To refuse to buy bleach?

[Eastie77Returns]

First world problem alert.

Our cleaner has asked demanded that I add Domestos bleach to my cleaning products. There's been a bit of an ongoing issue for a while now as I have trialed various eco-friendly cleaning products over the last few months and she generally doesn't like them. I have changed a couple of times in the hope she will get on better with a new range but she has a preference for products that contain high levels of chemicals. I understand they are the go-too products that she trusts but I just don't want to use them.

At the moment she is begrudgingly using the Ecover products I most recently bought. Now she is insisting she needs bleach to clean properly because Ecover doesn't really cut it. I said no as I just can't have it in the house. The smell is one thing but it's so toxic and dangerous (I'm absolutely haunted by an acquaintance whose young child inhaled some). She is a really good cleaner and in high demand. I'm aware she's already given notice to two households on our street because they did not fall in line with her requests (not cleaning product related, something else).

Has anyone used any of the 'natural' bleach products currently out there and were they effective?

The meaning of words aren't influenced by the context that they are set within? Back to school with you.

I am a professional cleaner and I will use bleach down the loo because it does "actually" clean it. As I have said before, if people took the time to check the loo after they have been and perhaps clean their shit up themselves then us cleaners would have no need of bleach, would we??

You may well be right but in real life, being right isn't always absolutely necessary

I didn’t mean to make her sound unreasonable. She’s self employed so she sets the rules, I don’t have an issue with that.

She only accepts payment in cash and due to her rate sometimes the amount due is a bit fiddly (eg £47.50). One household insisted on payment via bank transfer so she left.

She left the other house because the husband is at home when she cleans and she only works in an empty house.

This reminds me of moving into a shared flat in my youth where the toilet inside was brown plus mould in the shower! It had been cleaned, but limescale around taps etc. New flatmate gave me keys and left, I chucked bleach in the toilet, sprayed the shower and sink with proper bathroom product, unpacked, went for pub meal with a mate, got back and rinsed down in 2 min with an open window so everything smelled fresh. She got back and was stunned, "Wow, this is so amazing! You must have been scrubbing this bathroom all day! Let me help you unpack to say thank you." Her Ecover days were over that day when I showed her the products, bleach rules...!

Very unreasonable. If you don't want your house to be clean then do it yourself, don't make a cleaner struggle scrubbing away. That said, domestos is no better than the 85p own brand bleaches.

Go back and read what I actually wrote.

Eh?
That doesn't even make sense.

So you have to work harder with other products and so it impacts the cleaner / possibly how quickly she can clean the house.

@Eastie77Returns”I would be gutted if she left. She leaves me with a very clean house every week and I wouldn’t be able to reproduce what she does.”

Cos she uses bleach and you don’t.

@SALaw think you’re a bit confused. The whole point of this thread is that she doesn’t currently use Bleach in my house😂

As stated before, I clean the toilet before she arrives as I don’t actually expect her to do it. I mentioned this on another thread and people thought I was batshit but I feel embarrassed at the thought of someone cleaning my loo. I can say with 100% confidence she has never had to clean a shitty toilet in my house.

Apart from the bathroom, can you explain which areas of the house usually require bleach? My house is newly renovated. A small semi detached. I have no pets, floors etc are new. She can’t tell me what she needs the bleach for, just that she doesn’t like the eco stuff. Which is fine. Her rules etc and from what I’m reading on the thread, the eco products are not as effective so she has to work harder. Just a shame as she’s a fabulous cleaner and it looks as if I’ll have to get a new one as we are not compatible.

Bleach, sodium hypochlorite solution, is only dangerous if used wrongly. It's far more effective, and much cheaper, than many of the modern products which people purchase these days and, personally, I wouldn't wash the kitchen and bathroom floors with anything else . . .

Get a new cleaner. 10 years cleaner/caretaker here. You don't need bleach. It just ruins everything it touches. The local council authorities won't allow it in schools etc in the UK.

Your poor cleaner, she has told you that the products you are buying don’t work, hope she finds work elsewhere where her employer respects her.

I stopped using bleach a long time ago, mainly because we have a cesspit. It also leaches into the water course and that is not good for the environment.
I find Ecover works quite well and white vinegar is great for cleaning most things around the house.

She might bring her own. I found an old cleaner was bringing her own viakal because I only had white vinegar, so I quickly bought some. New cleaner wanted white vinegar but tried the viakal and became a convert for the problem areas.

You could point out to your cleaner that if they were working as a commercial cleaner they wouldn't be able to use bleach. It was phased out ages ago due to COSHH regulations etc.
I have worked as a cleaner in schools, hospitality venues and offices. Bleach has not been used for a long time, even when I've cleaned urinals.
Although I haven't worked as a cleaner for 2 yrs
Hope that's helpful

I'm lost of the connection between using bleach and not being insured. What's that logic?

And the " eco" style cleaning products I've seen cost a hell of a lot more than bleach . That's also a consideration.

A lot of it is just greenwashing too.
Anyone remember the scam that was Enjo? It was marketed as 'chemical free'. 🫣

@Eastie77Returns it's actually against H&S to use bleach of any description if you are a cleaner in a public building so NO you are definitely NBU. She works for you, not the other way around she should respect your wishes in your home and accept the fact that she is the employee!

Bleach is hardly the worst chemical out there, it turns into salt and water as it breaks down.
You don’t have to have it in your home if you don’t want to but at least don’t spout rubbish as your excuse for not using it.

I’m a bleach free house too. Can’t see the benefit of it. It bleaches poo stains, but doesn’t remove them. So unless you want the poo stains to remain, but be bleached so you can’t see them, what is the point?
The deposits are still there, but now white as they’ve been bleached?

I'm confused as to why so many people apparently have 'poo stains' tbh - don't people have a toilet brush and cleaning spray/fluid? Who is letting poo set on?

I vetoed bleach after the third ruined towel. I buy viakal for her and all the other stuff but bleach is just too annoying. She got really huffy and backed down