Love Fizzy Bombs to Clean Your Toilet (and Laundry!) in No Time

by Elena K, Hometalk Team

9 Materials

$15-20

30-45 Minutes

Easy

Raise your hand if you like to clean the toilet.
C’mon. Anyone? No?
I know cleaning the toilet can be a daunting task, but let me tell you, these LOVE FIZZY BOMBS make it so easy that you may find yourself wanting to clean daily. Really.
Need to know how to make these lovelies? Stay with me and read on!

Fizzy Bombs to give your toilet a lil' love!

Once again, I’m stuck with one of the tasks I hate most: Cleaning the toilet bowl! Why everyone conveniently disappears when it’s time to clean?

But fear no more! My Love Fizzy Bombs are so easy to make, and use.

Ingredients you need to pack explosive love

STEP 1: GATHER YOUR INGREDIENTS

Here’s what you'll need for yours:

• Baking soda: 1 cup

• Borax (optional): 1/3 cup

• 1/2 cup citric acid

• Measuring cup

• Container to mix

• Essential oils. More on this later, in STEP 7

• Tablespoon or measuring spoon

• Spray Bottle or Vaporizer (recommended)

• Silicone mold (optional)

Oh. And did I mention you can double the bombs as laundry detergent? Scroll down to STEP 13 for details.

Let’s start with the baking soda

STEP 2: BAKING SODA IS FIRST

Baking soda is lightly abrasive, as well as an unscented deodorizer. It is easily decomposed by acid, that’s why adding citric acid will come in handy.

Grab a mixing bowl or container, a measuring cup and baking soda. Next, measure 1 – 1 1/3 cups of baking soda and add it to your mixing bowl

NOTE: Do 1 cup of baking soda if you’re planning to add borax, otherwise keep it to 1 1/3 cups.

TIP: If the baking soda has clumps, use your fingers or spoon to dissolve them.

Should we add some borax? Up to you!

STEP 3: BORAX or NO BORAX?

Though the basic recipe doesn’t call for Borax, I use it often as a detergent booster in my laundry and house cleaning recipes. It also makes a great Sweet DIY Ant Bait.

(You can get the recipe here: http://www.hometalk.com/diy/outdoor/pest-repeller/quick-dyi-sweet-bait-to-treat-and-get-rid-of-your-ants-18515410)

So I like to add 1/3 cup of Borax to the baking soda. You don’t have to, but will sure make the cleaning easier.

Borax is a good cleaner, deodorizer and booster, which makes it a good combination for the baking soda.

Add citric acid to make the bomb explosive!

STEP 4: CITRIC ACID IS NEXT

Next step is to add citric acid.

Measure 1/2 cup and add it to your mixing container.

The citric acid and baking soda will produce an acid-and-base reaction that creates thousands of tiny bubbles to fill your toilet bowl while releasing the essential oils.

NOTE: If you replace 1/3 of the baking soda with borax, the reaction will be slower, but the cleaning is likely to be better.

Mix. Mix. And then, mix some more!

STEP 5: MIX DRY INGREDIENTS WELL

That makes it for the dry ingredients.

But before we add a little moisture, let’s make sure it’s well mixed.

Use a tablespoon first to mix all ingredients. Then use your fingers to ensure there aren’t any baking soda clumps left.

Ready? Time to add the water & essential oils

STEP 6: LET’S ADD WATER FIRST

We need to moisten the dry ingredients, so let’s add the liquid next.

First, use a tablespoon to add 1 spoon of water to your measuring cup. You can also use measuring spoons.

Pour the water into a vaporizer.

TIP: we’ll use a vaporizer to mist the dry ingredients. It will moisten the dry ingredients better and prevent creating clumps again in areas that are excessively wet.

Adding a nice fresh fragrance is easy!

STEP 7: ESSENTIAL OILS

Next we’re going to add a few essential oils to the water to make a nice fresh 'n clean scent.

That’ll leave a nice fragrance in your toilet bowl with no extra work!

You can use any oil you have: 70-90 drops of one, or several oils combined are a good amount.

TIP: The more you use, the stronger the scent.

For a clean and fresh scent, add 30 drops of each — PINE or TEA TREE OIL, EUCALYPTUS, and PEPPERMINT — to the water.

Or you can also use LEMON, LAVENDER, and PEPPERMINT: again, 30 drops of each.

Tea Tree Oil and Eucalyptus are excellent air disinfectants, perfect for a bathroom!

All citrus (lemon, lemongrass, grapefruit, lime ), Peppermint and Lavender are also very good air purifiers – not to mention they smell great!

TIP: If you only have 2 oils, add 45 drops of each, and if only 1, add 90.

Let’s add a lil moisture to dry ingredients!

STEP 8: MIST and MOIST

Start spraying the water & essential oils mix into your dry ingredients.

Spray a couple of times and mix with the tablespoon. Continue misting and stirring a few times until you see the texture changing.

Again: Mist, Stir, and Test!

STEP 9: STIR and TEST

As you keep adding liquid to the dry ingredients, you’ll see small clumps forming. Continue stirring and misting until you've used 2/3 of the liquid in your vaporizer.

TIP: You can use the spoon or your hand to dissolve the clumps.

Mix well and get a small amount in your hand to make a fist. If it clumps well — it doesn’t need to be completely moist or wet! — it’s ready to pour into the mold.

Otherwise, continue misting. If you still need more water, add a bit more to the vaporizer and spray a few more times.

TIP: Wait a few minutes before you add additional water to your mix.

Keep in mind the ideal mix should be slightly dry, rather than a sticky paste.

The moisture will activate the citric acid and start a reaction between the citric acid and the baking soda.

CAUTION: If you add too much liquid, your mix will expand and start the fizzing now, instead of later.

Time to make the Love Bombs!

STEP 10: POUR INTO MOLD

With your mix ready, it’s time to pour into your mold. Silicone molds are best, since they’re easy to demold.

Pinch a small amount from your container and press into the mold. You may need to add a bit more to fill it to the top. Fill each one until you’re done.

TIP: Don’t have a mold handy? Use your hands to make small balls.

The mix yields a full mold, about 28 hearts. You can use half the amounts for a smaller batch.

Cover and let it dry for a few hours. You can wait up to a day or two, but keep in mind they won’t dry in the silicone mold.

Demolding is easy with a little trick!

STEP 11: A LITTLE TRICK TO HELP DEMOLD

Now, if your bombs are on the soft side they may be harder to demold.

But I have a little trick that I'll share with you: put your mold in the freezer for 30 min and try again. If still soft, keep them for another 1/2 hour.

Get them out and demold right away!

So much easier, right?

Almost done. But first, let's label the jar!

STEP 12: STORE AND LABEL

Store in a jar and label: put the name and date. You can also add the ingredients.

As it turns out, my bombs came up too moist. I’m going to close the jar and keep them in the fridge — it’s so hot (we’re having almost 100 degrees temps here!) that I’m afraid they’ll stick together.

Because they're cold, they may take a bit longer dissolving in the water.

Dread no more: Let’s clean that toilet bowl!

STEP 12: DROP THE FIZZY BOMB IN THE TOILET

Are you ready? Let’s put some love into that toilet bowl.

Drop a bomb or two and wait a few minutes for it to dissolve. If you added borax, the chemical reaction between the citric acid and the baking soda will take longer and release less bubbles.

If they're cold (out of the fridge, like mine) they'll also take longer to dissolve.

Either way, once the bomb is dissolved, use the scrubber to clean the bowl. All while you’re enjoying the fresh — and healthy! — scents of the essential oils.

TIP: If the toilet needs a boost cleaning, drop a couple of bombs.

Use the Bombs in your laundry too!

STEP 13: ADD THE LOVE BOMBS TO YOUR LAUNDRY

Now guess what?

You can also use the bombs to boost your laundry! Think about it: baking soda and borax are deodorizers and cleaners, and it is citric acid.

And the essential oils will add a nice, fresh fragrance to your laundry!

I added a couple of bombs to my laundry detergent, to hand wash a few delicate whites, but you can use them in your regular machine wash too.

TIP: If you’re doing whites, you can also add a 1/4 cup of white distilled vinegar along with your regular laundry detergent.

CAUTION: Though the bombs shouldn’t damage colors, you should try a hand wash with a color item first. Borax and citric acid may affect colors.

And that makes it for the FIZZY LOVE BOMBS!

If you enjoy this post, follow me — I have more concoctions coming up! And to get my DIY all purpose cleaner recipe check: http://www.hometalk.com/diy/clean/a-super-easy-non-toxic-spring-cleaner-16447697

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Frequently asked questions

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3 of 32 questions

Betty on Sep 21, 2021

How can I clean my carpet I don’t have money for a rent a vacuum

1
She DIYs | Jamie on May 07, 2022

does it have to be misted? You can’t just pour a certain amount of water and oils? Is it more about dispersion of oil and water in the vaporizer?

0
Carolyn K on Nov 26, 2022

Couldn't I just mix the dry ingredients in a jar and scoop out a TBS as needed? Not so cute, but just as effective?

1

Comments

Join the conversation

3 of 97 comments

Patty on Nov 25, 2021

I'm making these as soon as I get some citric acid. Thanks for the tips.

Like Reply
- Sue on Sep 27, 2022
  
  I found citric acid in Walmart by canning mason jars.
  
  5
LAHawk on Dec 16, 2022

I look forward to trying these. I will try adding one of those moisture absorbing packets that come with my vitamins to absorb excess moisture if need be. I think it could be taped to the inside of the jar lid. (I did chuckle at the typo on the jar photo that said Frizzy tablets instead of Fizzy...my brother's dogs name is Frizzy. Anyway, thanks for the "recipe" and instructions.

3 Reply