Toilet brush

So glad your mum cleaned the loo Nightowl. I don't think mine ever did but it was just a bucket under a hole in a wooden bench in an outhouse up the yard. When it was full my dad dug a hole in the orchard and buried the contents. The apples were good and so was our water from the well which we found in the orchard years later. No ill effects yet !

I always use a toilet duck but DH won't clean it with anything but just tips loads of bleach down it. The next person in the bathroom practically dies of asphyxiation!

By occasionally using bleach in the toilet I never get lime scale build up and I live in a very hard water area.

The evidence that using household bleach impacts directly on waterways and aquatic life is far from equivocal. According to the industry (not always the most unbiased source) , chlorine bleach traces are present at such low concentrations in waste waters, having been rapidly reduced to chloride ions, that there is no real possibility of the formation of trace toxic by-products.

But the real ethical issue centres around manufacture. Bleach is from the organochlorine family of chemicals, compounds rarely found in nature and which can take centuries to break down.

Greenpeace has called for a complete end to organochlorine production. Arguably, by buying household bleach, although it can be considered relatively innocuous in itself, it helps to prop up the whole organochlorine industry.

Hydrogen peroxide is a bleach Jess which is H202 and is therefore completely and safely biodegraded. It is therefore completely safe to use in your loo. I've just realised you're being funny jess sorry for the pompous lecture

No carpet in a bathroom for me either..

Bleach degrades in a way that is harmless to the environment. That is why the same chemical is used to make the water safe in water treatment plants.
Good lord aka you use hydrogen peroxide for what?
This thread should be called "chemical warfare"

It's not bad for the environment!

PS wouldn't have carpet in bathroom ever

I use hydrogen peroxide Rockgran

I try not to use much bleach as it is very bad for the environment. I santise my bathroom with a steam cleaner. No chemicals and it gets rid of bacteria and smells - i.e. when grandchild has accident on carpet!

No, because they don't get limescale...

So do your mobile phones, PC keyboards and door handles get equal treatment? (Tongue in cheek emoticon)

Nellie it is plastic but its really only the rim of the toilet bowl that gets a good scrub the seat really only needs wiping down with the spongy side .

Tanith If it's a plastic seat I would not put a plastic scourer any way near it. Any scourer could easily damage the surface making it more likely to be a surface that harbours germs.

aka, I'm so fast asleep when I get up at night for the loo, I wouldn't notice!

Husband cleans the loo in our house when the limescale looks yucky - he gets all the water out, and pours cheap neat vinegar in and leaves it for as long as possible. Then Sunseeker' s method is followed. I supervise

I am glad for all the interest. When I have given the toilet a scrub round I leave thr brush sitting in the bleachy water for as long as possible to clean it.

We were watching a comic once whilst away at a hotel. He waved a toilet brush in the air and said "I expect you all have one of these in your room, I don't like them I'm going back to paper".......

Hate toilet brushes and never use them. I use bleach in to bowl every night and then once a week don heavy duty gloves and cleaning cloth and get everything clean, gloves are then thoroughly washed in Dettol and the cloth goes in the bin (the gloves are not used for anything else I hasten to add).

I put bleach down the loos every night and then leave the brush soaking in the bleachy toilet bowl. Works well, but if you get up on the night you need to remember to remove it unless you want a cheap thrill

Marelli, at the outdoor tap with an old brush! I haven't had any pets since coming to live in the UK, so I don't know what I'd do in the winter if I needed to wash pet dishes.

We must be exceptionally clean as, like Tanith and Elegran, my loos rarely need scrubbing. I periodically squirt bleach under the rim over night and I use wipes for the seat and the outside. I'm now going to check that I do not have the dirtiest loos in the world. [bleach]

Has anyone done the coke thing?

I wash the cat (and dog, when we had one) in a bowl in the utility room. I tend to fill the washing up bowl first thing with hot water and washing up liquid and add food bowls as they get used during the day. I find they are easier to clean that way. In the evening I clean the work surface (historically the cats eat on the work surface rather than the floor so the dogs can't get to the food!) and the mat under the cats bowls with dettol squirty! I fill up the cats water bowl then too and I throw it away next morning.

I do that [I'm getting worried about myself here]. It's because my loo isn't very well made and it stains really badly. I use the toilet brush to 'pump' [?] the water out of the bowl; I then pour Toilet Duck down it and leave it for as long as possible, then scrape away the limescale [I find tongue depressors are good for that]. And I sometimes use an old pumice stone. Eveything is then soaked in bleach [except for the tongue depressor; don't want to get that mixed up with a new one!]. And I love all these wipes you can buy now; got fridge/microwave ones; loo ones and stainless steel ones.

I hasten to add that I have failed to follow her very fine example...

Now I feel even more inadequate Ana

My granny used to go even further - she'd remove all the water from the bowl using a cloth and bucket before scrubbing with Vim etc.

I'm afraid my loos do need scrubbing. Years of too many males in the house and now a grandson with erratic aim. I can't bear toilet brushes, or even the thought of them sitting there breeding germs. My mum had the view that only the direct approach was acceptable - plenty of Vim or Ajax and a good scour with a cloth down the bowl. The cloth lived outside in the old coalhole. She didn't use rubber gloves either - she was pretty hardcore, my mum
Whilst I can't claim to be her equal, I have been known to don the rubber gloves and get my hand down there with an old pan scrubber. That way I know whatever is lurking down there has really gone.