As most of us do, I approach the cleaning of the bathroom with the uncanny thought of “can I just blow it up, send it into space and be done with it?”
Unfortunately, it never seems to happen that way, despite the dream of being able to do so, if for just once, it would sure to be a sight like no other, with rows of people seated, in high anticipation while gobbling up lots of popcorn, waiting for the final, glorious moment that we all secretly crave to be able to do. Launch the bathroom’s toilet into space, never to be seen again.
In some parts of the good ‘ol USA and in many other parts of the world, the water pipes are old, dilapidated and continue to bring to you the water that is ever so eager to produce a lovely shade of brown, rusty gross looking stain into the bottom of your toilet.
Ah yes, the faithful toilet. Always waiting to greet you at a moments notice when the time comes to get rid of the dinner of the night before. And as always, there is the greeting party of the lovely stain that leaves you to ponder “how do I get rid of that gross stain?”
After having conducted my own experiments, and yes they have been entertaining to say the least, but not always something that I would recommend to someone else as they were not always predictable would be an understatement.
So what causes this unsightly stain and what are some of the easier ways to get rid of it without investing lots of money for toilet bowl cleaners or those cute, colorful, round breath mints that you can put into the water tank.
It turns out, there is more to it that most understand. You see, when the dissolved iron in your toilet water oxidizes on the inner surface of the bowl, the unsightly brownish-orange rust makes it presence ever so known.
Being of science mind, I pondered “what would dissolve iron and what is the opposite of an oxidizer?”
I set out on my journey to find out the elusive answer by trying lots of different things (products) that have bicarbonate sodium. I soon moved on to other mixtures of things (products) which I won’t mention here, but I will say, it was interesting to say the least.
I soon discovered a few things that seem to work and work with a lot more ease than what I had been trying previously. With that, here are a couple of home remedies that you can try to make your toilet bowl cleaning life a little less eventful.
PEPSI
As mentioned before, the bicarbonate sodium found in almost all soft drinks, but which seems to have higher concentrations in the darker colored soft drinks like Pepsi and Coke is a good alternative to the manual grinding away with a jackhammer to get rid of the stain.
Fill up a glass or medium sized cup with Pepsi or just get a 20 oz bottle. Pour the Pepsi into the bowl so that the soda touches each stain. Let it sit in the bowl for 30 to 45 minutes. After letting it sit for some time, just flush the system and you are good to go.
It greatly helps to drain as much water out of the toilet as possible so that the sodium doesn’t become diluted, giving it more strength to dissolve the corrosion that the iron oxidization has left behind.
BAKING SODA & VINEGAR
Sprinkle the toilet with cup of baking soda. Let it sit for 30 to 45 minutes, then spray – or in my case, dump a whole bottle of vinegar – with vinegar to moisten the baking soda. Scrub with a bowl brush and flush away.
Vinegar is a mild acid and will help to activate the baking soda. When baking soda is mixed with vinegar, something new is formed and we like anything new forming so long as it gets rid of that nasty looking stain. The mixture quickly foams up producing carbon dioxide gas. If enough vinegar is used, all of the baking soda can be made to react and disappear into the vinegar solution.
WD40
Yep. If you have a mechanic living in your house, or you yourself are of mechanical inclination, then there is little to no doubt, you know the lovely smell of WD40. WD40 was invented in 1953 by Cyril E. Irving, Norman Roulette and his son Robert Roulette as part of the Rocket Chemical Company, later renamed to WD-40 Company in San Diego, California.
Cleaning a toilet bowl with WD-40 works by softening the rust and lime deposits, so they can be easily wiped away. You don’t need to use much of it. Not always recommended, but then it’s me we are talking about. Get a large can of it, spray a ton of it in there, sit back, ingesting the lovely smell of it like a chef creating a masterpiece in the kitchen. Simply spray on the affected area, wait a minute or two and brush it away with a regular toilet brush.
So there it is folks. Three easy – easier – ways to clean that gross looking stain that has taken up residency in the bottom of your toilet.