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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

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Original poster

Cleaning a loo - talk me through how you do it

35 replies

deliakate · 07/04/2011 19:21

Sorry about the tmi....

... But DH is pretty grim on the loo. He just seems to leave marks all down the sides, and along the pan under the water extending down the ubend. Also, specks and spots all over the porcelain. Too much rich food, or, I don't know. Vom.

Please talk me through your top tips of how you clean the loo. Am NOT a fan of toilet brushes standing by the side of the loo, because surely a good weekly clean with the right things should do the job??

OP posts:

ongakgak · 07/04/2011 19:27

i use a loo brush, but it is kept in a bucket in a cupboard, in the bathroom and not "out". you need

Thick bleach
marigolds
loo brush
cloth
bucket

Squirt thick bleach under the rim. While that is slowly sliding down, get a bucket of very hot bleachy water and give the seat, cistern, the base etc a good clean. Wipe clean dry with disposable antic bacteria wipes.

get the loo brush a give the loo bowl a really god scrub with the bleach that has slid down, I would say a good 5 minute scrub. Get under the u bend as much as you can too. Pour the bucket water down the loo. Fill bucket with very hot bleachy water again. Swill loo brush in it. Pour down loo. Flush. Pack up, job done.

zandy · 07/04/2011 20:19

If you poo daily and leave skid marks, no matter how good your weekly clean is, it's not going to be clean for six days a week.

PonceyMcPonce · 07/04/2011 20:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

deliakate · 07/04/2011 20:25

DH is the only one who uses that bathroom (and he couldn't care less) so I think weekly is going to be realistic for us. No cupboard in there unfort, but maybe could keep a loo brush in something else unobtrustive...

OP posts:

dexter73 · 07/04/2011 21:02

I hope he cleans his own shit off the toilet and these tips are for him?

stofstg · 08/04/2011 04:36

firstly i give the loo a good squirt of domestos thick bleach around the rim and a squirt down the water. i then close the toilet lid and either leave it to work while cleaning the rest of the bathroom or for 30 minutes if i'm just doing a loo clean. i then come back and squirt all over the cistern, seat, flush, sides and the bottom bit with a dettol spray and wipes over with loo paper and throw down the loo. i then take the loo brush (my theory on this is by the time loo brush comes in contact with the inside of the loo the domestos has probably killed any germs already) and give a quick sweep of the bowl especially under the rim and then flush. In all i probably do that about twice a week for each loo in our house or if i'm expecting visitors.

i would say that i'm not overly one for using bleach/dissenfectant products everywhere because i!m aware of the need to allow imune systems to develope, but i do make sure that the food preparation surfaces in the kitchen and the loo are germ free, hence the use of good old domestos and dettol :-)

MarieFromStMoritz · 08/04/2011 04:50

I squirt Harpic under the rim then as it is works its way down the pan, I give the bowl a good scrub with a loo brush. Then I close the lid and clean the handle and the outside of the loo with a disinfectant wipe, then I do the inside of the lid, seat, rim with another disinfectant wipe. Then I pop the disinfectant wipes in the loo, flush, then it's all done!

I do this every day in the morning when I have finished in the bathroom. It takes 2 mins.

Oh, and surely it's better to have a (clean) loo brush sitting in its holder by the side of the loo than a dirty loo?

thumbwitch · 08/04/2011 04:58

Lift the lid and the seat.
Strong-thick-Domestos-kills-all-known-germs-dead (or Harpic) squirted around the loo, including carefully on the rim (but so it only travels down the inside, not the outside). Squirt it all around so that it coats the inside of the basin and dribbles down into the water.

Leave for around 10 minutes, longer if you have scale as well and are using a descaler. Then use the brush up around the rim, making sure you get under it with the brush as far as you can. When you've done the "dry" porcelain, move down into the water and vigorously scrub down and round as much as you can. Effort is required!

Then flush, rinsing the loo brush in the flush water (which is CLEAN) - I usually do this twice. Any residual bleach on the rim, clean off with loo paper or disposable wipe then chuck it in the loo and flush again. The loo brush has also been bleached and rinsed in this process and may be returned to the holder.

I can't be doing with the whole disgust-at-loo-brush thing - it's mad! Unless you know people who use one WITHOUT bleach [blech], but I don't. Loo brush + bleach = normal.

Original poster

deliakate · 08/04/2011 09:12

Good tips, thanks.
The prob with a loo brush is that DH picks it up and jabs at the poo with it, but he wouldn't use bleach etc. and then puts it back in its holder dirty. I will buy one today and just have to ask him not to use it.
We have five loos in our house, so every day cleaning in there isn't going to happen. And if I flushed disposable wipes down there, it would clog in seconds flat (Victorian plumbing).

OP posts:

campergirls · 08/04/2011 09:35

Just tell him to get his act together. Why should you have to put up with this from another adult? I wouldn't tolerate it from my kids. How vile of him. If you challenged him on it, would he honestly think it was acceptable to respond 'no way will I behave like a normal adult, I'm going to continue with my dirty protest'?

GingerbreadGiraffe · 08/04/2011 10:28

STSTG

"i would say that i'm not overly one for using bleach/dissenfectant products everywhere because i!m aware of the need to allow imune systems to develope, but i do make sure that the food preparation surfaces in the kitchen and the loo are germ free, hence the use of good old domestos and dettol :-)
"

Surely keeping the all your food prep surfaces totally germ free is disaster for your immunity.
We have wooden chopping board that is old and gets regularly clean downs. But we never disinfect (wood has antibacterial properties) - not once has it caused illness!!

thumbwitch · 08/04/2011 10:50

if only your DH uses it, could you bear not even looking at it? Perhaps if it got really bad, he might do something about it himself? And of course if/when he ever gets sick you can tell him it's because of his disgusting loo.

I get really angry with DH when he just leaves shit in the loo and he knows about it BIG time - no excuse for such pathetically insanitary habits.

As soon as DS is big enough to learn, he will be taught how to clean a loo properly. He's already being indoctrinated into the idea that it's all very dirty and not to be touched with bare hands (mostly because of DH!)

cambridgeferret · 08/04/2011 10:56

Can I suggest opening your bin, throwing your loo brush(es) in there and buying a toilet duck handle and pad set? Best invention since sliced bread. Get a pad out of the packet (for chocolate logs as opposed to splatts you could divide the pad in two), pad in holder and- remove all skiddies. Push the handle so the pad can be flushed - and - job(bie) dealt with!!
I hate loo brushes with a passion - especially the manky containers they're normally stored in.

CeliaFate · 08/04/2011 12:15

I put the lid down and flush. Then spray flush, cistern, lid, pedestal with bathroom cleaner. Lift the lid and spray the seat, the underside of the lid, lift the seat and spray the porcelain rim. Then wipe with kitchen roll and chuck that in the bin. Bleach under the rim and in the water. Spray with Dettox.

Bumblequeen · 08/04/2011 13:34

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at poster's request.

bessie26 · 08/04/2011 13:46

Skid marks in the pan are supposed to be due to not enough fibre in your diet.
If he's making the mess, surely he can clean it up? I have recently introduced a rule that after a shit you swish the brush around the loo - whether you think it needs it or not. I still give the loo a good scrub every week, but I can't bear to have to look at DHs shit splats!

When I do clean it, I give it a scrub, squirt cleaner (I use Ecover) all around the pan, & scrub again. Then clean the "outer" bits of the loo using multi-surface cleaner (Ecover) and loo roll (no worries about that not flushing!) and then flush.

stofstg · 08/04/2011 13:50

'GingerbreadGiraffe'

i just use bleach on the kitchen surfaces to combact food poisoning. its a tricky balance though between protecting from food poisoning and developing a good imune system though. thus i don't do this everyday, perhaps just once or twice a week, with just a wipe of normal washing up liquid and hot water in between.

MrsOliverQueen · 08/04/2011 15:35

5 loo?s in the house...could your DH be persuaded to take just one loo for his own private use? Once or twice a week you could marigold up and take to it with the toilet duck disposable brush that Cambridgeferret suggested? Perhaps some car magazines or something in there might encourage him in. After that start feeding him brown rice, pasta and bread and make him eat an apple a day, his insides don?t sound well.

GingerbreadGiraffe · 08/04/2011 16:12

Fair enough- each to their own :) bleach wiping worktops sounds a bit OTT though - I'd imagine food poisoning from food prep areas is v rare unless you are cutting salad on raw chicken board....

We are all very relaxed about that and use by dates- no illness has occured ever as result of either!

Am I the freak-? Does everyone else bleach wipe kitchen ?

Original poster

deliakate · 08/04/2011 16:35

No, I don't bleach wipe in the kitchen, and we don't get sick much.

Went out an bought a loo brush today. Now I saw the thread on Branbantia bins a while back - but surely, a Brabantia loo brush can NOT be worth it? It has a 10 year guarantee attached (who is going to keep a loo brush for 10 years?). I guess it looks snazzy if its in a loo where visitors will go, but still it was over double the cost of the other kind

OP posts:

Original poster

deliakate · 08/04/2011 16:36

Oh, and his diet is terrible. I cook healthy things, lots of veg and wholemeal flour etc. But he eats out at work and in the evenings a lot, and loves foie gras the best. Urrr

OP posts:

CointreauVersial · 08/04/2011 16:43

I squirt Harpic/Toilet Duck or similar around the rim, and leave for 30 minutes. Then I get busy with the loo brush, round the rim and down the U-bend, flushing the toilet a couple of times to rinse the brush afterwards (no poo pellets on our brush!).

After that, I do the "outside" of the loo with a bathroom spray and a damp cloth - the seat/lid etc. The cloth lives on the soil pipe behind the loo so has no other use. Wipe over with kitchen roll - job done!

After a recent spate on unresolved skid-marks (mostly the DCs) I bought a pack of toilet wipes to put by each loo, and everyone is under strict instructions to deal with their own skids, on pain of death!

I don't use bleach, I was told it rots the seal in the soil pipe, and it doesn't have any detergent/cleaning/limescale-removing properties, unlike toilet cleaner.

BobbiDazzler · 08/04/2011 16:48

Urgh. Can't your DH deal with his own mess after he's been?

We have a loo brush from JL which you can get 'refill' brushes for. I keep my brushes soaking in scented bleach and replace every 4-8 weeks depending on how much they are used.

A good scrub with that every now and then seems to keep our loo clean.

I buy very cheap jay cloths specifically for loo cleaning, which I use with Flash to clean the seat etc, and then throw away immediately afterwards.

mousymouse · 08/04/2011 17:07

I squirt down harpic (hard water area, need tough stuff) into the bowl and under the rim.
then with a spongy cloth I wash the seat and outside with all purpose cleaner.
after that I give the bowl a good scrub with the brush (which lives in the boiler cupboard) and flush.

dh removes his own skidmarks, but ds (4y) not yet...

hester · 08/04/2011 17:22

deliakate, please please please stop cleaning up your dh's shit!
WHAT is it teaching your dc?

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