“Why in the world do you bother with a DIY toilet bowl cleaner?!” – a question I get when I talk about my transition to non-toxic living. Well, aside from wanting cleaner and more natural ingredients, and caring about the environment, I was mostly just tired of flushing money down the toilet.
Let’s dive into the don’t and the do-do’s of making a homemade DIY toilet bowl cleaner!
Why Would You Even Want a DIY Toilet Bowl Cleaner?
Even though I’ve transitioned to homemade cleaning products pretty much everywhere in my home, I have to say that a DIY toilet bowl cleaner wasn’t high on my priority list. I mean, compared to dishwashing detergent (which touches your dishes) or laundry detergent (which touches your skin,) I didn’t think I cared about what touches my toilet all that much.
More: DIY Dishwasher Detergent: Homemade Recipe With 4 Cheap & Non-Toxic Ingredients
That said, I’m a very cost-conscious kind of mom, and as much as I enjoy seeing a thick cleaning agent coat and clean my toilet, having to buy it over and over again kind of stung.
I’m also eco-conscious, so knowing that gentler, biodegradable ingredients are going through my pipes (instead of the who-knows-what in conventional cleaners) gives me a little peace of mind.
Why This DIY Toilet Bowl Cleaner Recipe Is Above The Rest
As I’ve been researching and experimenting with different DIY toilet bowl recipes, I’ve found a number that really don’t work for me.
Some natural cleaning experts recommend a two-part toilet bowl cleaner, where you sprinkle some baking soda based mixture into your toilet followed by a vinegar-based mixture.
I really don’t have the patience to carry around two separate containers to clean my toilets. Besides, as much as I love baking soda and vinegar as separate cleaning agents, watching them react in my toilet is not the most powerful way to clean it.
Other clean living aficionados recommend creating little toilet cleaner bombs that fizz inside the toilet. This is a fun way to involve your kids in cleaning, but again, I don’t find these little bombs to be all that powerful.
So What Sets This Recipe Apart?
What I love about DIY toilet bowl cleaner recipe is that
- I can squirt it right up to the rim and watch the thick liquid coat the toilet bowl
- The thick, sudsy mixture makes lifting stains a breeze without aggressive scrubbing
- It contains cheap ingredients you already have on-hand, with no need to order anything fancy
Star Toilet Cleaning Ingredients
Baking Soda
I won’t bore you with the 101 uses for baking soda, but it’s well known to be a magic ingredient for DIY cleaning recipes. Baking soda (soda bicarbonate for the nerds) is a gentle abrasive, a deodorizer, and a stain lifter. Basically, it’s all the things you need to clean your toilet!
Dish Soap
I’ll start by mentioning that some clean-living diehards recommend using castile soap, but I just can’t justify literally pouring it down the toilet. Besides, I prefer dish soap not only because it’s cost-effective but because I love seeing the bright blue color coating my toilet bowl.
Generic dishwashing liquid has strong surfactants that will lift stains, grease, and grime away from the toilet bowl, and it’s effective at getting rid of germs, (by lifting them off, not killing them,) even if it’s not antibacterial dish soap.
If you want to go the more eco-friendly route, opt for biodegradable dishwashing liquid for your DIY toilet bowl cleaner.
Biodegradable dishwashing liquid 3-pack, $15 on Amazon
DIY Toilet Bowl Cleaner Recipe
1 cup water
½ cup dish soap
½ cup baking soda
Pour ingredients into a squirt bottle (or an old toilet bowl cleaner bottle) and shake before each use to re-mix the ingredients.
Quick Note
I find that if I don’t shake the bottle well enough, the baking soda settles to the bottom, and I just squirt out the soapy water.
If that happens – no biggie – just add a little more soap and water in equal parts to your container, shake, and keep using it. Don’t worry about the proportions being too precise.
Squirt bottles on Amazon
If You Use Have a Septic System
If you have a septic system, you’re likely far more conscious about what goes down your drain. That’s why having a 3-ingredient DIY toilet bowl cleaner is a no-brainer! Just make sure you opt for a biodegradable dish soap that does not contain phosphates which could promote algae growth. Easy-peasy!
