To think: If not a bog brush, then what??

[TheoriginalLEM]

Cleaning my toilet today, with a bog brush, thinking "oooh, if mnet could see me now" but then i got to thinking, so what exactly would i clean my toilet with if not for a bog brush that i pay 50p from tesco and replace often?

I live in a hard water area and limescale, general crud builds up really quickl So what else would i scrub at that with???

or should i be using fairy wings or something?

Dunno. I use a boy brush or bowl then spray rim and seat with cleaner, wipe off with toilet paper.

I'm in a soft water area so no limescale, but hand down with a cloth does the job.

I have a loo brush. I think this is one of those times MN is baffling.

I use thick bleach all round and under the rim each night before bed, and if and when physical contact is required, I use those disposable ones (you keep the plastic handle in the bathroom and attach the pre-soaked-with-disinfectant-pad, clean the loo, then release and flush away), popping the handle back in its stand.

We have very hard water and this works for me. If I used a loo brush, I'd throw it away after each use, so my way is more environmentally friendly for me.

hand down the loo? In the water? No? Really?

I have got one of the Duck Fresh Brush ones with the flushable end bits. Or I just use rubber gloves and a cloth!

I've just cleaned the toilet, and used the loo brush. Only on MN have I come across this not being the done thing.

My mother was very anti-bog brush and washed the bog with a cloth that was kept behind it on the big outflow pipe thing.

I never saw her stick her hand down - only seemed to squirt bleach in it . Very soft water area and bog with a big flush.

Here, scaley water, modern low water usage cisterns and small water area for the waste to hit I use bog brushes and bleach. They go rusty, but the world has not ended in bacterial apocalypse.

but it can't be just a MN thing...because I've been not using a loo brush since waaaaay before MN existed. Nice to find I'm not alone though :)

We are rural with a cess pit, so that requires very limited use of bleach, minimal flushing of paper products, no flushing of tamponss, definitely no flushable duck things.

So, toilet brush, elbow grease and sparing use of toilet cleaner.

Hand down the pan here too.

I use disposable cloths and flash then leave some bleach on it for a bit. Then I wash my hands and all the horrible germs are flushed far far away and not lurking around in a bristly bog brush (urgh).

Never used one.

Toilet brush user here, give it a good scrub with a bit of bleach and then wash it in the bleachy water in the bottom of the pan - don't need to worry too much about germs because 1. The bleach and 2. I'm not exactly using it to eat my dinner or tuck the baby in at night!

I don't believe it is possible to clean the base of the bowl (as in, under the water and all the crevices, including under the rim) without a bog brush.

It needs proper scrubbing. With stiff bristles.

I'm with the hairylittlecarrot, minimal chemicals as ours goes to a septic tank. Certainly can't flush anything more than toilet paper down it as I don't want to upset all the little bacteria that chew our waste up.

but it can't be just a MN thing...because I've been not using a loo brush since waaaaay before MN existed. Nice to find I'm not alone though smile

Fourkids - my mother existed before mumsnet too

Loo brush every time. Dont get the mn thing!

I use a bog brush. I get black ones so you can't see the Staines

I used to use one until toddler DS came up behind me and brushed my hair with it. No thanks!!

This is the first I've heard of an anti bog-brush lobby. Putting my hand down the bog - gloved or not - would have to be a last resort.

Whatevva, and your mother sounds like a very wise woman!

Never used a loo brush since I knocked over the one in my Aunt's house - that was the last time I used bleach too (Note to self: Remember, bleach really doesn't work on eyes or brain).

Hand down loo here. I don't use bleach (I may have already said that) I use citric acid crystals - very hard water area. So I push as much of the water out as possible, throw some crystals in, leave it to sit whilst I clean the kitchen with a pan scrubber sponge thingy that is at the end of its life.

Then I clean that pan scrubber again, take it to the bathroom where I fill the sink with hot soapy water. Then to the loo where I scrub away all the grime and limescale, as far round the u-bend as I can reach. Then the pan scrubber goes into the carrier bag I carry round with me when I am cleaning. Then I wash my hands, tie up the carrier bad and it then goes out into the outside bin. Gone.

I don't wear gloves, as then I'd have to dispose of them too. I just plan my cleaning so that the loo is done last.

After that I rely on the super shiny porcelain they make loos out of to let the poo slide off after a second or third low water usage / short flush. That is, after all, why loos are made out of it!

OMG! I have just seen the flaw in my cleaning routine!

What the fuck do I do when I run out of carrier bags?

It wasn't until i had a toddler i understood the loo brush argument. Yes technically you put your bleach down and leave it to do it job then return to brush and technically no germs will come into contact said brush because bleach will have killed the germs already. But there is still all the muck in the toilet the brush will come into contact with. All i'll say is that my friend said she once found her toddler licking the loo brush so nuff said. I guess it depends on if you live in a hard get limescale problems. Luckily we don't so i feel happily enough putting bleach down every other day and leaving it till the next flush, then once a week when cleaning the bathroom i will use a loo cleaner and don the rubber gloves and go in with an old dish sponge. Dish sponge and gloves then get ditched.

I've never grasped the concept of those flushable brushes either. They don't make sense unless you don't splash the handle of the brush!