...to find alternatives to bleach

[Justthetwothankyou]

Hi all.
I've found lately that bleach is a major irritant for me. I'm just getting over a really bad chest infection and even the whiff of it has me in a wheezing heap.
So I would like to pick your brains on the alternatives...where do you use them and how effective they are?
Thanks X

i use lemon juice and salt to clean the toilet. sprinkle the salt liberally around the toilet bowl, then using either half of a lemon or a sponge soaked in lemon juice, scrub the salt. rinse the bowl by flushing x

Lots of effective ways to use lemon, white vinegar and bicarb. I like the method products too which aren't bleach based and Tesco do their own cheaper version called eco active that are also plant based without bleach

What are you using it for? All you need to clean surfaces with is warm soapy water. Maybe add a bit of white vinegar for degreasing.

I can't remember the last time I bought a bottle of bleach. I use Splosh cleaning products as they are refillable, and the toilet cleaner and kitchen spray (not sure where else you'd use bleach) are both great.

Littlecabbage... generally down the loo and I use it dilute for cloths at night in the sink.
I suffer from asthma and get chest infections at the drop of a hat, but this latest one has knocked me for six. The other day while doing the regular bit of bleach down the loo routine I found that it just caught me, had me gasping with chest pains and my eyes became irritated.

I don’t own any bleach. Method and vinegar cover everything I need.

Unless you want your cloths to look whiter, could you not just put them in the wash?

Otherwise for the toilet, if you really want to use something stronger than normal toilet cleaner, you could try those blocks that you drop in and leave for a few hours, then you're not breathing it it?

I never use bleach. Hot soapy water or vinegar around the kitchen. A drop of shampoo or washing up liquid in the toilet. Doing it daily (takes seconds and yes I use a toilet brush!)
I hope you feel better soon 😊

Meant to say, I just chuck cloths in wash. Changed very frequently.

Sink cloths: I soak my sink sponge in boiling water with a splash of the anti bac stuff you use with laundry. (Not generally an anti bac fan, but was getting funky washing).
Or you can microwave wet cloths to kill bugs.

I just pop cloths straight in the washing machine, no need to soak in bleach.

Another vote for splosh too.

Bleach down the loo is a waste of time as all it does is bleach the limescale rather than loosen and lift it off.
Use harpic limescale remover instead.
If you must bleach your kitchen cloths use napisan as it is much milder.

OK cn someone educate me on the best way to use vinegar in the toilet bowl?

I poured it neat down last night, left it a few hours and it didn't do anything. Clearly I'm being dense in some way but what should I have done?

Bleach isn't really necessary around a house, usually. When you do bleach toilets and sinks you're not making them sterile, that's impossible. The dirt and germs can be removed and rinsed away with a non-bleach cleaner/washing up liquid/toilet cleaner and toilet brush/cloth whatever. In kitchen, rinse and squeeze out j cloth after cleaning kitchen and let air dry, not much is going to be living on that (and don't use manky sponges). Bleach is horrible stuff. I use v occasionally for cleaning if family member has diarrhoea or vomiting, or if kids have trodden dog poo into house! I breathe easier since I've mainly ditched the bleach, and we haven't got ill and everything is pretty clean

I don’t think normal household vinegar cleans a loo as it only 3% to 5% acid. You can buy stronger ones for cleaning but then you might as well use a normal household cleaner.
One thing I have found good for cleaning the loo is to chuck in a Steradent denture cleaning tablet overnight.

I have heard that Coke poured into the toilet bowl will remove stains.
Once a toilet bowl is clean, giving it a quick swish round daily will keep it that way. With or without a bit of soap/vinegar/mild loo cleaner.
I imagine the people use soap or vinegar for cleaning do it regularly so it never gets disgusting.

Thanks guys, I already use vinegar/lemon juice and bi carb to clean oven, I need to try them out in the bathroom it seems...never considered salt!
Neverputawetfoot... I'd like to just remove bleach from the cupboards, my eldest has bad asthma also, I've got into the habit of using bleach because it was my mum's go to for soaking cloths overnight plus my DH leaps towards the domestos in the cleaning isle and throws it into the trolley without a side glance at any of the other alternatives available, so it's just out of habit that it's the go to toilet cleaner really.

If I mixed soda crystals with vinegar would it make it more effective? There's a bit at the bottom of the U bend the brush can't reach and it's driving me spare. But we have to become a no-bleach family as we have a septic tank now.

Elspeth, soda crystals are strongly alkaline and vinegar acid, they'd neutralise one another and do nothing.

bleach is a disinfectant not a cleaning agent.

we use warm soapy water & cloths to clean. a tablespoon of bio laundry powder to a bucket of warm water.
(diluted) bleach is only used if we need it to disinfect something, like after d&v.

Gosh this is suprisingly complex!

The thing with bleach is it works quickly. By the time you've put it down the loo, put the cap back on the bottle and put bottle back in the cupboard it's most probably already killed the germs and is ready to be flushed away. I only use bleach for the toilet otherwise I've recently changed my cleaning products over to the method cleaning products which are non irritant.

I like norwex brand. Love their laundry powder and envirosponges for cleaning.

Bleach is terrible stuff and should only be used in the toilet as far as I’m concerned my alternative medicine doc told me this and I agree

I have never owned bleach. It really isn't necessary. And I'm quite the clean freak.