The Best Toilet Brushes of 2023

This easy-to-ease toilet brush includes five cost-saving cleanser tablets, which can be purchased in packs of 18 for about $10. It can be stored in the included no-slip, hands-free caddy, which has a nice rubber base.

Reviewers love the comfort and convenience here, calling this all-in-one kit an indispensable piece of their bathroom cleaning routine.

When it comes down to cleaning power, the HDX Polypropylene Toilet Bowl Brush does a great job. So humble and unassuming is this toilet brush that in its product description it doesn’t even mention its most important feature, the bristle extension that slides underneath the toilet rim to clean out stuck-on residue with ease. While several models we looked at have the same feature, the HDX requires less elbow grease, and it has removed all of our dried-on miso paste without multiple flushings.

The main flaw with the HDX is how generic the brush looks. The white wand, which has a rubberized, gray handle, comes in a plain white, cup-style holder that’s open at the top. Unfortunately, this means the wand and brush are entirely on display (and the longer bristles that clean under the rim actually poke up over the rim of the brush holder slightly).

The open holder design does allow for airflow and the brush dries fairly quickly after use, but overall, it’s not something you’ll proudly display or want to call attention to.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have always used the OXO Good Grips Hideaway Compact Toilet Brush in my everyday life, and I use it for one big reason: Once the brush head looks like it cannot work another day in its life, you can unscrew it and replace the brush head without throwing the holder or handle away.

I appreciate the slightly lessened environmental impact that the brush has as a result, and as a cleaning tool, it has always been effective, but there are very few bells and whistles.

When it comes to performance, it is a workhorse toilet brush that does what it sets out to do. The canister also opens and closes with ease so you don’t ever have to touch the bristles or holder to put it back in its place.

The reason the OXO falls toward the middle of the pack is simply because there are other, more effectively designed brush heads available. While the OXO bristles, which are plastic, work well and are neither too stiff nor too soft, you have to dig deep into the bowl to make sure they reach where they’re supposed to. The brush does a good job, but not a great one.

The Made By Design brush and holster are a small, clean-lined set that could look nice in bathrooms of any size, but are especially suited for smaller spaces. The brush dries fairly quickly after use, but it has some splashback while cleaning: the stiff bristles have trouble reaching under the rim.

Made of polypropylene, the toilet brush holder and handle can technically be recycled when it comes time to get replacement heads.

An excellent value, the brush does a decent job cleaning and has been thoughtfully designed to look more attractive than your typical toilet brush.

The mDesign toilet brush is a tidy little toilet brush that comes in a dozen colors and will look nice if you leave it out on display. But at 16 inches in height, it’s short enough to get tucked into an under-sink cabinet to keep it hidden away.

I was initially suspicious of brushes like this one, which look like a little sword, complete with a grip and guard to protect your hand from splashes as you clean. In this case, the guard (which also acts as a lid when placed on the brush holder) was situated very close to the actual brush bristles, and dipped into the water once or twice while cleaning, meaning I needed to sanitize the whole brush as well as the handle when I was done.

The bristles on the mDesign proved a little stiff and created some splashback while scrubbing, too.

All of the brushes, including this one, which came stored in tall canisters did not thoroughly dry out between uses.

Tushy seeks to be the great disruptor of the toilet world. The company is known for its eco-consciousness, as well as clever, punny marketing—you can buy an assortment of the brand’s products in an “Assential Bundle” on its website.

The Tushy Brush itself is one sustainable toilet cleaning option. I didn’t think it could work as advertised, given the slim nature of the coconut husk pads that were slightly smaller than an SOS pad and that they affix to a metal and bamboo handle. But I was pleasantly surprised! They did indeed fit under my toilet rim, and they cleaned out all the gunk that I had left there.

Unfortunately, the pad fell off the handle not once, but twice, into my toilet bowl. Which means I had to fish it out. Upon further tests, I forcefully pressed the husk into the clips while holding the wand steady—admittedly not my ideal user experience, putting my hands all over the wand of a used toilet brush—and it stayed on during cleaning, but that was a hard lesson to learn.

The beauty of the Tushy is that the pads are compostable after use, making it a truly no-waste option.

I wanted to love the Tushy, but I found myself hoping that this great idea will be retooled so that its design might eventually be improved upon. It’s a great product, it’s just not quite there yet.