Reusable water bottles are the best option to take care of the environment. But, as in all things, we must also keep them clean. Although water helps us stay hydrated, if the water bottle is not clean you might be exposing us to germs and bacteria.
Most of us forget to wash it regularly. The ideal frequency? You should wash it every day if you use the water bottle regularly. But don’t worry: follow these simple steps below and clean your water bottle in less than five minutes.
How to clean a water bottle inside
Using a common sponge to clean the inside of the bottle is a complicated task; No matter how hard you try, it becomes impossible to access the bottom. Therefore, there are different tricks to solve this problem, very easy and quick to do.
1. Use a long brush
Today you can find bottle brushes in various stores, which specifically serve this function. Although, if you don’t want to spend money and you have some kind of brush or long brush around the house, use it to clean the bottom of the bottle with hot water and dish soap.
A good trick is to use a bottle cleaner: it’s a long brush that’s the perfect size for cleaning a water bottle, so cleaning it will be very effective and simple. You can easily find it in a supermarket or in a specialized baby store.
2. Try rice and soap
This trick is very easy if you don’t have a brush and you want to use what you have at home. Create your own bottle cleaner with just 3 ingredients: you need some rice, a funnel, and detergent. First, fill the bottle with the handful of rice. You can make use of the funnel to pour the rice into the bottle more easily.
Then fill the rest of the bottle with warm water and a splash of liquid soap. The one you use to clean the dishes works perfectly. Then cap the bottle and shake vigorously. The rice will act as an exfoliator for the interior walls, while the soapy water cleans the interior. Finally, rinse and clean the inside of the bottle as many times as necessary, until there are no grains of rice or soap residue left.
3. Another use for vinegar
You can also clean water bottles inside with white vinegar, one of the best cleaning allies. Vinegar is a natural disinfectant, very effective in cleaning your water bottles and making sure they are free of germs.
First, wash the bottle with soap and water, and then fill it with hot water and a couple of tablespoons of vinegar. Then, let it soak overnight to kill most of the bacteria, and the next morning, rinse it well (until the vinegar scent is gone) and let it dry. You will have your bottle clean and ready to use once more.
4. Use baking soda
Like vinegar, baking soda is one of our favorites for household cleaning tasks, so why not use it in your water bottle?
You just have to put two or three tablespoons of baking soda in the bottle and fill it with hot water. Put the cap back on the bottle, shake it well to mix it up, and let it sit for a few hours. Then rinse with hot water.
5. Use the dishwasher
Yes, it seems like a very simple trick, but the dishwasher is truly effective at cleaning everything that we cannot reach with the sponge. As long as your water bottle is dishwasher safe, this is probably the easiest way to get it sparkling clean.
Simply pop it in the dishwasher upside down (and place the lid on the top rack) and run it on a hot water cycle. Germs will be gone in no time.
6. Bleach and cold water, an infallible duo
If your water bottle has a particularly unpleasant odor because you have neglected to clean it, bleach is the most effective disinfectant for this task. Also, add a teaspoon to your bottle, fill it with cold water, mix it by shaking the bottle, and let it sit overnight. Then empty the contents in the morning. Lastly, clean it once more with soap and water and rinse it well. It will be like new!
7. Boiling water for metal
If your bottle is made of metal, you will only need to use boiling water. Fill the bottle with boiling water and let it steep overnight. In the morning, rinse out the water bottle and wash it thoroughly with dish soap. Boiling water overnight will have sanitized the inside of the bottle, saying goodbye to all those unwanted bacteria.
8. Some effervescent tablets
Although you may think that effervescent tablets can corrode the inside of some reusable water bottles, this is not true in most cases. If you want to make sure of this, you can buy effervescent tablets that exist in many stores, special to clean the inside of these containers and thus not have to do it yourself.
9. The salt
Using salt to clean is common, as it has innumerable attributes to be used in homes (bleaching effect, disinfectant, absorbs bad odors…). To do this, fill the bottle with a couple of centimeters of salt with a funnel and add warm water until a kind of paste is formed. Then close the bottle and shake it. Then empty the contents and rinse with clean lukewarm water.
10. The usual detergent
One of the easiest and simplest ways to clean a bottle that isn’t particularly dirty is with detergent: a few drops inside can make a big difference. Also, put them inside the bottle and add a little warm water. Then close the bottle with the cap and shake it. After a few minutes, rinse with plenty of water to remove any soap residue. Dry it and it will be ready to be used once more.
