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

Yield:

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.

Sources

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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”

Farouk D. Baxter

March 25, 2016

One thing I know is that citric acid is acidic while baking soda is alkaline; chemically when one adds baking soda to a citric acid solution the baking soda neutralizes the acid and produces carbon dioxide gas in the process (your bubbles). I have never used this combination for cleaning toilet bowls, but I would think that citric acid in solution had to be more effective as a cleaner than the resulting sodium citrate!

Reply
cheryl

March 23, 2016

thanks katie!
no luck with vinegar and a toothbrush:(
if i find something that works i’ll post back here 🙂

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cheryl

March 18, 2016

dear katie – most importantly, thank you for everything! amazing content, attention to detail and your honesty. i just read the dark side of blogging and thank you for laying it all out there.

do you have any suggestions for removing hard water stains from white toilets please?
we live in arizona and no amount of scrubbing with a brush and baking soda has been effective.

appreciate if you have time to reply or if anyone else has suggestions please.

thanks!!

Reply
1. Wellness Mama
  
  March 20, 2016
  
  Have you tried pure white vinegar?
  
  Reply
2. Leslie
  
  May 29, 2016
  
  EWG recommends CLR as do many people for removing scale: http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/5537-CLRCalciumLimeRustCleaner
  Not a perfect score, but I think it’s a surprisingly good score.
  
  Reply
3. Lindsey
  
  August 13, 2016
  
  get a pumice stone for the toilet! works wonders!
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Pumie-Toilet-Bowl-Remover-TBR-6/dp/B000BPRDCW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=wellnessmama-20&linkId=e226e157fd739870635c0ce491df821f&language=en_US
  
  Reply
Veronica Rodriguez

March 16, 2016

Hey darlin I attempted to make these and for some reason when I added the misting spray (vanilla extract and water) it started to fizz. Did I do something wrong and then they also began to expand so when I attempted to separated them into the ice trays they expanded and foam over even with the small 1/2 teaspoon serving size. Then when i put them in the toilet and just dissolved, no fizzing. Please help I need to know what I did wrong before I attempt again.

Reply
1. Wellness Mama
  
  March 17, 2016
  
  It will fizz when the water is added, but the trick is to add just enough to moisten and pack down as it does so that it will fizz when added to the toilet. If too much is added at the beginning, the reaction occurs too early.
  
  Reply
Tina

February 7, 2016

does this clean under the rim as well or does it only fizz up midway?

Reply
1. Wellness Mama
  
  February 7, 2016
  
  It might depend on how deep the water in your toilet is… If you have a low flush toilet it may not get up high enough. I still have to brush under the rim in my toilet anyway, just in case.
  
  Reply
Aggie Villanueva

January 16, 2016

I have two questions

1. If I keep it in the dry stage to store and scoop out 1 tsp for each toilet does it store as long as the molded recipe?

If I follow your original recipe is it safe to use plastic ice cube trays for molds?

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Julie Kudron

November 30, 2015

I just made my first batch, but altered it a tad. Instead of water I used thieves cleaner and for my EOs I used Thieves and Lemon.
I can’t wait to try this! I have a couple of very old toilets that I can’t get clean no matter what I try. I’m hoping this works!

Reply
Rosalore

November 10, 2015

Sounds great, but how do I use them?????
Put them into the toilet and wait until they dissolve?How long will that take?
Or do I need to leave them in there for hours?

Rosalore

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Anne

July 15, 2015

I was so excited to make these. They came out great and the fizzing is really fun. But I’ve been using them for about a month, and they are really ineffective at cleaning my toilets. Two stars, because I’m going to have to start using something else. 🙁

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Diane

June 29, 2015

Tried it. Liked it. Added some tea tree oil to kick it up a notch (a little tea tree oil goes a long way). They made my bathrooms smell really nice, and my toilet bowls are cleeeeeaaannnn. I don’t think a mask is necessary. Neither citric acid nor baking soda are toxic…both can be ingested. When you spray it, powder doesn’t fly up in your face.

Reply
Jenn

May 9, 2015

Made these and they came out great. After reading the comments I was very cautious to not over water. I used a fine mister that I keep in the kitchen with lemon essential oil already in it that I use to spruce up the sink when company comes over. I used a whisk and held the bottle high up and continually whisked only giving it one spray at a time. The mixture will not look wet, will actually look crumbly. If you wait until it looks like sand I think you have put too much water because you still have to add the oils which makes it even wetter. I just kept checking between my fingers. If you drop some of the mix in the sink it should fizz, if it doesn’t fizzed it has too much water. This didn’t work for me on the cookie sheet, worked perfectly using 1 heaping kitchen spoon in mini muffin pans. 1 recipe made 45 heaping muffin molds. Pressed down it is 1/2- 2/3 full. Easy to get out when they are dry and have a nice shape. I just kept pressing the last few crumbs a second time around to get them to really mold. Dehydrated a few lemon and orange slices in the oven, dropped a few of the essential oils on these, glued them to a swing top mason jar and they look nice on the back of the toilet and smell fresh when you open the jar. I am going to try them for the holidays with pine fragrances and pieces of fresh pine + dried cranberries in the jar. Fun, thanks for the recipe Katie!

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Amy

March 14, 2015

I made the fizz bombs and they came out nicely, fizzed a little bit during the mixing process but it resembled “wet sand” and it molded and all. But when dropped into the toilet, they did not fizz at all.
They are all hard and dry and smell lovely but no fizz :(. What went wrong?

Reply
Erin

March 3, 2015

I made a half size recipe. I put the dry ingredients in the glass bowl, mixed together. I added about 60 drops of lavender essential oil. Thoroughly mixed that into the powders, and put into a glass jar. I added two teaspoons to the toilet and very little fizzing. Curious as to why the powders are not causing a bigger reaction in the water. Do I need to add more cleaning powder to the toilet? Help!

Reply
1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  March 3, 2015
  
  I’d probably add more citric acid. I haven’t tried it as a powder though so I’m not really sure.
  
  Reply
  1. Erin
    
    March 4, 2015
    
    Thank you for your response. I will add some extra citric acid and see if that won’t be a little more “bubbly”. Appreciate your natural cleaning ideas!
    
    Reply
Camille

February 20, 2015

Hi there! I was so thrilled to find this recipe. I tried them today and when I misted them with water, they started fizzing, and when I scooped them out onto a cookie sheet, they continued to “grow” until they were just a flat pancake of mixture in my cookie sheet! I just threw the whole mess into a jar, but it has continued to fizz and grow and it’s overflowing the jar! I put a couple spoonfuls into my toilets but it’s continuing to grow. What happened?!

Reply
1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  February 24, 2015
  
  Probably too much water. It has to be added very slowly.
  
  Reply
Rhonda

December 23, 2014

I use witch hazel in a spray bottle. It is much easier, and I haven’t really had a batch not work. One time I got close, and it looked like it was going to “grow” a little. I quickly sifted a little more baking soda in and mixed with my hands. It dried the batch enough I didn’t lose all the fizz.

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Debra Oatman

December 22, 2014

Mine never hardened. And they just plopped into the toilet with no fizz. I am certain I added too much water because I was striving for a nice tight clump in my hand. I fixed it by adding 1 part baking soda and 1/2 part citric acid and after I mixed it in, I spooned some into the toilet to see if it worked. It did. So then I just used a tablespoon from my silverware and pressed a heap into it to form my balls. They aren’t real pretty, but I thought it would be easier than using my snowflake silicone mold and trying to get them out of it.

If it won’t form a clump on the spoon just spray one spray of water and mix well and try again, repeat one spray at a time until it forms a clump that will come off the spoon without breaking up.

Reply
Tria

November 21, 2014

When misting the mixture, (use a fine mist sprayer) only squirt 2 – 3 times. Then, mix the mixture some more, mist again. Repeat until the mixture has the look of sand that is almost dry, but can be formed. (Think crazy sand or kinetic sand texture). I use witch hazel instead of water, it seems to hold together better.
The important thing is to never get any area really wet. The citric acid will begin to fizz if you do.
Wear gloves, the citric acid will irritate your hands if you make a lot of this.
Hope this helps!

Reply
1. Rhonda Stewart
  
  November 22, 2014
  
  I always keep some baking soda in my sifter, ready. If I get it too wet in any spot, I just sift in some soda a mix to “dry” it out. I mix with a wisk, which sounds weird, but works well. I use witch hazel, also.
  
  Reply
terry

November 17, 2014

I just made these. Before I could scoop them into dollops or an ice cube tray, they fizzed to the top of the bowl. They are outside drying and the dollops have spread off the parchment sheet, and the ones in the ice cube tray are overflowing. The consistency of wet sand must be different for different people; must have made mine too wet, but hate to waste the ingredients. Could I just add the essential oils to the soda and citric acid, seal in a glass jar and dip out into the toilet bowl? Also, is this safe to use to scrub nonporcelain tubs and showers surrounds?

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Elise

November 14, 2014

I, too, had the same fizzing up problem. Now I just have a mess 🙁

Reply
Tammy

November 8, 2014

My did not puff up but they will not hold together either. So what did I do wrong?

Reply