How to clean the toilet

What to have ready

• All-purpose cleaner
• Toilet bowl cleaner
• Toilet bowl brush
• Paper towels
• Disposable gloves

Steps

1. 1

   Put on disposable gloves. Toilet gloves never touch another surface — if you reuse gloves, wash the gloved hands with soap and hot water before moving on.

   
2. 2

   Pretreat the outside in this order: lid, flusher, tank, seat lid, hinges, underside of the lid, top of seat, bottom of seat. Then spray the base and the floor area around the toilet — that is where the smell comes from.

   
3. 3

   Squirt toilet bowl cleaner under the rim and around the inside of the bowl. Leave it to work while you clean the mirror and vanity.

   
4. 4

   Come back and re-spray if the product has dried. Wipe each zone in the same order you sprayed, using a dry paper towel and an S-pattern. Change the towel as soon as it goes soggy and bin it — never flush it.

   
5. 5

   Take the bowl brush, scrub under the rim all the way round, then spiral down to the chute, scrubbing firmly. Push the brush in and out of the chute a few times.

   
6. 6

   Flush while holding the brush in the flow to rinse both bowl and brush. Rest the brush under the seat lid to drip-dry while you finish the room.

   
7. 7

   Wipe any remaining moisture off the outside with a fresh paper towel and check for hair or grime you missed.

   

Stained or smelly bowl? Tip a cup of Borax in overnight, then scrub and flush in the morning — it does the work while nobody is using it.