Right. I've thought long and hard about this, I've conducted rigorous scientific experiment, and I'm sorry all you non-loo brush using MNers, but you're wrong.

[Lawks]

Following the earth shattering news last week that some mumsnetters don't own loo brushes, and what's more this isn't some oversight on the housekeeping front but a deliberate stance against "germy loo brushes dripping in the corner of the bathroom" (I'm too lazy to look up the exact quote paraphrasing), I have been keeping a watchful eye on the state of the Lawks household lavatories.

I removed the loo brush from the downstairs loo and left one in the upstairs loo (cf aforementioned rigorous scientific experiment). After a week the downstairs loo needed a jolly good scrub below the waterline. It also went through various mildly unpleasant phases which we won't go into but which would not have been necessary had a loo brush been available.

We have perfectly happy and healthy bowels, so no casting aspersions in that direction please.

I conclude that I don't understand how you can have sparkling clean loos without a regular scrub below the waterline.

I don't pretend to love my loo brush, and I change it often. But it's a necessary evil.

Loo brush user here.

I know I'm the only one that actually uses it in our household. Its kept out of sight of small DC.

Replace it every 3 months from Wilkinson. Wish they'd sell replacement brush only so that holder & handle didn't contribute to landfill.

Do those without get gloves & wipes/scrubby pads out for every skid?

Asda sell them for 38p btw

I spray the inside of the loo with bathroom cleaner, let it soak while i clean the rest of the loo and then at the end, get a big wad of toilet paper and clean all inside the toilet, flushing at when finished. Finish with a good dose of bleach all round. My toilets are always sparkling and I don't own a brush.

Oh and in our house adults have to clean up their own skids with said wad of toilet paper as soon as it is done, before it dries so to speak. We have good antibacterial hand wash!

what if they're under the water?

that should be flushing it

If you get a big enough wad of paper your hand hardly touches the water, besides which generally it has been flushed first and it is only because the flush did not get rid of the skid that phase two comes into action!

I have toilet brush which I have not changed for about five years...

By my calculations that has saved from the landfill:

• 520 plastic gloves
• 104 scourers
• 104 carrier bags
• 5,642 gallons of bleach

RE cleaning of loo brush.

What you need to do when you have scrubbed around the bowl is to flush the loo and stick the loo brush UNDER the flushing water so all the bits float off. (like being cleansed in a beautiful waterfall).

You can also put some bleach in the bottom of the loo brush holder so that when you put the brush back, it is sitting in bleach so is cleaner when you next come to use it.

Tis loo brush etiquette.

But how do you get to a skid on the bottom of the pan without sticking your hand into the toilet water? That to me is more unpleasant than holding the other end of a brush!
And I can't believe you can have a wad of paper big enough and dense enough to manage that - it must block the toilet immediately!

I find bleach gets rid of skidmarks. Even toxic ones left by DH. I hate loo brushes but they are a necessary evil for a god scrub. I do rinse them under a few flushes though and have been known to put some bleach in loo and stick brush in the water too while I clean the rest of the bathroom. Then I scrub the loo with the now clean brush and flush again. All clean and sparkly.

I too am a loo brush user.

I hold it under the toilet flush which cleans off any residue. If the toilet is particularly dirty I use a piece of loo roll with the brush. Once a week I sterilise the brush and holder with the Polti steam cleaner.

Wow Buda we must have some serious skid marks here!
Maybe it's because we're bears

WTF is the problem with touching the water in the toilet if you wash your hands afterwards and if your toilet is generally clean (ie cleaned every day)?

No toilet brush here (they are minging), no gloves, no scrubbers getting chucked out every day, no carrier bags.

I use ecover toilet cleaner - this gets rid of skids if you squirt some in and flush straight away. Then when I'm cleaning the toilet I use the ecover and some toilet roll and then I wash my hands.

The toilet never really gets dirty does it? Surely you just clean it all the time so the mank doesn't build up.

I'm not scared of germs and I don't wash towels/bedding/pyjamas until they can just about stand up by themselves. It's not a germ issue with toilet brushes, they are just horrid.

Not sure - just an aversion
But I don't clean the bathroom every day either so maybe that explains it

I am worried about the amount of bleach that is being squirted down MNers' toilets.

Oh no, I don't clean the bathroom every day

Maybe once a week?

But The Toilet does get cleaned daily.

Ah right. I use one cloth to clean the whole bathroom, ending in the toilet and then chuck it out. Using one without cleaning the sink etc first too would seem like a waste!

Tis the beauty of MN SingingBear.

We would never discuss this in RL (well I wouldn't anyway)

Stealth, I do that too when I'm doing the whole roon. But I just use loo roll for doing the toilet on its own.

Indeed! In fact, on that note, I am off for a walk in the sun

I do the same as doggiesayswoof.

Flash wipes are good, but you can't chuck them down the loo after!

SCALE REMEDY (but does need a brush )

buy a bottle of distilled malt vinegar (about 1/2 L)

• boil a full kettle and pour into the offending pan
• add the entire bottle of vinegar
• leave for as long as you can
• scrub well (personally I wouldn't stick my hand in hot acid even in a glove)

Then either leave a bit longer, scrub again and flush, or flush and repeat the whole lot if necessary.