Have you ever cleaned a toilet, thinking it’s sparkling clean, only to find that your bathroom still smells off? If so, you might be making this one mistake.
Cleaning expert Mary, also known as Madame Sweat, frequently shares her amazing home cleaning and organizing tips on social media. And recently, she warned her followers about a mistake many people make that could be the reason your toilet isn’t as clean as you think it is.
According to Mary, many people put the toilet brush back in its holder after they’re done, but this is a no-no. That’s because after you’ve scrubbed the toilet bowl, the toilet brush is covered in germs and could have lingering feces on it, which is not only smelly but could also expose you to harmful bacteria.
Many people store the toilet bowl brush in the same place after cleaning, which can cause leftover germs to linger.
This is an unsanitary habit, according to the cleaning expert. “If you just cleaned the toilet with this and put it right back in here, that’s kind of nasty,” Mary says on Instagram, suggesting a better, and “hygienic,” way to do it instead.
Use some of the same toilet bowl cleaner to clean the toilet brush.
“After you have scrubbed the toilet, you want to squirt the toilet brush with the same toilet bowl cleaner that you used to clean the toilet,” Mary adds. “Then you want to spray it with hydrogen peroxide, which helps to kill germs. And then you want to clip the toilet brush in between like this, so that it air dries, and then put it back in the holder. That’s how you clean a toilet brush.”
Follow with hydrogen peroxide spray to disinfect the brush.
After seeing this post, many commenters realized why their toilets always seem to smell, even after cleaning — it was their germ-infested toilet brushes that they weren’t thinking to clean properly.
Prop the brush upside down to allow it to dry before replacing it in the holder.
“I clean my toilet til it shines but I never clean the brush,” one person wrote.
“Even when I do clean the brush, I don’t dry it, so it always stays damp and gets a smell,” another commented.
Bathroom cleaning mistake: No wonder the bathroom smells bad; the bacteria keeps building up
“Thank you so much for sharing the wonderful tip to clean the toilet brush. It really needs both the toilet cleaner and the germ-killing hydrogen peroxide to get it really clean and get rid of the harmful bacteria,” someone else said.
According to experts, keeping your toilet clean is essential. Dirty toilets and toilet brushes can harbor Streptococci bacteria, which can cause skin infections, such as a burning sensation or rash around the buttocks, perianal warts, or even impetigo, a bacterial skin infection that causes blisters and sores.
According to Law of Life