What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

03 February 2012

Sparkling Clean

So I didn't mean to leave you all hanging on my Green Living posts-- I've had this one in my head for weeks, but apparently they've been busy weeks. Or something. Usually I realise at about 10 PM on Friday that I forgot, again, to post.

This is what came up when I searched
for 'toilet'. I bet they don't worry about
getting the bowl clean. Source.
This week, I'm not so much going to make a suggestion as share something that I'm having trouble with, in the hopes that perhaps some bright spark out there will have a brilliant idea. My problem? Cleaning the toilet bowl. I can't think of an environmentally-friendly way to do it.

For years, I used the traditional blue goo and toilet brush. When my last brush broke, I decided to look into alternatives and have since owned about every handle + disposable cleaning head combination currently on the market (I can rarely find the refills I want when I'm looking. This had become an expensive habit for a while). Right now, I use the Clorox wand, which at least I can eject by picking up the trash can and holding it over the toilet, so I don't drip blue chemicals + toilet water on the floor. However, I'm sure you see the problem here, because it's a single-use product. I'm not wild about that sort of thing.

A few weeks back, I was out of refills and the two shops nearest my house (a supermarket and a dollar store) did not have the correct ones. So, I decided to make do and was scrubbing our guest toilet with Comet and a rag for a little while. But I wasn't happy with this solution, either, because 1. I wear disposable gloves when I put my hands into a toilet, so I was still throwing something away, and 2. The rag went into a hot water and bleach solution to disinfect afterwards. That's a small thing, true, but it's still more hot water and more chemicals. Not the solution I was going for.

On the chemical front, I know that Seventh Generation makes a toilet bowl cleaner. Perhaps I'll try that next. But that still leaves me with the problem of what to scrub with, and I fear that I am being pushed back into the icky, probably-falling-apart embrace of a regular toilet scrubber. I guess that's better than throwing so much stuff away.

Do you have an environmentally friendly solution to your toilet woes? Or is this outside your realm of worry?

8 comments:

Jenni at talking hairdryer said...

this is where I draw the line...some stuff you just gotta throw away.

but that's just me.

Misha Gerrick said...

I'm with Jenni on this one. :-)

Su said...

Hmmm. Maybe I'll worry less, then. The disposable bit is pretty small...

Liz A. said...

I have the same trouble with disposables. Just when I get to like one, I can no longer find it. 7th Generation and a brush for me.

Pearl said...

:-)

Some things just need to be scrubbed. No disposables over here, but Clorox Toilet Cleaner and a brush...

Pearl

Su said...

@Liz: Maybe I'll try 7th Generation next. I just want a sturdier brush!

@Pearl: I don't object to scrubbing, just to the products currently available. :/

Deniz Bevan said...

I wish I had an answer - I hope someone does. Would some sort of baking soda concoction and a brush work? Vinegar?

Su said...

Ah-- good point! I bet baking soda & vinegar would work.