Where do you actually use bleach to clean around the house?

[DairyLeanne]

Just read the bleaching carpet thread. Quite roundly and rightly dismissed as an insane practice by MN.

So where do you actually use bleach around the home? Do you actually use bleach for anywhere other than the toilet?

I have a bottle but only use it extremely infrequently for difficult mould or drain issues. A bottle lasts me years.

How do you use it to whiten up sheets please,? Trying to imagine where you'd put it!

You put the sheets or towels or whatever in a basin with water and some bleach and soak them. Then wash as usual.

We have white fabric shower curtains. Every two months I soak them in a basin of bleach and water and then wash on a boiling wash.

Toilets, sink and shower tray about once a week.

The guilty trip for using a bit of bleach on toilets gets old, when the industry is polluting the waterways without a problem.

If it's going through the waste water process it decomposes way before it hits wild water. What is bad is pouring directly where living things that you don't want to kill are.

Ah ok, you can't just bung it in the washing machine then?

Most definitely. I never understand how they are able to get away with it.

What living things could that be? Intrigued.

@DairyLeanne

Living things that will then ingest it. Humans aren't ingesting it, they're occasionally cleaning something with it and rinsing it away.

@Trupped

I do. After soaking in bleach. The washing machine doesn't remove discolouration. White fabric shower curtains eventually get an orangey pink hue on them from soap scum etc. It's gross and soaking in bleach once every few months keeps them looking good.

I use bleach down the toilets overnight, and diluted for sinks and taps.
If we have illness in the house, I use it heavily diluted to spray on high touch surfaces like door handles. Also neat on stains on white clothing before washing.
I never use it on the floors as we have dogs, and I would never use it outside.

I once heard a lady virtue signalling at the hairdressers about never using bleach. She was sat in the chair having highlights 😂.

I keep a spray made up with it for when stomach bugs hit the house and will then use it to spray the bathroom and door handles but I wouldn’t use it on soft furnishings, I will use the steam cleaner on them.

Other than that I occasionally use it down toilets and around the sink and run it through the washing machine when it starts to smell.

Toilet.

Anything else I use Sterilising tablets as my DD27 has anxiety about chemicals!

I very rarely use it.
Over the years, I've diluted it and soaked some whites in that before a wash, but a bottle will last for years and years.

Baby bottle sterilising tablets are the best thing.

Also great fur water bottles to ensure they stay hygienic.

Be very careful using bleach and vinegar because it creates chlorine gas. If you must use them in tandem, make sure to rinse the area ready well between products.

You can, but if you use to much it'll turn into a bubbly mess leaking from your machine.

To disinfect the bins.

I grew up in a house with a septic tank told to use bleach sparingly if at all. So still don't

Whatever ecosystems are in wild water...fish frogs tadpoles water plants water fleas itty bitty microscopic beasties bacteria and so on. Bleach kills things, so don't put it into water that has living things in unless you want to kill them is all I meant.

Waste water goes through filters, treatments and UV treatment before it hits wild water.

Plenty of bleaches are suitable for septic tanks, they say so on the label. My son lives in a house with one and uses bleach, no problem, think it's either Tesco or Sainsbury's own brand.

Toilet mainly, amd mould on the window sill.

What do people use to disinfect the toilet if not bleach? If you're using vinegar, do you just pop it neat, in a spray bottle and spray around it and under the rim?

Soda crystals work fine for tea/coffee cup stains.

@MyMyMySharona Nancy Birtwhistle’s ‘bathroom magic’ is brilliant down the toilet. You can google it for exact measurements but it’s basically citric acid, washing up liquid and boiled water. Works a treat on my gross loo (two small kids and hard water area!)

I use Nancy Birtwhistle’s citric acid mixture for shower tiles and screen, daily toilet spray and all sink/hand basin cleaning. It’s basically instantaneous and better than Viakal.
In the last deep clean of the kitchen it brought up the discoloured cooker backsplash grout (subway tiles) a treat. I would have used Vim (bleach) scouring powder in the past.
Nancy B also uses sodium percarbonate as “green bleach” but it doesn’t give a brilliant optical white, more yellow.
To answer the OP, I occasionally soak my white tablecloths and napkins for 2 hrs in the washing machine. Just pause the machine and add water/bleach through the detergent drawer until your things are submerged. I don’t do it too often as bleach can damage the rubber door seals.