Put a thin ring of baking soda around your toilet and leave it for some time; here’s what it does

Sometimes the cleanest solutions are the simplest. If your toilet could talk, it would surely beg for its daily dusting of baking soda. Leaving a mere circle of baking soda around your toilet may seem like an inconsequential task to do, but the simple ingredient does wonders for odor, mineral accumulation, and dirt before your morning cup of coffee even brews.

According to Utah State University Extension, baking soda is effective in removing acid-base odors instantly and serves as a gentle, non-abrasive cleaning agent that can be applied to a wet surface to clean countertops, sinks, bathtubs, and other household surfaces as well. This is the real science behind the myth, not some overnight miracle, just a hardworking kitchen ingredient performing one of its functions.

So what is baking soda actually doing in there?


Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is an alkali. Once it interacts with an acidic substance, such as many of the chemical compounds responsible for the smell in bathrooms and mild mineral deposits, it reacts and neutralizes them rather than just covering up the smell as a spray air freshener would. This is a fundamental chemistry lesson about acids and bases, and this exact process is studied by researchers in a more realistic setting.

According to a peer-reviewed study titled “Preliminary observation on the effect of baking soda volume on controlling odour from discarded organic waste,” published in the journal Waste Management in 2015, the addition of approximately 50 grams of baking soda to food waste bins reduced the detectable smell of odour-producing substances by about 70% over the course of one week.

This information can be seen as helpful, although note that the information is related to food waste bins, and it talks about reducing odor compounds that can be detected by a scientific instrument and not “your bathroom smells like a spa.” However, it may be an effective scientific evidence that demonstrates how baking soda actually reduces odors rather than just masking them.

What it won't do and why that matters

Baking soda is not a registered disinfectant. It will not kill bacteria, it will not kill viruses, and it will not clean up the gunk around your toilet water line. Sodium bicarbonate is listed by the Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice program as an acceptable mineral-based compound, used as an odor neutralizer.

This means that if your toilet bowl actually needs sanitization or even just has some buildup on the sides that needs to be scrubbed away, leaving a ring of baking soda overnight won't help you much in that endeavor, but what baking soda could potentially be effective at is removing odor and light grime when gently scrubbed with a brush or damp cloth.

Is it worth trying? The short answer is: yes. It’s inexpensive, it won’t ruin your plumbing, and it actually works against odor, which might be the real issue when your bathroom is said to “smell like a bathroom.” Don’t treat it as a substitute for a proper toilet-bowl disinfectant, and do not assume it “kills 99.9 percent of germs,” because that’s simply not true according to science.

The real takeaway

The internet can sometimes take a practical and effective piece of advice on housekeeping that has been around for decades and turn it into something that sounds magical. Baking soda is cheap; it has long been recommended by university extension programs, and peer-reviewed literature suggests it can help to eliminate odors.

However, the internet version of the hack usually omits the boring, accurate part, namely, that it deodorizes the space and works great for mild scrubbing. Stick to what the product really does, use it together with a disinfectant when sanitation is required, and you will have a fresher bathroom.