Humans are curious creatures. They evolved because of their curiosity and knowledge gathered from testing out those curiositie - in a good way or a bad way. However, there is both practical and theoretical knowledge. 

Some are best in theory and some are in practice. When we are faced with the question ‘can I use bathroom cleaner in the kitchen’ - we immediately know that this is a theoretical question and can be answered by analyzing some facts. 

We do not have to go out there and test them to find out. Just a simple deduction method will give us the answer. So, let us find out!

Bathroom cleaner

First, we will talk about bathroom cleaners or bathroom cleaning solutions. Bathroom cleaners or bathroom cleaning solutions are those products that we use to clean walls, tiles, tubs, basins, fixtures, floors, and counters. 

These products must be listed as such under the guidance of Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, for instance, sanitizers and disinfectants. However, there will be no toilet bowl cleaners in that list.

Types of bathroom cleaners

Now that we know what a bathroom cleaner is, a fear must have been instilled because of all the ‘-cide’ suffixes. They are meant to kill. So, we may already know that they should not go anywhere near the kitchen, but we will thoroughly investigate the bathroom cleaners to properly understand and get a full picture.

Yes! Bathroom cleaning products have many types and include detergents, soaps, and other chemicals that are meant to kill bacteria, germs, and remove contaminants from various parts of our bathrooms and make our bathroom safe and healthy.

With the invention of the cleaning solution for toilet bowls revolutionized the way people cleaned their toilets. The inventor of the first ever toilet cleaning solution was Harry Pickup. He lived on Roscoe street in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. 

He named his solution - Harpic. Concurrently, the soap making ventures were also in place. Nicholas Leblac, a chemist from France, was making efforts to create various kinds of soaps for various purposes. 

His method for making soap was to combine soda ash with fats. In America, this process greatly vitalized the soap making industry. Today, we have so many types of bathroom cleaning products. We will try to give you a comprehensive list of the types.

Liquid Cleaners

The most common form of toilet bowl or bathroom cleaners is liquid solutions. These are chemical formulas. Solution is sprayed in the inside of the toilet and the rim, and then cleaned with a toilet cleaning brush. 

Best is to use two different tools to clean the toilet. One brush for the outside and the other is for the inside of the bowl. There are also clip-ons that you have to clip to the bowl and let it hang on the inside, and it cleans the bowl with every flush. 

Kaboom, Lysol, etc., are examples of liquid toilet cleaner. These can remove hard water build up, rust, limescale,etc. With these solutions you can make your toilet stain free in an instant. The main attraction is that with a spray system you will not waste extra liquid. You will not have to pour them from a bottle. It is possible to have better reach than other systems as well.

Bowl cleaning Tablets

You can sanitize your toilet bowl easily with just a flush. All you have to do is drop a tablet in the water tank of the toilet, and then flush. This tablet is able to kill germs or bacteria like strep, staph, E. Coli, and Salmonella. 

These four are regular residents of your toilet bowl. The main content of the tablets is bleach. Once you flush, the bleach runs through all the hard stains and grimes, and prevents them from sticking. Although you still need to use a brush to clean some part of the bowl, bleach cleans the rest. 

The tablets kill harmful things, and also the inside of the bathroom is refreshed with a nice scent. Although the smell of bleach is a bit sharp on our nose, we would not mind this smell in exchange for the dirty and filthy smell of the toilet bowl. 

Toilet Wipe Dispensers

These are wet wipes for toilets’ outside and outside. There are also dry wipes in this type of dispensers for toilet cleaning. You will have to use extra foamy soap to get the maximum effect of the wipe. 

Wipes are not flushable through the toilet bowl, so you need to put a trash basket beside the toilet so you can dispose of them in the trash. Although some people tend to flush them down the toilet, doing so can clog the plumbing pipes and overflow your toilet. The best wipes are Clorox’s Disinfecting Wipes. 

They can fill the bathroom air with refreshing fragrant smell, completely destroy germs and grimes for upto two days. Many wipes will come with paper holders, and storage holders. In the market there are so many unique options with different colors, designs, sizes, and extra features. Try to buy something that goes with your particular taste.

Toilet Powder Cleaner

The next type of toilet cleaner we are going to talk about is in powdered form. To use this type, you will need microfibre cloth, rubber gloves, brush or sponges, etc. The powder is very strong and can harm your skin. 

That is why you need to wear protective gloves for the protection of your skin. PLEASE note that you should keep bathroom and kitchen rubber gloves separate, and we do not have to tell you why, right?

This way you can keep the problems of the toilet in the toilet. Do not buy products of shabby quality. If you do, you may have to purchase very often and waste more money. The Earthborn Elements’ Pure Borax powder is the best cleaning powder in the industry. 

This powder is chemical free and contains sodium borate. You will be able to find the ingredient predominantly in detergents, soap, and deodorizers. Create a paste of borax to remove the stains from the toilet. After applying the paste, let it sit for a few minutes, after that scrub the whole toilet for some time. 

You can also use baking soda to remove stains. This soda is an awesome toilet cleaner. Take a spoonful of soda powder and mix it with water to create a paste. Now, rub it on the outside and inside, and scrub all over the outside and the inside of the toilet with a brush. Let it sit for half an hour. After that, wash with water. If you have a hard stain, use vinegar in the soda instead of water.

Gel-Based Toilet Cleaners

There are two types of gel cleaners for toilets. The first one comes inside a squeezable bottle. Squeeze the bottle, the gel is out to the toilet bowl, scrub, let it sit for some time, and then flush with water. Gel disc is the other toilet cleaner. Attach the disc inside the toilet rim, and it works with the flush. 

The gel disc very slowly releases disinfectant into the bowl to disinfect it. Among the two, this one is preferred because of convenience. Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaner offers the best gel discs. You can rest assured for about a week while the disc keeps your toilet safe, clean, and healthy. 

The disc releases a solution that keeps the air inside the bathroom breathable and fragrant. This item is the best for the people who do not always want to get physical for toilet cleaning.  

Scented Toilet Cleaners

Scented toilet cleaners have two distinct forms - gel and liquid. The usual toilet cleaning solutions or products leave a kind of unpleasant scent in the bathroom. However, liquid and gel cleaners do not. 

These products have natural ingredients as their production material. They will leave the bathroom air with a nice scent after use. There are many products in the market, for example, Click Gel Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner from Lysol. 

Manufacturers use various flower essences like Lilac or Lavender or essential oils made from them as the production materials, so you get this scent in the air. Once you press the applicator you will get the nice scent. If you wish to make your own cleaning you can add essential scented oils to make the cleaning paste to get the same effect.

You can put two tablespoonful of castile soap, essential oil of sweet orange 20 drops, and thiry drops of essential oil of tea tree. Spray the mixture in the inside of the toilet bowl and then let it sit for half an hour. Then wipe and clean the bowl.

Chemical-Free Toilet Cleaners

Not all toilet cleaning products are friendly to your environment. They are manufactured with various harmful chemicals and leave the bathroom air filled with chemical odor that is unpleasant to breathe in. An example of eco friendly cleaner would be Green Works Toilet Gel Cleaner. This product is based on minerals and plants. This one is the best if you have pet in the house.

Kitchen cleaner

It is the same as bathroom cleaners, however, the ingredients of the products are meant for the kitchen area where food is prepared. So, the area needs to be both germ free, and food safe. After all, we are going to eat the food prepared there.

So, we cannot use the things we use in our bathrooms or toilets. Although you may see ‘all natural’ or ‘eco friendly’ labels on your kitchen cleaning products, there is no way to know if the manufacturers have put all the ingredients on the list of ingredients. The Consumer Product Safety Commission allows manufacturers to do so. They can hide ingredients if they wish to. 

The best thing to do is to buy things that do not contain hormone disruptors, neurotoxins, or carcinogens, etc. If you buy from trusted brands you will not have this problem. You can buy -

1. MamaSuds.

2. GreenShield Organics.

3. Green Mission.

4. Lion Bear Naked Soap Co. 

Non-Toxic, Safe Ways to Clean Your Kitchen

As we have talked before, we need something safe in our kitchen. All the toilet cleaners have dangerous chemicals. Although there are many brands that produce eco-friendly kitchen cleaners, it is even better if you make something right from within the boundaries of your kitchen. Here are some ingredients with which you can make your own safe kitchen cleaner.

1. Oil from tea tree.

2. Lemon juice.

3. Lemon.

4. Baking soda.

5. Corn starch.

6. Rubbing Alcohol.

7. White vinegar. Buy a bigger quantity. Do not use vinegar on travertine or marble.

8. Funnel.

9. Spray bottle.

How to make the solution

1. 10 drops of oil from the tea tree.

2. Water 1 and a half cups.

3. Half a cup of white vinegar.

Take a spray bottle and pour all ingredients through the funnel into the bottle. Shake well to mix. Tree oil will increase the antimicrobial properties, kill molds, and bacteria.

How to make DIY Glass cleaner

1. Corn starch 1 tablespoon. 

2. Water 2 cups.

3. Rubbing alcohol quarter of a cup.

4. White vinegar quarter of a cup.

Take a spray bottle and shake to mix well. You can apply this solution to glass.

How to make Silverware and Stainless steel ware cleaner

1. It is very simple. Soak the utensils in strong white vinegar. Then after some time rinse with water and dry with clean dry cloth.

How to make cookware cleaner

1. 1 tablespoon of dish soap.

2. Quarter of a cup of baking soda.

3. Form a paste with white vinegar.

4. You can use this mixture to clean your cookware.

Bathroom cleaners Vs. Kitchen Cleaners

As you can see, the kitchen cleaners can contain main items that you can actually eat with your food. So, they are different from bathroom cleaners by nature. Both the bathroom and kitchen cleaners can help you with sanitation. 

However, it is also true that many of the kitchen cleaners also have some chemicals that are also common in bathroom cleaners. Most probably, this is the reason why people are asking the question ‘can I use bathroom cleaner in the kitchen’. They would sometimes use bathroom products in the kitchen and use the kitchen products in the bathroom for cleaning.

In fact, it is very dangerous to use bathroom products in the kitchen. The bathroom cleaning products are very strong because they use strong chemicals that are deadly to humans. Ingestion could potentially cause death. Let us see how they both different to each other.

More aggressive mold and mildew removers

In bathroom cleaners, there are, usually, elements such as chlorine, ammonia, and various other chlorides. These are standard substances in bathroom cleaners. These cleaners are apt in destroying elements like mildews, molds, etc., from your bathroom. These can be hazardous to your health. 

These nasty elements can even harm the structure of your bathroom wall. However, these elements are not usually common in the kitchen areas. So, we can say that it is not right to use bathroom cleaning products in the kitchen. The chemical substances used in the bathroom are not suitable for the kitchen.

Bathroom cleaners eliminate soap scum and limescale

Soap residue from a shower and hard water element can cause odor and discoloration. On the other hand, limescale is formed from the accumulated magnesium and calcium found in the hard water. 

You will find them in the tubs, toilets, shower stalls, pipes, and faucets. They can block the water flow in your pipes and ruin the beauty of your bathroom. To remove these two, you need the substances present in bathroom cleaners.

However, limescale and bar soap scum do not appear in the kitchen so, you do not need strong substances like bathroom cleaners in the kitchen. However, for taps or sinks there are some kitchen products that contain limescale remover.

Kitchen cleaners typically include antibacterial agents

Let it be clear - you disinfect the kitchen but sanitize the bathrooms. So, bathroom cleaners have sanitary substances, and kitchen products have disinfectants. In the bathroom you clean to reduce the number of germs, but in the kitchen you completely destroy germs and microbes.

What Happens if You Use a Bathroom Cleaner in the Kitchen?

As we have talked about the difference between a bathroom cleaner and a kitchen cleaner, we learned that bathroom cleaners have harsher substances in them. 

So if you use them in the kitchen it will be bad for the plastic, glass, cookware, or marble surfaces. Besides, there could be cases of chemical contamination. Just because you can, you should not always do something. This can be very dangerous.

The verdict is that it is better not to use bathroom cleaning products in your kitchen. We hope you have got the answer to the question - ‘can I use bathroom cleaner in the kitchen.’