"The baking soda removes any gunky build-up, the salt is a natural abrasive for scrubbing, and the oxygen bleach cleans and disinfects," she says. Smallin Kuper prefers to pour one cup of baking soda and one cup of distilled white vinegar directly into the toilet bowl for similar sanitized-and-sparkling results.
Cleaning your toilet with baking soda
Simply apply it all around the sides at the top of the bowl and leave it to sit for five minutes. During this time it will 'eat away' any dirt and grime. After this, use a toilet brush to scrub the rest of the bowl, working the baking soda into the surface of the toilet.
Leaving bleach in a toilet overnight is fine, but you shouldn't leave it any longer, or else it might corrode your toilet. If you do decide to leave it in the bowl overnight, let other members of your household know so that they don't use the toilet and accidentally mix the bleach with ammonia from urine.
White Vinegar and Baking Soda
The best way to clean stubborn stains in your toilet is with baking soda and vinegar. Sprinkle a good amount of baking soda inside the bowl, then spray on the vinegar until it starts foaming. Wait ten minutes, then scrub the bowl vigorously with a toilet brush.
If the clog still seems to be intact, start over at step 1 and repeat the process a couple of times. For extra-stubborn clogs, you can let the fizz mixture sit overnight or combine this method with plunging.
Pour one cup of baking soda into the clogged toilet, and then chase it with the hot water/vinegar mixture. Leave the volcano mix to do its job, checking in about 30 minutes. In most cases the clog will have come apart, and a simple flush with send it all down the drain. Plus your toilet bowl will be cleaner!
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.
If you get brown stains in your toilet bowl, the good news is that it's not caused by anything that you, ahem, do in the bathroom. 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.
Brown stains can also come from iron bacteria, manganese bacteria or sulfur bacteria. These organisms grow in soil or shallow groundwater with high iron, manganese or sulfur concentrations. Water containing these bacteria leaves behind slimy brown rust deposits in plumbing fixtures and toilets.
Vinegar will not damage your toilet in any way if it's left in your toilet overnight. Regardless of your toilet's material, the vinegar is not strong enough to damage the toilet or the toilet's plumbing. So, you can leave the vinegar in your toilets overnight without worry.
Make a paste by mixing 1/2 cup of Borax and enough vinegar to form a thick paste. Spread the paste immediately onto the hard water stains in the toilet so they are completely covered by the paste. The Borax will harden quickly so don't add the vinegar until you are ready to apply the paste.
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.
Dishwasher tablets are meant to dissolve hard water stains, so they're the perfect solution for cleaning toilets. Besides cleaning dishes and toilet bowls, you can use dishwasher tablets for a few more cleaning projects around the house.
Add 1/2 cup vinegar to the toilet bowl, let stand a few minutes, brush, and flush. If you have hard water, let the vinegar sit for an hour, and you may have to do some light scrubbing. To remove stains, add 1/2 cup borax to the water, swish it around, and let it soak overnight.
"The biggest don't when it comes to toilet tanks is bleach—do not use bleach or products containing bleach inside the tank, as it can corrode the internal parts of your toilet. If you are aiming to remove tough stains from the tank, I also recommend white vinegar diluted with water."
Vinegar is safe and milder than caustic cleaners designed for the toilet, and those commercial cleaning agents can eat away the good bacteria in your septic system. To safely and inexpensively clean your toilet bowls, pour a generous glug of vinegar, followed by a heavy sprinkling of baking soda, into the bowl.