Toilet Cleaning Advice Please

[Sonnet]

Wise Mumsnetters - please give me your step by step guide to thoroughly cleaning a toilet (not the daily swish and swipe I do!)

Umm squirt toilet cleaner in bowl...

Use Harpic tablets once a week to keep it free of limescale/yuk aswell as toilet cleaner.

ha ha forgetfulmog that is what I do too...but surely there is more to it than that...

I think my loos need a really deep clean - all under the rim, around the outside etc. I just wondered of there was a holy grail of loo cleaning on mumsnet :)

My cleaning routine is:

Bucket of hot water and disinfectant. Cloth and rubber gloves. Wipe all parts of toilet with the cloth inside and outside except below the water line and under the rim, then do it all a second time. Start with the top then lid then seat then outside then inside. Use a toilet brush to brush around the inside of the bowl and below the water line. Wash the brush and its holder in the bucket of disinfectant and water.

Between cleans I use a cleaner which you squirt under the rim and around the inner bowl and leave til the next person needs the loo.

I haven't got a limescale problem and have never found anything that worked well when I've needed it in previous homes so I'll leave that to another wise mumsnetter to advise.

For down the loo: I use the brush to 'pump' the water level down then squirt thick bleach up and around the rim. leave it while I clean the rest of the bathroom then return to the loo and scrub like crazy with the brush then flush and use the flush to rinse the brush.

The rest of it (seat, outside of pan, cistern, handle etc) get scrubbed with bathroom cleaner, using a scrubby sponge and rinse. Try and remember not to do the outside when there is bleach down the loo as its bad to mix chemicals - I try and do outside bits first, flush, then the down the loo treatment. Sometimes I forget and risk certain death.

This endeavour takes place weekly. The downstairs loo is a posh new one and has special 'toilet cleaner' as I am sure I read bleach is bad for enamel or something. The upstairs loo is dated roughly 1960 and can take its chances - although it has no scale and is immaculate so I must be doing something right nothing to do with living in a soft water area, oh no

Every morning after we've all used the bathroom, one of us cleans the outside, including behind the pedestal and lid top with a the same cloth and vinegar solution I use everywhere else. Seat/lid comes off and is cleaned with a flushable wipe, then a second wipe is used to clean inside and below the water. Seat/lid clicks back on. Must take about 90 seconds tops.

Just before bed every night I put a squirt of cheap, thin bleach. (I've tried thick ones and they just stain).

I get millions of those mega cheap crappy sponges, cut them up into quarters and have them in a tin in the bathroom, along with a pair of rubber gloves and some bleach. I do the outside of the loo, lid, seat etc first, then the inside and then bin the bit of sponge. I've got a major chufftie badge about my little system, so I have

Boak at same cloth as everywhere else

Why? Is the bottom of toilet pedestal any different to the bottom of the sink pedestal? Or the top of the toilet cistern any different to the taps?

Depends if you have small boys Vivacia. I am very impressed at removing the seat though , I don't do that , I wash around the seat & under the seat/ fittings , I shall remove it immediately and scrub ! Those harpic tablets are very good.

On mine it just clicks off. I would never have realised if the plumber hadn't shown me.

Great :) I just knew you lot would come up trumps!! Off to deep clean all my loos.

Thank you :)

Lids/seats x4 clicked off and disinfected. It was grim

I intend to find out if my toilet seat clicks off. (it's been a slow week)

If you have limescale, this stuff cannot be beaten. Leave it on overnight, and in the morning any limescale just falls off when brushed.

Don't leave us hanging mykingdomforasleep !

Do all toilet seats click off? How?!?

This is the first one I've owned.

Darn it, i knew you'd say that!

Oh, phew!

I was thinking something similar about the cloth comment above. Your toilet must be in a state if you don't want to use the same cloth on the pedestal as on the bath panel or something.

I am definitely in the "little and often" camp when it comes to housework.