Once upon a time, I made a few huge batches of my regular sea salt bath fizzies and postpartum bath fizzies as gifts for friends who were expecting babies.

Natural Effective Toilet Cleaning Fizzies Recipe I kept a few of the ones that broke when I removed them from the molds and was planning to use them myself. I had them in a bag by my bathtub and my one year old got into them (in true one-year old fashion). She was going through a phase of putting everything in the toilet, and these were no exception.

My first reaction was to stifle my annoyance for yet another thing being thrown in the toilet, and then I was angry that I wouldn’t get to use the bath fizzies myself.

I didn’t want to flush the toilet until they finished fizzing since I wasn’t sure that would be good for the pipes. As I stood there watching them fizz and mourning the loss of my relaxing bath, I noticed that the toilet seemed to be getting cleaner as they fizzed.

I used the toilet brush to make sure they had all dissolved and when I flushed the toilet, I was shocked how clean it was. I realized that the bath fizzies had a lot of ingredients that were naturally detoxing, and that these ingredients also worked great for detoxing and cleaning toilettes.

I played with the recipe to make it a little more potent since it wouldn’t need to be gentle enough for skin. The result was an inexpensive, easy-to-make, highly effective toilet cleaning disk. The best part? The kids love using these because they are fun, so my toilets are getting cleaned three times per week or more.

These freshen the bathroom and leave the toilet sparkling. I store them in an air-tight glass jar in the bathroom and use them as needed. I’ve found that if stored correctly, they keep for months.

Natural Toilet Cleaning

If you are still using the “call the poison center if you eat, drink, inhale or look at this wrong” type cleaners, try these instead. All of the ingredients are food grade and can be used in cooking (though I definitely wouldn’t eat them because of the concentration of baking soda and citric acid).

Note: I haven’t tried flushing the toilet before this has fully dissolved, but I would not suggest trying it (I’m thinking that kind of pressure in pipes isn’t the best idea!)

4.43 from 28 votes

Natural Toilet Cleaning Fizzies Recipe

Make natural toilet cleaners using food grade ingredients such as baking soda, citric acid, and essential oils.

Prep Time20

Author: Katie Wells

Equipment

A misting spray bottle with water or vanilla extract

Materials

2 cups baking soda
⅔ cup citric acid
essential oils (I used 30 drops each of lemon and orange)

Instructions

In a glass bowl, mix together the baking soda and citric acid in a glass bowl. I suggest wearing a mask and some latex gloves for this to protect your skin and eyes.
Slowly mist the dry powder with water, mixing as you go. You want to barely wet the powder to get it to stick together in the mold. Literally, 1-2 sprays should be enough. Too much will cause fizzing.
Add the essential oils and continue mixing.
Using a ½ or 1 teaspoon measure, scoop out spoonfuls and place them on a piece of parchment paper until dry. You could also use a silicon mold for this step.
Let the fizzies dry overnight and carefully place in an airtight container to use as needed.

Notes

I haven’t tried flushing the toilet before this has fully dissolved, but I would not suggest trying it (I’m thinking that kind of pressure in pipes isn’t the best idea!)

More natural bath cleaning recipes here.

What do you use to clean your bathroom? Ever came up a recipe randomly like this?

Natural toilet cleaning fizzies are a great and effective way to clean a toilet without chemicals. They contain baking soda, citric acid and essential oils.

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

133 responses to “Natural Toilet Cleaning Fizzies”

Rene Sasse

November 5, 2014

I use baking soda and vinegar, just flush toilet to get sides wet, sprinkle baking soda around inside of bowl, spray with vinegar, let sit 3-5 minutes, brush & flush, cheap, safe and east and works great….

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Brie

November 5, 2014

I made a batch yesterday and I tried them today, buy when I dropped one on the toilet it did not fizzed. Any Ideas why?

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Ashley

October 30, 2014

I made these and I used 1 tsp, and got 60. But if I ever do it again I will skip the misting part and just mix the powder and keep it in a jar and scoop out 1 tsp at a time. Way too much time making them into molds and I also did not understand “wet sand” so mine puffed up a little. But they clean and smell nice. Without the hassle of misting the right amount and making into molds I would rate the powder itself a 5.

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1. Amanda
  
  November 4, 2014
  
  I really like your idea! Make it, stick it in a mason jar, and just scoop into the toilet. Did it fizz?
  
  Reply
Anna

October 29, 2014

So disappointed. I too wish I’d read the comments before making this. The recipe really needs to be changed to indicate how little water is needed. It said wet sand, so that’s what I aimed for and really didn’t add much water. Big, puffy mess. What a waste! Hardly fizzes at all in the toilet. 🙁

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Laura

October 21, 2014

The first time I made bath bombs I had the same exploding problem but then I figured out never to add water! I use nice oil to get the baking soda and citric acid to the wet sand consistency. For this recipe I think I will try a little pure olive oil to get it to hold together but not water.

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Jaime

October 21, 2014

So excited to try this! We just started making our own cleaners and blogging about it ourselves! Sounds like a chore my kids won’t complain about.

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Lise

October 20, 2014

I also used too much water… 🙁 Today they came out right, and I can’t wait to see them when I take them out of the mould 🙂 But the ones I used too much water in, I found a slightly different way of use 🙂 I put two “cakes” in a pan I had cooked porridge in, and in was bit brown and burnt. (The kids liked to look at the little fizz, and the pan was in the sink). But after 1-2 hours the pan was almost clean, I could use a brush and carefully brush out rest of the brown parts! So thank you for this recipe, it came out great even if I did it wrong the first time 🙂

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Wendy

October 18, 2014

Mine are puffing and fizzing too. I should have read all of the comments before trying this. Quite disappointing as the ingredients aren’t cheap and I hate to waste my EOs. Maybe the instructions should be revised to indicate that very little water is needed – that’s not what I thought from reading these directions.

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Stephanie

October 14, 2014

Mine didn’t work either and I read through all the comments and she hasn’t answered any of the previous questions from people who had the same problems.:/ I was so excited but now really disappointed

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1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  October 14, 2014
  
  If they fizzed too much when making, likely too much water was added. They should be barely the consistency of sand and stick together loosely when squeezed. If they fizzed while you were making them, that is likely why they didn’t work.
  
  Reply
Lisa

October 14, 2014

Having the same fizzing and overflowing problem. Not sure what I’ve done wrong and if I’ll be able to use. Do you know Katie? thanks!

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1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  October 14, 2014
  
  It is likely from adding too much water. I literally only added a few squirts of water. They are still usable, but won’t fizz as much because they already have fizzed some.
  
  Reply
Amanda

October 8, 2014

Aww man after reading the comments I’m a little bummed! I was all excited to go home and make these, but I’m going to wait for Katie’s suggestions, which will hopefully better explain how to make them fizzy and fun! Thanks Katie!! I LOVE your website.

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Megan

October 6, 2014

I had the same problem with the reaction taking place and the mixture kept expanding. Was this due to too much water? I added more baking soda and just kept pushing it back down. After my balls were made and put in the toilet (I tried before they had hardened for a day) the fizzy was very minimal in the toilet and I don’t see a huge improvement in the cleanliness. What are your thoughts on this? Do you use the toilet brush in addition to the fizzies? Thanks!

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Colleen Haley

October 5, 2014

found this a few days ago. found the citric acid. Made this today.
I’m not sure what went wrong, probably too much water, the whole time I was
scooping, it was growing. my 1 tsp scoop spread out bigger than a silver dollar. It says wet sand,
I made it wet sand. It is now dry and i took one to the toilet and dropped it in, nothing happened. just melted and sank to the bottom. After I was finished i have decided this is how school kids make volcanoes. I would also like to know where you get the silicon mold that is only a tsp size. im not going to rate this because i would really like it to work, if someone can tell me what i did wrong.

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Jen

October 4, 2014

Mine are all puffed up too….what did i do wrong? Or should they do this?

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1. Jack
  
  March 27, 2016
  
  You didn’t do anything wrong. The citric acid and sodium bicarbonate reacted to make carbon dioxide and sodium citrate. You should use only essential oil and not any water. No idea why this recipe even calls for any water it’s completely ass-backwards from a chemistry standpoint. May as well just buy sodium citrate (which is dirt cheap) rather than add water to the mixture.
  
  Just mix equal parts citric acid and baking soda (or washing soda for heavy duty cleaning) and add essential oil till you can mix it around and then let it dry out being absolutely sure that no water gets on any of the mixture. Store in a plastic (do not use glass) container that is completely dry and air-tight.
  
  I recommend diluting your essential oil in a cheap carrier oil so you don’t end up wasting a bunch of essential oil.
  
  Reply
  1. Mo
    
    April 23, 2016
    
    Thanks! I just used your method, it makes total sense and worked beautifully!
    
    Reply
  2. Anna Ehredt
    
    January 25, 2018
    
    Hi there,
    
    I have Lemi-Shine on hand for other homemade products. Would that work as the citric acid portion?
    
    Reply
  3. Rebecca
    
    January 25, 2020
    
    Thanks for the sensible comment! Very helpful
    
    Reply
Betsy

October 2, 2014

I made these last night. I don’t know if I used too much water? They began fizzing while I was making them and puffing up.

But I continued in with them and left them to dry over night. They dried just fine. But they didn’t fizz when I put them in the toilets. Any suggestions are welcome from those who have made them! I LOVE this idea and will try again.

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Krystel Watts

October 2, 2014

I’ve been using Baking soda and vinegar with success but love the fun factor of this! Great accidentally find – thankyou 1 yr old! hahha. I’ve also had success with washing soda (4 parts) and sodium per-carbonate (1 part) scoop into the toilet bowl – let sit for few mins, scrub and flush…..I was thinking I could play with your recipe and this one and create some cleaning fun too! Thanks for the inspiration Katie. Your such a blessing to so many peoples lives….

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Fran

September 30, 2014

Hi Katie,
Thank you so much for this great post.
When you put them in the mold, do you press them down with your fingers to compress and is it ok to fill to the top of the mold? How long do you leave them to dry? Do they come out of the mold whole or tend to crumble?
Sorry for so many questions but I am excited to try this.
Thank you again. I love your site. Your toothpaste recipes have been awesome.

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Anita

September 28, 2014

Hi Katie, this sounds awsome. one question… are they ok for septic systems??

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1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  September 29, 2014
  
  I’ve used them without any issues, but always do your own due diligence if you’re worried about it.
  
  Reply
Prachi

September 28, 2014

Can we replace baking soda to washing soda

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1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  September 29, 2014
  
  I haven’t tried, but let me know if you do!
  
  Reply
2. istuke
  
  November 21, 2014
  
  If you use washing soda, be sure to wear gloves and be very careful not to inhale the dust. Washing soda is a more harsh natural chemical than baking soda. I thought about trying it this way, too!
  
  Reply
3. Lynn
  
  May 27, 2018
  
  Yes, you can. Washing soda is more potent, so I think it would be better than baking soda. Washing soda can be made from baking baking soda in the oven! 🙂
  
  Reply
Adriana

September 25, 2014

Is the essential oil necessary? Wondering if I can make it without it. Thanks!

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1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  September 29, 2014
  
  It is just for scent and a little extra cleaning power but you can leave it out
  
  Reply