How to Clean a Toilet (With a Little Potty Humor)

Learning how to clean a toilet is one of those life lessons you wish you could skip, like parallel parking or explaining the stock market to a teenager. The good news is that it takes about 20 minutes, a few basic supplies and a sense of humor, and this step-by-step guide covers all three.

Gloved hand scrubbing the inside of a toilet bowl with a white toilet brush that has a blue under-rim brush

In my house, the busiest room isn't the kitchen. Thanks to a husband and sons with extremely efficient digestive systems, ahem, it's the bathroom. (My youngest once ate dinner on the toilet. We don't talk about it.) So trust me when I say I've had plenty of practice with this chore.

Here's a stomach-turning fact before we begin: every flush can send tiny bacteria-laden droplets into the air around the bowl. So close the lid before you flush, and keep your toothbrush on the far side of the room. Now pull on your gloves. We're about to clean the crap out of that toilet. (Excuse the crudeness. I've always wanted to say that.)

What You'll Need

Toilet bowl cleaner with an angled nozzle. The bent neck on a bottle like Lysol Power Toilet Bowl Cleaner gets the gel up under the rim, where the worst gunk hides.
A toilet brush with an under-rim brush. A brush with a little side scrubber, like this Superio toilet brush and caddy, reaches the spots a plain round brush misses.
Disinfecting spray. 409, Fantastik or your favorite bathroom disinfectant for the seat, lid, tank and base.
Lime and rust remover. Lime-A-Way for hard water rings around the waterline and drain.
An old toothbrush and cotton swabs. For the hinges and the tight spaces behind the seat. Please make sure nobody in the family is still using the toothbrush. Zikug is not responsible for toothbrush sabotage.
Cloths or sponges, plus a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. The eraser lifts set-in yellow and brown stains from plastic seats.
Rubber gloves. Non-negotiable. A HAZMAT suit is optional, but do wear old clothes unless you enjoy bleach spots.

How to Clean a Toilet, Step by Step

1. Let the bowl cleaner soak. Squirt a generous amount of toilet bowl cleaner under the rim, as far up as your courage allows, and work your way around the whole circle. It will run down the sides into the bowl on its own. Close the lid and let it battle the germs for 10 to 15 minutes while you tackle the outside.

2. Disinfect the outside, top to bottom. Spray the tank, the flush handle, the lid and the outside of the bowl, then wipe everything down with a clean cloth. Always work from the cleanest areas down to the dirtiest so you aren't dragging germs back up onto the handle you touch every day.

Close-up of the base of a white toilet where it meets the tile floor, including the bolt cap

3. Don't skip the base. Pay special attention to the bottom of the toilet, the bolt caps and the caulk line where it meets the floor. It amazes me how many dried splatters end up down there. Years ago I was convinced we had a leak in the pipes because I kept finding a stain in the caulk around the base. It wasn't a leak. My son needed glasses, and my husband was drinking too much.

4. Scrub the bowl. Now lift the lid and get scrubbing. How long this takes depends on how long it's been since the last cleaning, how much traffic the toilet gets and what kind of toxic waste is being dumped in there. Use the under-rim brush to get the scary black gunk out from under the rim, then scrub down the sides and into the drain hole. Flush to rinse, and keep the brush in the bowl as the clean water rushes past it.

Underside of a raised toilet seat showing yellow and brown stains before cleaning

5. Clean both sides of the seat. Spray and wipe the top of the seat and the top of the rim. And DO NOT NEGLECT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEAT. It's usually covered in petrified DNA samples, to put it politely. If your seat stains easily, a damp Magic Eraser takes off those set-in yellow and brown marks with very little elbow grease.

Toilet seat hinge with its plastic cover flipped open to show the bolt underneath

6. Get into the hinges. Any mom of boys knows how hard it is to clean the "drippies" out of the seat and lid hinges. I swear my sons aimed there on purpose, which is why they clean it themselves now. Most hinges have covers that pop right up. Spray inside, then use the old toothbrush and cotton swabs for the tight spots. If you still can't reach a stain, flood it with a steady stream of disinfectant or water until it runs clear, then wipe it dry.

How to Get Rid of a Stubborn Toilet Ring

If your toilet has a ring at the waterline or around the drain that laughs at your brush, it's usually hard water minerals, not dirt. Spray on a lime and rust remover, let it sit for a few minutes and scrub. Neglected toilets may need two or three rounds.

For rings that still won't budge, a wet pumice stone made for toilets is the secret weapon. Keep both the stone and the porcelain wet and rub gently; it grinds away the mineral deposit without scratching the glaze. (You may hear people suggest sandpaper. Please don't. It scratches the porcelain, and scratches give future stains a place to cling.)

Reader Tips (Some Weirder Than Others)

Friends and readers have sent me plenty of their own tricks over the years. Here are the ones worth trying. If you love an odd trick, you'll also like my oddball cleaning hacks that actually work.

Vinegar and baking soda for a natural clean. Pour a cup of white vinegar into the bowl, sprinkle in half a cup of baking soda, let it fizz for 15 minutes and scrub. For a heavy ring, turn off the water valve behind the toilet, flush to empty the bowl and let straight vinegar soak on the ring overnight.
Denture tablets. Drop two in the bowl before bed and brush in the morning for a fresher bowl. (But do NOT use toilet bowl cleaning tablets on your dentures.)
A piece of Magic Eraser. Leaving a chunk in the bowl overnight can soften a ring so it scrubs off easily.
Coca-Cola. Yes, really. The acid in cola can loosen light mineral stains if you pour it around the bowl and let it sit for an hour. It's more of a party trick than a cleaner, but it's fun to watch.

Safety First

Never mix cleaners. Bleach-based toilet cleaners combined with ammonia or with acids like vinegar or lime removers can release dangerous fumes. Use one product at a time, flush and rinse well between them, and keep the bathroom fan running or a window cracked. Store everything well out of reach of kids and pets.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should you clean a toilet? Give it a full cleaning once a week, and a quick swipe of the seat and rim every few days. A toilet that gets heavy use (hello, houseful of boys) may need a quick scrub more often.

How do you clean a toilet brush? After scrubbing, rinse it in the clean flush water, then let it drip dry wedged between the seat and the bowl before putting it back in its holder. Every so often, soak it in a bucket of hot water with a splash of bleach, and replace it when the bristles look flattened or discolored.

What's the black gunk under the rim? It's usually mold or mildew mixed with mineral deposits. Bowl cleaner plus an under-rim brush takes care of it, and cleaning weekly keeps it from coming back.

Once the toilet sparkles, you're on a roll (pun intended). Keep the momentum going with my homemade shower cleaner, and the whole bathroom will be done before anyone needs it again.