How Much Toilet Bowl Cleaner Do You Need To Use?

Cleaning your home, and especially your bathroom, is a task that is rarely something to look forward to. Not only are bathrooms a little grimey and harder to clean, but they're much smaller than other rooms in your home and often less ventilated. This can take the chore from mildly annoying to difficult, especially with so many strong chemicals floating around.

There are a few ways to reduce this, including opening windows, turning on fans, and wearing a respirator mask. Knowing how much of each product to use is also a good way to keep things under control. Not only that, but cleaning products can be expensive, and overusing them unnecessarily can very quickly add up. Some products are more intuitive. For example, use as much as you need to until your sink, bathtub, shower, or mirror is clean. However, not all of them are as clear — your toilet bowl, for example. There's no clear guidance on how much or little you should be using, and you may be flushing expensive cleaning products down the toilet — literally.

Applying toilet bowl cleaner is one of the easier aspects of cleaning your bathroom. Instead of spraying and respraying different cleaning products, the bottle is designed to fit under the rim of your toilet, allowing you to easily apply the cleaner. However, James Austin of Wirecutter says that you may be using too much product, depending on your toilet. While there aren't harmful side effects to too much cleaner, it could still be wasteful.

The ideal measurement for toilet bowl cleaner application is anywhere from 4 to 6 ounces, more if your toilet is larger or more heavily soiled. This is roughly ½ cup at the low end and ¾ cup at the high end. If you're feeling especially frugal with your toilet cleaner, consider getting some cleaning-specific measuring cups to make sure you don't go over measuring out the toilet bowl cleaner before application. Just ensure those same measuring cups don't end up in the kitchen.