave for a bit then come back, flush and it's gone

So what do people do with the shitty toilet brush once they've gone below the water line with it .

I hate toilet brushes. Grim things. But I have a silicone one now, and that’s fine - bits of shit and tissue don’t cling to the bristles 🤢

I have a toilet brush in each toilet. However I read on MN (probably on a similar anti toilet brush thread!) about pouring a jug of water directly onto the stuck on matter.....so now I normally pour a bit of bleach on then use the jug, and I rarely need to use the toilet brush.
But I don't find it gross or disgusting - I'd find it worse to use a cloth that was then going in the wash with other stuff.

Yes, hands in and scrub with a scrubby thing, wearing gloves obviously. Never owned a bog brush, disgusting things.

I had a friend who showed me her designer loo brushes. The following week she showed me her almost bald designer loo brushes. Trying to sterilise them she had poured boiling water over them and all the bristles fell out.

Never heard of a designer toilet brush 🤣

Those of you who use a cloth to scrub the loo and then rinse it …. where on earth do you rinse it 😳

Is it a hated thing, or hated topic? I really don't understand anyone who wants to talk about it.

I can only assume in the toilet water🤢

I’ve got a silicone toilet brush that I got in sainsburys. Unless I’m using it wrong it’s not the same as a normal toilet brush.

one thing I found helped me recently was those toilet cleaning cubes/octagonals with toilet cleaner in it that you hook over the side of the toilet. I find they really help and are eco friendly too.

I have a toilet brush in each bathroom.
I put toilet cleaner down, leave it for a few minutes, then use the brush to scrub the bowl. Then I flush, keeping the brush under water, and move it around to get rid of any bits of poo. Then if necessary I'll flush again. Toilet brush lives in a container that contains toilet cleaner.

People who use a cloth and gloves - what do you do with the gloves afterwards? I've had to use gloves in the past if the toilet is blocked, and it's a right pain. I have to wash the gloves afterwards, which I do whilst wearing them, in the sink. Then I have to clean the sink and taps thoroughly.

I've got some but they're silicone ones which don't, uhum, catch stuff and they get washed clean in the final flush and bit of bleach afterwards. I would absolutely have a fit if anyone put it in the diasjwadher!!!

diasjwadher.

Oh auto correct, where are you? 🤣

How the fuck do people remove skid marks without them??

I had a friend who showed me her designer loo brushes.
I must remember that for when conversation dries up at our next dinner party, even though ours aren't designer ones!

All these grim cloths and gloves that have been town the toilet, where do you rinse the shit stained cloths? I shudder to think of them going in the washing machine, that is just as bad as toilet brushes in the dishwasher, utterly grim and surely you would have to bin the gloves after use, particularly if you have had to scrub stains off the bottom of the pan when your gloved hand has been submerged in the toilet water, I suppose you could put them in a bucket of bleach which, when you think about it, is the same as a toilet brush sat in bleach 🤷🏻‍♀️It really does not sound more hygienic at all, in fact the chance of cross feacal germs transmission must be a lot higher with cloths and gloves flapping around the bathroom and other places, a toilet brush is far more contained.

Can anyone recommend a good silicone one please?

I have two bog brushes. One in the upstairs bathroom and one in the downstairs toilet.

I couldn't give a crap about what some on MN might think. I am a big brush fan.

Exactly!