When it comes to house cleaning, bathrooms are one of the most important and often one of the least desirable parts to clean.
However you feel about cleaning your bathroom, it is clear to all of us that it needs to be done. However, the degree to which you will take your bathroom cleaning is largely up to you.
Some people do the bare minimum and are satisfied with that, whereas others go to a different extreme and disinfect everything with bleach daily.
We asked cleaning experts at Swipe N Clean for their tips on bathroom cleanliness and avoiding bleach due to its effect on our skins and the environment
Why Do People Use Bleach?
A lot of people love using bleach in their cleaning. And it’s not difficult to realize why. It is a strong disinfectant and it is capable of destroying anything organic, including mold and mildew and bacteria.
What’s more, due to its bleaching properties, it can make white things whiter, which is why it used to be a staple in laundering white laundry, and why it is still frequently used to wash the white tiles and other ceramic items like sinks and toilets.
Why Bleach Is Not the Best Option
Just like with a lot of things which we used to use quite abundantly until we realized how unhealthy they are, bleach is slowly going out of fashion as a cleaner.
First of all, bleach is chlorine-based, which means that it gives off fumes which can be damaging to your lungs, and are especially damaging to children and elderly. It is also listed as a carcinogen and can cause chemical burns, once again due to chlorine.
On the other hand, bleach is also a pollutant, causing a lot of air pollution, especially if it mixes with ammonia, when it creates a powerful toxic gas.
Oxygen-Based Bleach
If you are ready to get rid of bleach in your cleaning due to the negative impact it may have on your health and the environment, you may be happy to learn that there is another variant of bleach, one without the negative impacts of chlorine bleach.
Oxygen bleach uses hydrogen peroxide as an active component and is therefore safe and odor-free, albeit a bit less effective than the other variant.
Borax
If you are looking to move away from bleach entirely, you can try borax. This cleaning agent has been around for a very long time, and for a good reason – it’s effective and can be used for a number of cleaning purposes. Best of all, it doesn’t contain any phosphates or chlorine, which might be toxic.
DIY with Vinegar
Even though there are some other non-toxic cleaning solutions out there, they may be quite a bit more expensive because they are green and eco-friendly.
However, if you are looking to really change the cleaning game and save some money while doing it, you can make your own bathroom cleaners, as told by professional maids and house cleaners.
White vinegar is a very versatile DIY cleaner which you can use for a variety of purposes thanks to its slight acidity. What’s more, combined with a few other ingredients which you probably have in your home already, vinegar can help you disinfect your bathroom on a budget and safely.
If you combine vinegar with borax and put it in your toilet, you create a powerful cleaning agent which should be left overnight to react and then scrubbed in the morning. If you are looking for a tile cleaning paste, combine some baking powder with vinegar.
There are a number of different ways you can use vinegar, baking powder, borax, and other household items for cleaning, but these are some of the best examples.