Toilet brush

Isn't it possible to use vinegar to get rid of limescale - and avoid all that scrubbing?

For the people who say they never have a loo brush what are guests expected to use if they leave (sorry to sound crude) skid marks round the bowl.

Are they expected to put their hand down there to remove it?

I use one of those moist toilet tissues (which hardly ever seem to get used for their primary purpose and dry up and get useless incredibly fast)) to clean above the waterline. I spray seat and bowl with bathroom cleaner, wipe with moist tissue and then flush it away. My caravan mini-toilet-brush cleans below the waterline.

I just use a microfibre cloth to clean the loo (after it has been flushed), rinse it with flush water, squeeze out over the loo bowl, then wash the cloth. I don't wear rubber gloves to do this but I do wash my hands afterwards.

As for the fridge possibly probably being 'dirtier' than the loo, maybe so, but so what? I put the food in containers. It is not touching anything dirty.

And we don't suffer from tummy bugs as a result of either of these methods.

I think a lot of people are really hung up about germs.

janerowena, I find your method perfectly sensible. Don't have a problem with it at all except that I don't have a dishwasher and rarely use a loo brush.

You can buy a bleach to use in France if you have a fosse. I use Javel Lemon (but not liberally) and if you read the small print says it's ok for 'fosse septique'. Been using it for the past few years with no adverse problems. I also use the 6 monthly Eparcyl .

I buy the cheapest toilet brushes (usually 99p) and replace them often. The thought of putting one in the dishwasher turns my stomach!

Oh, on the subject of the thread. I pour a load of bleach down the loo every week and then leave the loo brush in it to soak. Flush it an hour or so later, the flushing water rinses the bleach out of the brush and flushes the bleach into the drains. Two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Oh and this is in England where we are on mains drainage.

'fosse', French for a septic tank. We have one at our house in France and also are very careful not to put bleach down it. Mains drainage is rarely available in France once you move outside a village nucleus. Even places like Normandy, where our house is, where farm houses seem to be scattered along the roadside every few hundred metres.

Like Bez we put powders down it, a big pack every six months and 2 small ones at the beginning and end of each visit, which I think are based on fullers earth but also include 'friendly bacteria' and something to encourage them to multiply.

Ah, I see now! I love my steam cleaner and so far no accidents!

I didn't mean steam cleaners are dangerous to the environment but I think a steam cleaner can be dangerous if not use carefully - I,ve managed to scald my fingers now and then. It is compressed boiling water after all.

Maybe to use! Yes, it's the limescale that is annoying as it then over time becomes stained. I had a friend many years ago who simply changed her loos every few years rather than try to get rid of the limescale.

rockgran I'm confused by your post of 14.06, this bit:

"If you google it the pro-bleach hits come up first. By any argument it is a dangerous substance. Then again so is a steam cleaner"

Are you saying that steam cleaners are dangerous?

I couldn't actually bring myself to read the whole thread, but I thought I would add that the average fridge in the UK is far dirtier and more germ-ridden than the average lavatory. (This is probably true for many other countries as well.)

Should perhaps have made it clear that the build-up that needs getting off with elbow grease (and definitely not anything that scratches) is limescale not anything else! I just use a normal bathroom spray without bleach and then a special gel for septic tanks.

Not Vim then. Be gentle with it......

Once when I was working for water company we had an "incident" which involved very brown, iron-laden water. I visited one complaining customer who was concerned that
a/ the inside of her toilet bowl was all brown marks. It was obvious that she must have been cleaning it with wire wool as there were lots of scratches in the porcelain, which of course attracted iron particles and stained
b/ she then lifted the lid of the cistern and complained that the inside of it was stained. Straight face was maintained at this point and I was able to swiftly pass the whole complaint on to the company's loss adjuster (she wanted a complete new suite).
I doubt whether scouring powder is recommended by the manufacturer. Any more than wire wool. You'll just create lots of little scratches for germs to make their homes in.
You can overdo this concern about toilet cleaning folks. Its a toilet. You don't eat out of it. If you sterilise it , it will stay sterile until the next bowel movement and then a ten billion germs will move straight back in.

Re cat dishes.
I wash my dishes in the bowl, cat dishes are washed in the sink, and stacked separately. My dirty dishes never get put in the sink, as it also gets used for other things like washing flower pots in season etc.
(I keep them out of sight in the bowl in the cupboard under the sink! Shh!)

I scrub round the bend every week, otherwise it builds up very quickly. Obviously, we can't use bleach and without bleach you need elbow grease.

Thank you folks for this thread.
Some people have particular problems and I'm one. Hard water; colitis, which is messy, and my medication,which reacts with bleach to produce a brown stain!

Not averse to using Vim but have not seen it in the shops for a long while - is it back? Other ideas here may be useful!

Somewhere I have some heavy duty rubber gloves - where?
Must find them. I have been alerted.

Hard water can make scrubbing necessary. On the odd occasion. When you have neglected to do the routine brush-round for a while. It is possible, in extreme cases, for limescale to narrow the 'round the bend' bit. And blockage can occur. Necessitating the use of rubber gloves and a bucket.

I have never scrubbed a loo in my life - would it be too gruesome to ask why it's needed!

I'm a thick bleach kind of girl - the cheap one from Waitrose does the trick.

With all this extreme cleaning going on, I'm not surprised we are all using too many antibiotics

Bez, no bleach here either because of the septic tank, but I do buy the six month treatment to save having to remember every week. Bit of a pain if someone gets put on antibiotics just after you have done it though!

Sorry, but I,m not convinced that bleach is not dangerous to the environment - most of the pro-bleach publicity is published by the bleach industry. If you google it the pro-bleach hits come up first. By any argument it is a dangerous substance. Then again so is a steam cleaner. I do use bleach occasionally but try to avoid it if possible.
By the way I didn't mean carpet in the bathroom - I meant accidents anywhere in the house (by pets or children) can be safely steamed away
Does no- one else use a steam cleaner?
I love the fact that on Gransnet you can have a discussion on bleach at six in the morning.

tiggy my mum cleaned everything to the point of destruction. I daren't hang around when she was at it or I would have got scrubbed, polished and dusted. She was never happier than when she was cleaning. I am not my mother's daughter!!