CBL Episode #126-Blue Stuff, Big Problems: The Toilet Bowl Cleaner Catastrophe that we see...

Ever watched a viral cleaning hack and wondered if it's too good to be true? Shannon and Jamie, veteran cleaning business owners, expose the dangerous reality behind one of social media's most damaging cleaning trends: using toilet bowl cleaner on surfaces other than toilets.

This eye-opening conversation dives into the chemistry behind why toilet bowl cleaner works safely on porcelain but causes permanent, irreversible damage when applied to stone surfaces, metal fixtures, window frames, and even house siding. The hosts share shocking examples of homes they've encountered where homeowners unwittingly destroyed expensive fixtures and surfaces by following misleading online cleaning advice.

"I see it at least once a week," Shannon reveals, describing the heartbreaking moment when she has to tell clients their fixtures are permanently damaged from toilet bowl cleaner misuse. The acidic nature of these products creates black marks, etching, and discoloration that simply cannot be repaired. Jamie adds her own cautionary tale about receiving a chemical burn from just a tiny splash of the product, emphasizing the health risks these powerful acids pose when used improperly.

Beyond just identifying the problem, the hosts offer practical solutions for both cleaning professionals and homeowners. They recommend safer alternatives like Bar Keepers Friend and 5-in-1 cleaners while explaining the importance of understanding chemical pH levels and appropriate surface applications. Their expert advice helps distinguish true professional cleaning practices from harmful shortcuts that might look impressive online but lead to costly damage.

Whether you're a cleaning business owner, a professional cleaner, or simply someone who wants to maintain your home properly, this episode provides essential knowledge to protect your surfaces, your health, and your wallet. Subscribe to Cleaning Business Life for more professional insights that separate harmful cle

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Chapters

• 0:00 Tempo: 120.0

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:52

Hey everyone, shannon from Cleaning Business Life and today we are going to talk about toilet bowl cleaner, specifically all the do's and don'ts and why you should and should not use toilet bowl cleaner for certain items. But, most importantly, I want to stop the chaos and the damages that I'm starting to see, that Jamie's starting to see, that we all are starting to see, because people are taking an acid that is meant for one surface and they're using it on other surfaces. So this podcast is for you to be educated, to have knowledge about, so that you can guide your cleaning techs and, most importantly, so that you can guide the homeowner on not doing what they're doing. I mean, in the 2000s, in the 90s, it was bleach. Everyone used bleach on everything. I can't tell you how many times I've seen fixtures with burn marks on them, so we've all seen it. So enjoy the episode. Any questions reach out. Recording in progress. Oh my God, jamie, it's been months since I've seen you. I hope you've had a nice break.

Speaker 2: 1:53

I did and you know the audience isn't going to understand this because they keep seeing. But me and Shannon have a long break so that we can. We have littles, we have little, so we make sure that we do three podcasts a day to get the great content that we give you guys. And it has been months since we've been. It feels like it, maybe it's been a month and a half.

Speaker 1: 2:20

I think it's been a while two and a half months.

Speaker 1: 2:23

So yes, we bet, because we're mommies of littles, we batch everything. So everything is done in batches. So by the time you hear this episode, it very well be into the fall or even later in the year. So after we're done with this next batching of filming, it'll actually float us until the beginning of next year. So I'm super excited to be able to do this. It was nice to have a nice break. And today we're going to talk about toilet bowl cleaner. I know we've kind of touched on it before and we see it with cleaning influencers and we've seen it with homeowners. I mean, how many times have you walked into a house and the homeowner goes? I tried to use the TikTok video and look what it did.

Speaker 2: 3:10

TikTok thing yeah, I have, yeah, I have. And and that's whenever your professionalism has to come in play and tell them that unfortunately, they have ruined their fixtures. Right, you don't want to say you're an idiot allowing um bad advice like that to come out. Um, or the influencers. I would like to make an announcement to some of the influencers that still use that please, for I I know it gives you clicks and likes and views, and but we, as professional house cleaners, um, we're going in and going into the homes and having to tell them the bad news of that. They have unfortunately ruined their fixtures or their granite or you know wherever they decided to put it on it.

Speaker 2: 4:17

You know anything that that stuff touches on, on all the fixtures, on Anything that holds it together. After a while it has an acid in it. After a while it's going to make it turn black. I've seen where people have it's going to make it turn black. I've seen where people have squirted it all over, even down around your drain. I've seen where it has caught and you can see that it sat there too long and it turned black. I wish we could do pictures, you know.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Right. When we do the video part of this and it gets edited, we'll probably add in some B-roll for that. But let's be realistic. We, as cleaning business owners, and especially the cleaning influencers we're all here to lead by example. I'm really big into integrity and if you're not doing this right now, I'm not saying you're good or bad, I'm just saying that we're we're all being raised up to earn a lot of money. So if you earn your money through videos and reels, that's awesome. If you make your money creating product, that's awesome. But learning how, what ph levels are, learning how to apply things right chemicals to the right surfaces.

Speaker 1: 5:38

There's a reason why it says do not use on stone. There's a reason why it says toilet bowl cleaner air quotes, and the reason for that is because it's an acid, because it's. Most toilet bowls are porcelain, right? So if you look at that show how it's made and you typed in how is a toilet made, it will show you that it's enamel. So enamel is actually glass. So if you go back even further, if you had lightning hit sand, that would make glass and it's enameled as a layer of glass on the inside of the bowl. So when you're putting the toilet bowl cleaner on there. It's not hurting the glass because of the material it's made of. When you put it on stone, stone is a very soft, porous entity and it gets all of that blue stuff gets in there and all the holes, and then what we see is the drips.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Right, oh, I can't tell you. I can think of 15 different instances from 15 different cleaning business owners. Who acts like air quotes. Again, I accidentally put toilet bowl cleaner on here. How do I fix this? I was like I hope you have insurance that is on.

Speaker 2: 6:50

That is the one thing that is pretty much unfixable, but we we are also. It's not just that. I am also starting to see people taking on the outside on their windows. I've seen people oh, my husband has owned a window washing company, he's been doing this for years, and then there's going to be that one time and the homeowner is going to be wondering why the side of their house is peeling, or the screen, the metal of the screen, why it has turned this color, unbeknownst to them, that they just had their windows washed. You know, yeah, I disagree with using that on outside windows.

Speaker 1: 7:42

It takes an experienced hand to know what you're doing. If you're doing that and I'm not here to say you're good or bad, I'm just saying use caution. You're leading by example. People are going to see the video. You're leading by example. People are going to see the video and so the frame the metal frame that the window pane is sitting in the paint will come off because you're putting an acid on the window and it's sitting there and it'll make a peel. Or if it gets on the siding of the house, depending on the location, it could actually run down the whole side of the house. I don't know about you, but siding is not cheap. I would not want to ruin someone's exterior of their home because you were using this product. And if you are using that product, I probably would not be sharing that with the world. That's just me. And you need to wear gloves. You need to wear PPE. It's an acid. Your skin is your number one organ. You're absorbing all of that chemical into your body when you're, you know, waxing on, waxing off, Right?

Speaker 2: 8:42

Right, I accidentally I was cleaning my own toilet yesterday and I was going fast and I went a little little drop right here Did it burn you? It burnt me that quick. I started itching and I was like what is that? That was from yesterday. You guys, I can see it right here. I'm showing it. That's yesterday's toilet bowl cleaning because a little bitty drop got on me. So if you're you're, yeah, please use gloves whenever you're working with toilet bowl cleaner or really in inside of the, the bathroom at all.

Speaker 1: 9:22

Really right even in your own home right, and we've seen other influencers in other countries. I can't remember her name, um, but she's from russia and she always does the charity cleans and she whips out toilet bowl cleaner and I have a feeling that's probably maybe the only product that's available in her country. I don't really know her circumstances. I've never spoken to her. All I know is that she's leading by example. Homeowners are saying, hey, I saw that girl. She was in Russia and she used to hear. And then we walk in and we're like, yeah, oh, that's bad, yeah I did it right.

Speaker 2: 9:58

And um, whenever people you'll go through and look and people are asking her, why is she doing this, she'll answer everybody else's questions but not that one. So you know she does, obvious that. You know she, this person knows what she's doing is not right. And these homeowners are, you know, on TikTok, watching this and taking it into their own house unexperienced and then calling in a professional to try and come and fix it. And we can't calling in a professional to try and come and fix it and we can't, like they have ruined their, their fixtures, or their, their stone in their showers and you can see that the drips and it's like, oh no, the most professional face as you can. You know, because I see it all the time. I see it, I mean at least once a week, at least once a week.

Speaker 1: 11:03

And I think that the I hate to say it the person who is in Russia or whatever Eastern European country she's in, she deals with a lot of people who are not mentally well and a lot of those guys are living in public housing. So I think they think that it's already damaged, it's already a hoarding situation, it's not going to add on any harm. But when you're here in America and that one audience is watching her stuff, it's telling the homeowner that this is okay to use this product, because everyone knows the shape of a toilet bowl, cleaner container, right, with the little red top. It's all universal, Right. So then they're like well, I can just use that.

Speaker 1: 11:43

So there isn't, and I've mentioned this before. There should be some sort of disclosure, and I don't know if we're there yet in our industry, but at some point they'll have to be. Like warning, professional use only. It's just like when you watch the stat people roll cars and stuff. This is a professional course, do not attempt this at home type of thing. But it's. I think that's the thought process behind it, and I'm not discounting the work that she does. It takes a special type of person to be able to go in and do what she does. I don't know if I could do that day in and day out. It's exhausting. Bless her little heart. For what?

Speaker 2: 12:20

she's done Right, right, and I personally love those types, like you said, day in and day out she gets flown all over the world, she's very much sponsored and but that, like you said, those people that are in that demographic is that what I'm trying to say? Demographic Is that what I'm trying to say? You know, if you have a mental illness like hoarding, hoarding is a mental illness and I see people go on there all the time like who can live like that? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it's just like, hey, I just, you know, I just go by anyways, but people are watching. Those people are watching and they're wanting to get help and then, like you said, you put it, you put toilet bowl cleaner on something that shouldn't be and everybody, every professional, should know, every professional should know. And if you're new into this game, take our advice Listen to these podcasts. They do not use toilet bowl cleaner for anything but inside of the toilet bowl.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Right, right. And if you have compassion when you're looking at those videos and you don't have to make inappropriate comments. It's called having a filter, but you can always use what my grandmother used to say to me if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all. My grandma would get all whipped up in spanish, and just right. So if they shoot, always your finger, if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all. Yes.

Speaker 2: 14:09

Yes, I love that and that's exactly how. Yeah, Just scroll on. But I had somebody post something on my and they claimed that they were a professional cleaning company and it was a move out clean. And somebody said oh my God, how can they live like that? And I'm like hey, hey, hey, hey, I actually deleted that. I hid that Because it's like you know, we don't judge. No, I'm very nonjudgmental. People are dirty.

Speaker 1: 14:40

We wouldn't have an industry.

Speaker 2: 14:42

The more dirty they are, the better. I can see my results. My team, my crew can see my results on my. My team, my crew, can see their results. So not to say that clean people aren't you know, it's just a lot more. For me, it feels like it's a lot more work. Whenever they're immaculate, it's like, oh gosh, they're going to see one little piece of dust you know it, we could actually have a whole conversation oh I could they need already clean homes.

Speaker 1: 15:33

We should, actually I should probably write that yeah, let's write that down but yeah, I think it does take um more effort to clean an already clean home or a barely lived in home versus a dirty home, and then you make it clean. There's definitely more of an emotional reward when you're when you're cleaning and I won't go past this when you're cleaning an already clean home, it's just like you have to go. I'm going to try to find more dirt. Right, I'm not finding any dirt. How many times has this person died?

Speaker 2: 16:02

I can clean it up. Okay, there it is. There was proof.

Speaker 1: 16:11

There was some dust Right, there's something. And they're the watchers usually too. They like to watch to make sure they're not missing anything.

Speaker 2: 16:22

The toilet bowl cleaner. I'm glad Shannon brought that up because I've been seeing it kind of circulate and, as you know, we I start forgetting because this was such a big thing last year. And then now we're getting another wave of new, new professionals that are coming in, that are new into this game and don't know anybody. And there's some people out there, just like I was, that are researching, researching, researching, researching. And if don't let, don't let. And if you're going to do anything, anything, don't practice in a client's home, practice in your home, practice in your own home. Learn what your, your ph's are. Learn where it can go on to where there's. You know that's what makes it turns you from a house cleaner to a professional house cleaner. Is you know your stuff? I can walk into a home and I, professionally, can tell them. I know exactly what you did there.

Speaker 2: 17:37

Did you watch TikTok? Did you Same with floors? I can tell you, uh, somebody, I was cleaning uh somebody's uh floor and I was coming up in layers and I said you use bona, don't you? You just learn after a while. You know that the that ending. So I forgot. So when Shannon said let's talk about the toilet boy, I was like huh I thought this was already discussed, but we have a new wave of professionals coming in and this is going to hit and resonate with somebody at the right time. So there it is no toilet cleaner.

Speaker 1: 18:23

The whole point is for you to use the right product and we can talk about portions and dilution concepts and everything else in another podcast but it's using the right product for the right surface and not causing damage. We don't really want to cause damage. That's why we have, you know, contracts or agreements, like, for example, in our contract. It says that you, that we don't move furniture, with exception of, like, dining room chairs, and if you want something moved, you have to have the little fighters on them and you need to move them because you're assuming responsibility. It's not I'm going to move this and then you scratch it. You owe me. It's not I'm going to move this and then you scratch it and you owe me.

Speaker 1: 19:04

We're trying to scale our businesses to make them universal, like McDonald's, so that you don't have to remain in the field all the time. And you can't do that if you have someone who's pulling out. If you have one cleaner cleaning tech pulling out toilet bowl cleaner and the other one's pulling out bleach, both are going to cause damage. That's why we don't carry one of those. Um, it's not recommended and bleach is awful. Bleach is an awful product.

Speaker 1: 19:29

um, it's a liability it's a liability they come out purple or green or they're like rusted and corroded, and everything else, because that person thought that they would just put bleach on it and that would help clean it up. And person thought that they would just put bleach on it and that would help clean it up and I'd say I'm not.

Speaker 2: 19:45

I'd giggle, but I it's, it's not. It's just because I used to probably be that person whenever before I ever even was a professional cleaner before I owned a company now and you know, now I help teach others, but but I've been there. So just know that and I'm still learning. But toilet bowl cleaner, learning your chemicals is very important whenever you want to be a professional and scale your business. If you want to scale your business, you need to learn the profession. I mean, I can't tell you how much money I invested into myself to make myself professional. Well, you know, shannon.

Speaker 1: 20:40

Right. But I was just thinking of you know know, before I got into the cleaning industry and I was one of those bleach people. I'm like, oh, we'll just put some bleach on here and make it, we'll make it brighter, it'll clean it right. And in actuality I ruined the fixture or it. I ended up giving myself, you know, some sort of weird chemical reaction because it touched my skin or you know, I didn't open the window. There's a lot of precautions happening and we don't really in the world of cleaning, we really don't need. I still see and I'm guilty of doing it myself I still see people pull up and they show their their big suitcase full of product that they're bringing in.

Speaker 1: 21:17

It's like, you know, they're moving in they're rolling in now they're using okay, there's 15 different chemicals that they're carrying around when in actuality you maybe need three, four, um. So it's important that you understand what works, what could be universal, like pure evergreen, or five in one or um. What is the other person? Is it longs?

Speaker 2: 21:44

oh, longs, product. Yes, I, yes, we're gonna, that's, gonna, that's an upcoming episode, yeah that's gonna be a great uh upcoming episode with ryan and um. I look forward to I. I look forward to all these. None of them are this like me. I. These are great times. I love helping educate people and becoming a true professional and a professional company. I'm the company side part of it. I'm a student as I go along. Yeah, I love it, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:25

But these. This is just my two cents. Eventually you'll learn, you'll get tired of carrying all the chemicals around, um, when back in the day, we used to bring a lot of product in too, and I've been like it's, we're not really moving in, ha, ha, ha ha. Because we would bring, you know, two vacuums, two bags, two wet kits, and especially if you worked as a team, right. So it's a lot of gear for people to step over. Um, I'm guilty of it myself. So I'm just telling you learn from my experience. It's best to scale back as much as you can. You don't need all of the gear that you're carrying. You don't need it in your car unless you're doing your move out cleaning. You just don't need all those chemicals around you. You're being exposed to the chemicals unnecessarily, um, by trying to have everything for every situation. It should be really it should be two or three, maybe four products top especially if you're just uh, and it depends on the type of clean.

Speaker 2: 23:19

there's several move and move out cleans. That's a whole different entity, but those get stored somewhere. You're not driving around with those chemicals all over in your car rolling around or your cleaning tax same deal. We have a large storage facility that is packed storage facility. That is pat, and that's from scowling though that's, we're scowling but you're not carrying around toilet bowl cleaner.

Speaker 1: 23:59

no, I've seen people use toilet bowl cleaner on sinks. I've seen them use them on fixtures. I've seen them use them on windows. I saw someone take toilet bowl cleaner and try to get the oil out of their driveway. I'm like, what are you thinking? Because cement is really porous, right, so that's just sitting in there, and so it lifted the areas that it had sprayed on itself because they didn't agitate it. I was just like that, you know's, probably I would have power washed it before I pushed because cement, you know.

Speaker 1: 24:31

I mean it does break down, it's just so. Just use caution. If you are going to, if you're, if you're adamant about your toilet bowl cleaner, um, it might be something that you consider not using it. It could be that you're a diehard, you're going to use it for the rest of your life and you'll just run into me at ISSA or whatever and say I'm using toilet bowl cleaner. I'll be like it's okay, but for the rest of us, I think that you should get away from using toilet bowl cleaner. It's not my favorite chemical, just like bleach is not, and you've got to look at the long-term effects of what you're exposing yourself to.

Speaker 2: 25:07

Right Barstieper's Friend works great, works great and it's versatile. You can use it Depending on which part the powder does something stronger than the, the cream.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Um, so that's a whole nother, that's a long time I used to be the comet girl, um, and I couldn't use bar capers, friend, because it's to me it's not like vomit. For like the longest time I was just like right now we don't use common because it's a really awful product. That was way back in the for like the longest time I was just like woo, woo. Right Now we don't use common because it's a really awful product. That was way back in the day. We've been using it for about a decade, but it's just like. It took a while I refused to buy it because it smelled like vomit. I'm like what is the deal with this product? And then I don't smell it anymore and it was okay.

Speaker 2: 26:05

It is when, especially if you use the powder in a sink, it's like that smells different.

Speaker 1: 26:11

Right. That's why I always want to get your sink wet first and then spray it on so it sticks and it's not floating in the atmosphere.

Speaker 2: 26:18

Yeah, and now I use something as simple as 5-in-1. Nicole's 5-in-1 or Casale Cleaners, five in one, easy to rinse, and but you make sure that you rinse it. You know that's another topic, for I wrote it down learning your learning, your chemicals and uses.

Speaker 1: 26:44

Right. And if you are learning the speed cleaning method, learning which products rinse faster than other products, um, when you learn the speed cleaning method, it cuts down on time. If you can shave 30 minutes off your house, you automatically give yourself a raise, right?

Speaker 2: 27:01

yeah, yes, um, and learn how to do flat rates. I see a couple of local cleaners here in town that have switched over, so I have a feeling that we're making a little impact, even in my very small rural town in the industry and yay.

Speaker 1: 27:27

Yay, so that's just the two cents on toilet bowl cleaner Only if you're going to. If you're, if you have to have toilet bowl cleaner, only use it in the what the toilet. Yes.

Speaker 2: 27:41

Don't use it on all the other wild stuff.

Speaker 1: 27:43

I've seen it on Like oh my gosh, that's terrible. Yeah, oh bummer, okay, yeah, that's it. That's short and sweet. Take care, everyone bye.