Nasty "Scales" of a Toilet!!

Well today was the day when I finally could no longer stand to look at the scaly lime deposits growing on my toilet bowl!  I had had this container of a well known Calcium, Lime and Rust remover kicking around for some time. Since it was labelled as having no phosphates and that you could use it to clean your coffee maker I naively assumed it was rather benign.  Wrong!  Clue #1 -- it does warn you to use in a well ventilated area and normally that's always enough to freak me out!  Regardless, I thought to myself, really how bad it can it be if it's all good to clean our coffee makers with it, right?  So I proceeded to cautiously pour some into my toilet bowl (with window wide open) and prayed for a toilet bowl miracle!  My prayers went unanswered!  Big surprise hey!  And for my troubles I got to feel like I was eating something nasty - indeed even with massive ventilation the fumes still managed to find their way deep into every tissue of the lining of my mouth!  The only up side was I now had a great excuse to go have a piece of chocolate to chase the nasties away! It worked and I settled back into my computer chair to scan the internet for a healthier way to take care of business.  I came across several remedies and what I decided upon was a combination of several and several is what it took! Lime scale deposits are amazingly resilient.  But with effort and time they eventually wore down - literally and I'm pretty pleased with the result!  No nasty fumes so no ventilation required nor chocolate I'm sorry to report!  Well, perhaps a small piece -- as reward for a job well done!! Go on, you deserve it! It's not called the "Nasty Scales of a Toilet" for nothing you know -- it's going to require putting out some physical effort - no two ways around it! 

PROCEDURE REQUIRED TO ATTAIN A ''RELATIVELY" PRISTINE TOILET BOWL!

I emptied my toilet bowl first - I threw down a bucket of water (ice cream pail size) real fast and that made it go down significantly. There was still a fair bit left though so I had to use a small container to scoop out the remainder as well as a rag to get the last dregs of water from the back. Time consuming but necessary. I then made a paste of vinegar and baking soda and let it soak for about 20 minutes. I then wet a piece of sandpaper thoroughly - scrunched it up to the size of a scrubby and started scrubbing away on the stains. I would occasionally chip very lightly with my small, dull-bladed, flat-head screwdriver to break it up a wee bit here and there. Then I scrubbed some more with the wet sandpaper and finally to my delight a sparkling clean toilet bowl emerged!! One that won't make me cringe with horror every time I have to look at it!

P.S. My husband was truly horrified when he heard I used sandpaper but hey it didn't do any damage whatsoever! I read to use pumice stone but I didn't have one and I did read others had used sandpaper with no ill consequences and since that's what I had available I went with it! Also don't believe other sites that tell you to turn off the valve and flush till there is no water left -- it does not work! I tried! Obviously they had not! Only sure fire way is method above!