Using Toilet Bowl Cleaners

In a recent post, I gave Dollar Tree's brand of household bleach a thumbs down. I'm back with a thumbs up for another of their products, toilet bowl cleaner.

I've been buying Dollar Tree's 'The Works Basic' toilet bowl cleaner for some time. It is very effective, has a nice light scent and costs a dollar for a 24 oz. bottle.

Using the cleaner as directed, I kept my bowl nice and clean, but I felt I was wasting a lot of the product. When aiming a stream of it under the rim, most of the cleaner runs into the water in the bowl.

All that product mixed with the water is not on the wall of the bowl and is not cleaning anything. It is wasted. I came up with an idea that solves this problem for me.

I filled a spray bottle with the cleaner. After the toilet is flushed and stops filling, with a sort of narrow stream, I spray just enough cleaner to get a thin covering inside the bowl.

That's it. No brushing, no nothing. This has kept a toilet bowl ring down to zero (while still using less product).

Once a week I use the cleaner as intended, aiming it straight from the bottle up under the rim, let it set a few minutes and then brush and rinse. The bowl is already clean, but this will prevent any buildup under the rim.

My new bath enclosure is a composite material. I wondered how effectively and how safely this same product would remove soap scum.

I tested a small area with the full strength product. It removed the soap scum easily, but did not harm the enclosure.

Now, to clean the tub and enclosure, I spray the bowl cleaner on both. After a couple of minutes, I wipe down the walls and tub with a wetted, old dish towel that I put over the bristles of a broom. Then I rinse.

This bowl cleaner is the best scum remover I've ever seen. It has a very low scent and rinses easily and thoroughly.