If there's any place in your home that has the potential to stink, it definitely has to be your toilet. Everyday, all sorts of bodily wastes are flushed into your toilet, but just because it's where you urinate and defecate doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep it clean. The fact that you use it regularly means that you must maintain its cleanliness.

Your toilet may look clean, but there are many funky odors that lurk within that white porcelain throne you spend precious minutes on. Much of your lifetime will be spent in the toilet, and you won't have control over what is dumped into it for its lifetime. A smelly toilet is not a place where you would linger for too long, much less sit on. Here are some ways to get rid of that nauseating, vomit-inducing toilet smell.

Causes of Toilet Odors

Toilet odors can come from many different causes, including the following:

• Fecal matter. Make no mistake about it: feces smell bad. You, your family, and your guests will defecate so many dinner items over the course of a lifetime, and all of these will make their way to the toilet. With different digestive patterns and preferences in food, you can only imagine the stench that lurks in your toilet.
• Urine. Urine odors are every bit as unappealing and as nauseating as fecal odors. People will pee in your toilet, and you never know what they had to drink. Combine that with fecal matter, and you have a smell that nightmares are made of.
• An ineffective water seal. Most conventional toilets are water-sealed, which means that the odors are partially prevented from leaking out to the comfort room.
• Leaks. Some toilets may crack or leak at the bottom and at the base with time or excess weight. A poorly-installed toilet will leak for only a short time after you first used it.
• Clogging. Lots of stuff can leave your toilet clogged, from plastic materials to sanitary napkins. You may think that everything you dump into the toilet gets flushed down the septic tank or the sewer line, but some materials may remain clogged in the toilet's drain pipe. Over time, the smell of these residual materials will leak out of the toilet.

Give It A Thorough Cleaning

The only way to surely get rid of toilet odors is to give your toilet a thorough cleaning. It may seem to be an extremely nasty job, but no nasty odor was meant to be removed in a clean and dainty way. You need to get to those odor-causing microbes and other nasty bits of grime and muck found under the rim, and all over the toilet.

Tools

To clean your toilet thoroughly, you need the following tools:

• Toilet cleanser or muriatic acid
• Toilet brush
• Stiff sponge
• Synthetic rubber gloves
• Protective face mask

Do not attempt to clean your toilet without the proper protective equipment. Toilet cleanser or muriatic acid (also known as hydrochloric acid) can literally burn and eat away at your skin.

Do not mix muriatic acid with any other cleaning chemical, especially bleach. If you mix toilet cleanser and bleach together, you create and release chlorine gas that can knock you out or even kill you. Make sure that the comfort room is well-ventilated before you clean the toilet. Turn on the exhaust fans, open the windows and doors, and let fresh air circulate as you clean the toilet.

Steps

To clean the toilet, follow these steps:

1. Flush the toilet to dislodge the remaining grime and debris from the bowl and under the rim.
2. Place a liberal amount of muriatic acid on the bowl and under the rim of the toilet.
3. Scrub away at the interior surfaces of the toilet using the toilet brush.
4. Wash the exterior of the toilet using a sponge and more muriatic acid.
5. Flush the toilet to get rid of the acid on the interior surfaces of the toilet, and rinse the exterior with water.

Deodorize

If you own a restaurant business, chances are that your male urinals reek of urine smells. Urinal cakes and toilet deodorizers are very helpful in getting rid of odors and other smells that come from your toilet. Some establishments also use mothballs in place of urinal cakes to deodorize urinals or troughs. Urinal cakes and mothballs are inexpensive, and you should stock up the supply closet of your comfort room with them. If you don't have any urinal cakes at home, you can also try baking soda.

Another way to prevent odors from forming in your toilet is to use a toilet rim deodorizer. A deodorizer block is placed on the rim of the toilet, and releases deodorizing chemicals like borax, oxygen bleach, and sodium bicarbonate every time you flush. The water in the toilet is also colored either green or blue that indicates if the toilet has recently been flushed. Deodorizer blocks are cheap, and are a must-have if you have a really smelly toilet.

Disinfect

While most toilet odors come from grime and excrement, many bacteria and other microorganisms can give off offensive odors. It's very important for you to disinfect your toilet regularly. Here are some ways that you can do it:

• Pour bleach into the toilet after you have cleaned it. Do not mix or pour bleach in a toilet that contains muriatic acid.
• Make a disinfectant solution out of liquid soap or detergent and alcohol. Let it stand in the toilet water overnight.
• Add a small amount of vinegar or household ammonia into the toilet water and let it stand overnight. Flush the toilet the next day to get rid of the odors.

Call the Plumber

It's also very important for you to check the flushing mechanisms of your toilet. If your toilet does not flush the right amount of water, or does not have the power to flush down material dumped into your toilet, then you may need to have the cistern, or even the entire toilet, replaced. Contact a plumber to do this job for you. The plumber may also need to re-apply grout or sealant to the toilet to prevent cracks, fractures, or leaks.

Practice Good Toilet Hygiene

Just because you take a dump or take a leak on the toilet every day doesn't mean that you should not pay attention to its cleanliness. Routine maintenance and good toilet hygiene can help reduce and even eliminate bad odors from your toilet:

• Always flush the toilet after use.
• Do not throw plastic bags, used diapers, or sanitary napkins into the toilet. Remember that a toilet is not a trash can.
• Clean the toilet at least once a week.
• Unclog the toilet immediately if the waste material does not go down the drain completely after the first flushing cycle.

Toilets can definitely stink, especially if you allow the odor to stay there for too long. With the right cleaning and hygienic practices, toilets need not smell rank and disgusting.