Cleaning yellowed toilet seats: how to make them white again

A yellowed toilet seat can be cleaned easily with a few home remedies. You can use them to remove the yellow discolouration and then make the toilet seat shine white again.

How to clean a yellowed toilet seat

Toilet seats are often made of plastic and quickly show signs of wear in daily use. You can fight stains and yellowing with a few household remedies.

• Oven spray: If you have oven spray in the house, spray the toilet seat completely or only on the yellowed areas. Leave it on for a quarter of an hour. Wipe with clear, lukewarm water. The spray should have drawn the residue out of the plastic.
• Vinegar and baking soda: Make a paste of 1 packet of baking soda, a dash of vinegar and a few squirts of lemon juice. Apply the mixture to the toilet seat and rub it in. It is best to wear gloves for this. After three hours, wipe the toilet seat with lukewarm water. It should no longer be yellowed.
• Dishwasher cleaner: Unscrew the toilet seat and place it in the bathtub. Let so much water run in until the glasses are covered with water. Dissolve five dishwasher tabs in the water and let the glasses soak for several hours. Then rinse off, done.
• Dirt eraser: Many people use it to clean their shoes or to remove discolouration from wallpaper. But the dirt eraser can also be used in the toilet. Lightly moisten one corner and rub it over the yellowed areas. You can repeat the process several times.
• Toothpaste: Squeeze some toothpaste onto a cotton cloth and rub it over the unsightly areas. If the yellowing is very pronounced, leave the toothpaste to work for several hours. Then simply wipe off with a damp cloth.
• Citric acid: You can also put this on a cloth and rub the toilet seat with it. If you don’t have any citric acid at home, you can also use a cut lemon and rub it over the seat. In both cases, wipe with a damp cloth.

That’s why a toilet seat turns yellow

No matter how hard you try, eventually regular cleaning is no longer enough and the toilet seat discolours in some places.

• The yellowing comes from urine. It sticks to the glasses and eats into the plastic after a while. It can hardly be removed with the usual cleaning agents.

• Lavatory seats are particularly often contaminated with urine stains when men live in the house who empty their urine standing up. The best sign of this is yellowing on the underside of the toilet seat as the toilet user folds it up to urinate.

• The urine splashes dry and the pH value rises. The ammonia contained in the urine reacts additionally. If the toilet seat is then also exposed to UV rays, the wetted areas turn yellow even faster.
• The urine splashes dry and the pH value increases.