“The John”, “the head”, “the porcelain throne”; no matter what funny little nickname you use to describe your toilet, there’s a good chance that when it comes time to clean it, you’re less than thrilled. Cleaning out your toilet can be especially tedious when you have to deal with all of the harsh chemical smells that come with using a traditional toilet cleaner.

There is another way to clean your toilet which is safer for the environment and easier on your scrubbing arm and your nostrils. The “green” way of cleaning sometimes also seems to be the easiest in the end. In this case, all you need to clean your toilet is baking soda, castile soap (vegetable based liquid soap), white vinegar, and an empty squeeze bottle (a cleaned out ketchup or mustard bottle will work fine).

Using a funnel (or just being very careful), add about 1/4 cup of baking soda to the squeeze bottle. Then add the castile soap to the bottle as well. Add as much soap as you’d like until you like the consistency. Once you have the baking soda and soap mixed, simply squirt the combination along the underside of the rim of the toilet as you would a regular cleaner. Let sit for a minute or two and then add the vinegar. The reaction between the vinegar and baking soda will do the cleaning so you don’t have to scrub. Afterwards, simply flush and you should have a nice clean toilet without having to scrub with harsh chemicals.