You probably know that you need to replace your toothbrush regularly in order for it to properly work, but the same goes for another type of brush in your bathroom — your toilet brush.
When it comes to a toothbrush, if you don’t replace it often enough, it can’t do its teeth-cleaning task. This is also true for the toilet brush. It needs to replaced (not as often as a toothbrush) to properly clean your toilet, said Melissa Maker, the founder of Clean My Space and host of the Clean My Space YouTube show.
“If the bristles aren’t firm anymore, they’re not going to be able to scrub and do their job,” Maker noted.
How often you need to replace your toilet brush depends on a few factors, here’s what to know:
Some experts say you should replace your toilet brush yearly.
Some people think it’s a “big toilet brush” conspiracy theory, but if you’re using a toilet brush to clean your toilet bowl, you “really should be replacing it about once every year,” said Jason Tetro, a microbiologist and author of “The Germ Code.” And there is nothing conspiratorial about that.
The bristles on the toilet brush physically break down, which makes them less effective for cleaning “stuff” off the sides of the toilet bowl, said Tetro.
“And when I say stuff, it’s not just simply visible, it’s also what we call invisible biofilms, because what ends up happening is, even if you have running water, bacteria can grow … and they can actually stick to hard surfaces. And over the course of time, they can grow communities, and that can be happening in your toilet bowl,” he said.
Some of these bacteria communities are visible — like the pinkish or yellowish line at the ring of the water in the toilet bowl — but some are colorless, he explained.
The toilet brush gets in there to break up the bacteria communities so that the water and toilet bowl disinfectant can remove them and kill them, Tetro noted.
“The idea behind toilet bowl cleaner is that it’s acidic-based. It’s going to break down hard water stains, soap scum, odors, bacteria, dirt, whatever exists there,” Maker said.
“The way in which that’s going to work is, of course, you apply the product, you let it sit, but then it needs to be agitated, and the agitation has to happen with a pretty firm bristle brush in order for that all to work,” Maker added.
The bristles won’t be as effective at getting rid of the bacteria if they’re worn down, which makes replacing the toilet bowl brush necessary.
But, if you don’t do that, replace it when it’s looking dingy or frayed.
While you certainly can replace your toilet brush each year (and Tetro said you should), if that isn’t realistic for you, you should at least replace it when the bristles are splayed or it’s looking grimy, Maker said.
“How often to replace your toilet bowl brush comes down to how frequently you’re using the toilet bowl brush, how frequently that bathroom is getting used, your subjective level of cleanliness,” Maker said.
“There are so many different ways and reasons and seasons for why you should be replacing a toilet bowl brush,” she noted.
Take a visual cue of the brush — if it looks dirty or if the bristles are frayed, that’s a good indicator that you need a new one. It won’t be able to properly clean if it’s weathered.
Witthaya Prasongsin via Getty Images
Bacteria can stick to the toilet brush bristles.
“Another thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that bacteria sticks to pretty much everything, but they really, really like to stick to things that are made from petroleum products, like polyester or plastic bristles,” Tetro said.
Meaning, bacteria will likely end up living on your toilet brush bristles.
If the bacteria is able to multiply and grow depends on a few factors, but if they have a source of water and nutrients on the bristles, and are warm enough (and bathrooms are generally pretty warm), they will, he added.
So, you should be cleaning your toilet brush in the interim.
Just because your toilet bowl brush is dunked in water and disinfectant every time you use it doesn’t mean it doesn’t need a proper cleaning, too.
Maker recommends that, off the bat, you should be giving your toilet brush a rinse and proper dry after every use — don’t just shove back into the toilet brush holder after using it.
“If the brush is not maintained properly, and what that means is if it’s not rinsed … and then allowed to drip dry … it will hold on to bacteria and odors and it’s going to become grosser faster,” Maker said.
To clean it, Maker said you can do a second flush after cleaning the toilet and allow the toilet brush to swish around the clean water as it flushes. Then, you can drip dry the brush over the toilet, she said.
“This is stuff that we’re not going to think about on a regular basis,” she added.
If you want to do a deeper clean, you can “fill a bucket with boiling hot water, add to a scoop of oxygen bleach powder, stir that up, get it bubbly, soak [your toilet brush and brush holder] for 30 minutes, rinse it well, allow it to air dry,” Maker noted.
How often you do this (and if you do this) is up to you, your bathroom habits and your cleaning habits, but Maker stressed that it doesn’t have to be done often. Even every six months or every year will suffice, she said.
For a more hands-off toilet brush cleaning regimen, Tetro said you can fill a reservoir, such as the toilet brush holder, with a disinfectant like hydrogen peroxide and simply soak the brush in there after each use.
“If you’re not going to do that, then as soon as you have finished using it to clean your toilet … then you should be spraying it with a disinfectant,” Tetro noted.
When doing this, be sure to leave the solution on the toilet brush long enough for it to work — generally, there are time instructions on the back of the disinfectant bottle which tell you how long the product needs to stay on to be effective. It’s usually around 10 minutes.
Having a clean toilet bowl brush is important for your health and overall bathroom cleanliness.
Having a clean toilet brush is important for more reasons than one. First, who doesn’t want a bacteria-free toilet brush that can properly clean your toilet?
Second, having a clean toilet, because of a clean toilet brush, is important for your bathroom as a whole.
“As we all know, if you don’t keep the lid down, there is a plume that comes every time you flush a toilet,” Tetro said.
That plume could be made up of whatever was recently deposited in the toilet or the biofilms sitting in the toilet bowl, he added.
The plume can go upwards of six feet from the toilet, Tetro said, “and within six feet of that toilet, you’re probably going to find a toothbrush, a hairbrush, makeup, and other things like razor blades that could potentially lead to contamination and then possible infection and other nasty things to your skin.”
In order to keep your bathroom as clean and safe as possible, you’ll want to tidy the toilet with a clean and not frayed toilet brush. The next time you use your toilet brush, take a look and see if it’s time for a new one.