A Tip from JG

I'm not your garden-variety housekeeper loaded with tips to make your day less boring and your house more picture-perfect. I vacillate between "OK" and "pretty awful" in my housekeeping skills. But here's a tip you need if you have more than one toilet in your house.

Once a few years ago I used one of my toilets and forgot to flush. Since I have three in my house, I didn't go back to that one for a couple of weeks. I was horrified when I walked into that bathroom and pulled the lid up to see the bowl full of the stuff we put in toilets. Immediately I hit the handle to flush it all down.

After a couple of flushes I was really surprised. I live in a hard-water part of the country, and this seldom-used toilet had heavy rings of mineral deposits before this experience. They vanished along with the material I'd dumped in there. It's true! My toilet bowl was sparkling clean.

The only thing I could figure out is that the bacteria and chemicals present in the flushed material cleaned up the mess for me.

I've tried the trick since then, and every time it works. I know there are other, more sophisticated ways to clean your toilet, and I also know that it takes a cooperative spouse or house-mate to do this, but here are the steps:

1. Before using the toilet, turn off the valve that brings water into the toilet after every flush.
2. After using the toilet, don't flush.
3. Close the lid.
4. Advise others in the house to use another toilet for a couple of days or at least not to flush if using this one.
5. In 2-3 days, flush the toilet.
6. Clean it if you want to, but you'll be startled to see how shiny clean it is.
7. Be sure the intake valve is open before using the toilet after it is clean.
   

This works for liquid or solid deposits, by the way.

If you're not 100% satisfied with the results, try again with solid waste and wait a week. Given enough effluent and enough time, any toilet bowl can be shiny white without your doing anything but flushing the toilet. Nothing to buy. No scrubbing. No special chemicals to add. Just Mother Nature. She does it all.