6 Toilet Hacks

A clean white bathroom.

The bathroom is one of the most used rooms in the house, which means it needs some attention from time to time. From cleaning and repair to saving water, here's some handy toilet hacks that you can start implementing today.

1. Fight Clogs With Dish Soap and Hot Water

Toilet clogs are pretty common, and even more common for low flow toilets that just don’t have enough power to get everything down. If you don’t have a plunger handy for whatever reason, you can unclog the toilet using dish soap and hot water. Simply squirt some dish soap into the toilet bowl, then pour down hot to boiling water.

2. Clean Toilet Brush While Storing It

A blue toilet brush leaning against its holder.

Considering toilet brushes are used to clean toilets, it only makes sense that they get pretty gross. And a dry toilet brush will collect all kinds of grossness like toilet water, mold, and worse. In order to help keep your toilet brush cleaner and smelling better, consider adding some bathroom or all-purpose cleaner to the toilet brush pan.

3. Clean With Vinegar

For an eco-friendly way to keep your toilet clean, use vinegar. Start by pouring vinegar directly into the toilet’s tank. Next, you can use vinegar to spray down the toilet seat and scrub it clean. To really get your toilet clean using vinegar, put on a pair of gloves, soak some toilet paper in vinegar, and put it up around the inside of the rim. Let it soak there for a while, and scrub the rest of the toilet with vinegar and your toilet brush. Next, you can remove the vinegar-soaked toilet paper using your handy toilet brush and finish scrubbing it clean before flushing it all away.

4. Find Leaks With Food Dye

A toilet tank with blue dye in it.

You can check to see if your toilet leaks through a malfunctioning flapper by adding some food dye to the tank. If the dye appears in the toilet bowl, it could mean you have a malfunctioning flapper. By replacing it you’ll be cutting down on your water use, and fortunately it’s a pretty easy fix.

5. Save Water With a Brick

A lot of people suggest using a brick as a way to conserve water. Instead of using a brick, which could break apart and clog your tank, you can use a plastic bottle or jug with sand or rocks. By doing this, you can save around half a gallon of water per flush by displacing water in your toilet tank.

6. Scent Toilet Paper Rolls

A roll of toilet paper on a silver holder.

Toilets aren’t always known to be the most nicely scented rooms in the house, but there are different ways you can freshen up the place. While matches, candles, and air fresheners all work, another thing you can do is add essential oils to the inside of your toilet paper roll, directly onto the toilet paper roll. The cardboard toilet paper roll will soak in the oil and scent the room for some time. However, be sure not to use the last remaining sheets of toilet paper if the essential oil has soaked through.

Hints and help

Additional info