Thrifty Thursday: 6 ways to make your toilet bowl gleam

Commercial toilet bowl cleaners are often expensive and environmentally questionable -- forget them. For a shining and sanitized bowl, try one of these alternatives:

1. Sprinkle several tablespoons of baking soda directly into your toilet bowl and scrub it on any stains. Wait a few minutes, then flush.

2. Pour a mixture of 1/2 cup of borax in 1 gallon of water into your toilet bowl, scrub with a brush, then flush.

3. For a different approach, drop a denture-cleaning tablet into the bowl, wait for about twenty minutes, then flush.

4. Pour 1/4 cup of alcohol-based mouthwash into the toilet bowl. Let it stand for a half hour, then swish with a toilet brush, and flush.

5. For a really novel approach, spray WD-40 into the bowl, then swish with a nylon toilet brush.

6. Pour half a box of baking soda directly into your toilet tank once a month. Let it stand overnight, then flush the toilet a few times the next morning. This actually cleans both the tank and the bowl.