The Cleaning Tool You Shouldn't Use To Clean Your Toilet

There's no shortage of choices to help with deep cleaning. Many of us prefer natural home cleaning remedies like white vinegar and baking soda, which work for most surfaces. People even use Alka-Seltzer as a common medicine that will leave your toilet squeaky clean. And all kinds of towels, cloths, and eco-friendly aids are also available. Most of us could run our own successful home cleaning businesses as a sideline with all the knowledge we've accrued. But one great invention is the microfiber cloth. They're cleaning whizzes, leaving behind no lint, and they're washable. However, when it comes to cleaning your toilet, you should avoid reaching for a microfiber cloth.

Having said that, just a quick caution about cleaning your toilet; it is teeming with bacteria (even though the kitchen could technically be worse, per CNN Health), meaning cleaning the toilet often is crucial. Now, unless you do a load of laundry every time you clean the toilet or immediately hand wash your microfiber cloths, using it can be impractical. The worst part is — it gets laden with bacteria if improperly cleaned.

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There are pluses and minuses to every option in life, it seems. We've noticed that using a microfiber cloth inside the toilet leaves it covered in bacteria, and there's no sensible place to let it dry — it would need to be cleaned and disinfected immediately, making it a challenging choice for regular cleaning. Using a paper towel (or a disposable wipe) is hands down one of the most hygienic cleaning tools specifically for the toilet. Unfortunately, paper towels and wipes score lower on the environmental friendliness scale. And, of course, you might balance out your paper towel or disposable wipe use with a Plastic-Free Toilet Brush from the Zero Waste Store. It's completely compostable, which seems miraculous in an era of plastic.

As an alternative, if you're interested in natural cleaning products and skipping the paper towels completely, you can also make your toilet sparkle with two handy kitchen ingredients; grapefruit and Kosher salt. These two can be used together to give your toilet a good scrub.