If you're dealing with extreme toilet stains, you can make a paste from Borax and vinegar and apply it directly to those stubborn rings. Mix a 1/2 cup Borax and a few tablespoons of vinegar to create a paste. Apply your paste directly to stains. Let it sit for 20 minutes to break down the stickiest gunk.
Borax acts as a buffer and raises the pH of the water to a slightly basic solution, right around a pH of 8. Don't use Borax at the same time as vinegar or you'll just create a nice little acid-base reaction and make salt.
To remove tough stains, add the baking soda and vinegar mix to your toilet and then allow the solution to sit in the bowl for up to 30 minutes. During that time, the chemical reaction between the sodium bicarbonate and vinegar will work to eat away at those stubborn hard water stains.
You can use products that are marketed to clean and disinfect germs in the toilet bowl, but Forte recommends picking up a bottle of Clorox's toilet bowl cleaner that contains bleach, as the product claims it can disinfect the inside of the toilet in just five minutes.
Try this: Swish a cup of vinegar around in the toilet bowl using a toilet brush, then add a cup of baking soda, followed by an additional cup of vinegar. Let the fizzing solution sit for 10 minutes. Use a toilet brush to scrub stains. Let mixture sit for a few more minutes and then flush.
1. Toilet Cleaning. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of Borax and ½ cup of white vinegar into your toilet bowl, ensuring you reach all areas (including under the rim). Leave for at least 8 hours (or overnight) then scrub thoroughly with a brush before flushing.
Borax can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea if you ingest it by itself, and large amounts can lead to shock and kidney failure. It's banned in U.S. food products. It also can irritate your skin and eyes, and it can hurt your nose, throat, and lungs if you breathe it in.
Cleaning with a mixture of baking soda and vinegar in the bathroom can work really well. To clean your toilet with vinegar, pour a cup of vinegar in the toilet bowl and let sit overnight. The next morning, sprinkle a little baking soda into the bowl, scrub, and then flush clean.
Don't mix it with acids or store it with acids. I've been using it for a few weeks now and it's really very good indeed. It's quite safe if used correctly, it's effective and it's fairly cheap.
Borax, or sodium tetraborate, is considered a safe alternative to chemical drain cleaners and other cleaning ingredients that could damage your pipes. This product can break debris down and disinfect surfaces. It's also commonly used as a booster for laundry detergent.
Oxiclean powder is essentially washing soda with sodium percarbonate, which turns into hydrogen peroxide. It's color safe and works great to get rid of stains and keeps whites white and colors bright. It's also much safer / less toxic than Borax. Borax works well too, helps get rid of stains, and whitens clothes.
If you want to really get your toilet tank clean, then you need to make sure you have the right cleaning products for the job. Vinegar is a great toilet cleaning solution. Not only is it free of chemicals and naturally antibacterial, it's also an acid, so it will remove minor lime and calcium deposits.
Let It Sit For 12 Hours
Leave the vinegar and water mixture in the toilet tank for 12 hours without flushing the toilet. This is why this cleaning process is best done overnight, as you are less likely to need the bathroom throughout the night than during the day.
Borax can kill pests, though it is not nearly as effective as boric acid. You will often find boric acid used in pesticides. You should be able to find it as a tablet, liquid, or powder or in a trap. Boric acid kills certain insects by absorbing into their bodies and poisoning them.
Boric acid is low in toxicity if eaten or if it contacts skin. However, in the form of borax, it can be corrosive to the eye. Borax can also be irritating to the skin. People who have eaten boric acid have had nausea, vomiting, stomach aches, and diarrhea.
Once it's eaten it, the borax acts like poison in the roach's stomach. It also damages a cockroach's exoskeleton (and its digestive system). Borax is technically sodium tetraborate and the “sodium” part penetrates the roaches' exoskeletons and dehydrates them.
In the large bowl, mix ½ cup of Borax and 1 pint of hot water if you are putting the solution on upholstery. If you will be using the solution on a carpet, then use ¼ cup Borax, ¼ cup Salt and ¼ cup Vinegar. Use your sponge or towel to apply the mixture to the stain.
Before you reach for a caustic drain cleaner to unclog that kitchen or bathroom drain, try this much gentler approach: Use a funnel to insert 1/2 cup borax into the drain, then slowly pour in 2 cups boiling water. Let the mixture set for 15 minutes, then flush with hot water. Repeat for stubborn clogs.
Because water deposits build up under a toilet's rim, it can take only 24-48 hours for colonies to start breeding. As it grows, you will see what looks like black debris or rings inside the bowl. This can cause respiratory problems for people as the mold and mildew release tiny spores into the air.
In this case, a basic toilet cleaning product may not be enough, and you will need to use undiluted bleach. As a one-stop cleaning solution, pour one cup of bleach around the bowl. Then tackle every inch with a toilet brush or a handheld scrub brush. Let it sit for five minutes, then flush.
That brown toilet-bowl stain isn't what you think it is
It's actually due to high concentrations of minerals in hard water, like calcium, iron, and manganese, that build up inside the toilet bowl over time, according to Hunker. In particular, iron oxide, or rust, is the main problem.