Bleach alternatives June 19, 2007

A full 50% of the searches that lead people here have to do with bleach. I have a feeling there are people out there who are bothered by bleach (for health or ecological reasons) but don’t know how to clean without it. So, here are some suggestions. The main purposes for bleach are to whiten and disinfect. So here it is:

• To whiten stained spots on clothing: put some lemon juice on the spot, rub in a bit of salt, and leave it in the sun for an hour or two. It lifts the stain.
• To clean spills from health contaminants (raw meat or eggs in the kitchen, urine in the bathroom): Straight vinegar is a great disinfectant. I advise keeping a sponge with vinegar near your cutting boards for frequent use.
• To whiten laminate counter tops: Bon Ami – it’s a powder found at the grocery store in a canister – usually right next to Bar Keeper’s friend (which also works relatively well. But we prefer Bon Ami – it uses less elbow grease, and less elbow grease means more cleaning stamina!). We’ve removed coffee stains, raspberry, blueberry, and strawberry stains, and marks from the bottom of pots and pans.
• To disinfect:
  • Borax: buy it in the supermarket where they sell detergents – in my grocery store it’s next to the powdered dishwasher detergents. Borax is a powder and is safe to mix with virtually anything. Combine it with some vinegar, lemon juice, or just plain water to clean virtually anything. It’s completely harmless and safe to use. Gloves and ventilation not required (as opposed to bleach).
  • Vinegar: it disinfects, kills mold, bacteria, and germs. (As an aside: bleach does not kill mold – it just whitens it so you don’t see it. But bleach will leave living mold spores that will continue to grow.) Vinegar’s potency is released when combined with salt, so for a nice strong disinfectant add some salt to your vinegar, dilute with water if you’d like, and spray away. I just used it to clean the toilet seat in the bathroom where my little girl is potty-training. It works remarkably well.

Any more alternative uses you need for bleach? Let me know and I’ll fill you in!

Thursday’s tip: Cleaning jell-o March 1, 2007

From the trenches of motherhood… Finger Jell-o may keep a toddler occupied for enormous stretches of time, but there should be a warning on the box. Never leave small children unattended with Jell-o. Or blink. The ensuing mess (it takes no longer than the blink of an eye) is ridiculous. I’ve just cleaned Jell-o from my tile, hardwoods, carpets, walls, light fixtures, and now I’m off to remove it from their clothes. And yes, they were in the their high chairs when it happened. Thank goodness it’s water soluble! So, here are my tips:

1. Clean the mess right away, while the Jell-o is still solid. At that point, you can use a dry paper towel – it acts like duct tape for Jell-O, whereas a wet paper towel just spreads the mess around.
2. If it gets into your carpet, remove as much as possible with a dry paper towel. Spray any remainder with water and blot up. You may have to do this in several stages.
3. In clothes, soak any Jell-O affected clothes in cold water. Hot water may set the color in, depending on your type of fabric and type of Jell-O. Soak in cold water, and check after 30 minutes to an hour. If there’s still some color left from the Jell-O, add some detergent to the water and swish it all around a bit. Give it another 30 minutes, and at that point you can use stain remover if necessary. Then wash as usual.

Don’t underestimate the dry paper towel though – it works wonders. And again, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Don’t even blink when toddlers have finger Jell-O!