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?

I think you’re inherently incompatible and needs need a new cleaner.

My niece also eschews anything but eco cleaning products, but by god, I’d love to squirt bleach in her loos and sinks now and then.

YANBU.

I don’t use bleach, ever.
it’s unnecessary in my opinion, it makes the house smell like swimming baths. And in my professional life, it was used to cover up other smells, so no, you’re not being unreasonable to not want to use bleach in your home.

if the cleaner needs bleach to clean, then you need a new cleaner.

Am I the only person who thinks it smells like semen? For that reason alone I confine it to the bathroom (or windowsill mould if desperate!). Aside from the fact you only need a TINY spot on you to wreck your clothes!

I like the smell! I use it very sparingly in the loo, and occasionally in the sink. Great for soaking dishcloths, and getting tea stains out of china too. Since bleach is no longer used in shops and cafes in their customer toilets, some smell horrible, M&S being one.

Dilute it to wipe over toilet seats and toilet exterior.
Neat to clean inside of loo bowl.
Neat down plugholes to stop smells.
Spray bleach to clean cat litter tray.
If cat has peed/ vomited on floor use diluted to clean.
Diluted to clean stinking inside of food and compost caddy if the bag has leaked.
Diluted to clean fly eggs from rim of wheelie bin.
Neat on top of left out cat food put into bag in bin where fly had laid some eggs.

Those are some things I've used it for recently. Wouldn't know what to use instead ( don't say zoflora, I can't stand artificial floral smells). Bleach smells fine to me.

This is exactly it.

OP, you’re not being unreasonable to set boundaries of what products you are and aren’t willing to use in your own home.

However, your cleaner also isn’t being unreasonable to request products that she prefers to use, and she won’t be unreasonable if she decides to drop you as a client because of this.

Perhaps you need to find a different cleaner who specifically uses eco-friendly products?

Have you had a go at cleaning a toilet with the eco crap yourself? It may give you some perspective.

The toilet! Genuinely how do people take a shit / have other members of their family take a shit and then not use at least a small bit of bleach down the loo 🤢🤮 Please don’t tell me you have one of those poo particle toilet brushes that sit by the loo with human waste on them all day- particularly if you don’t use bleach on that either 🤢

Honestly this! I clean my toilets with bleach! No amount of lemon juice and lavender would cut it for me when I’m scrubbing someone else’s poo off the toilet crevices.

This ^

I use KOH around the house everywhere EXCEPT for the toilet. Bleach only, you won’t persuade me otherwise.

This ^

Yanbu but you might have to be prepared to part ways with this cleaner! I use bleach for toilets only. Nothing else really needs it if you keep on top of the cleaner. Soap and water is sufficient, or it should be if your cleaner is any good.

I only use bleach in my bathroom, actually I use a cream cleaner that has bleach in it because I don’t feel any of the “bathroom” cleaners actually clean.

Out of interest how much does she charge you ph?

I use toilet cleaner usually supermarket own it cleans fine, i do squirt some bleach down drains and the toilet once a week though.

I use bleach on my toilets bowls twice a week. I add a splash and leave it for a few hours when we are at work. Not only disinfects but descales the bits you don't see.

I also use a splash of bleach on the bathroom floor tiles. Again, it disinfects and cleans the grout.

I don't feel guilty about it. Considering the amount of shit and chemicals the industry produces, a splash of bleach to keep my bathroom really clean, it's negligible.

And yet the company I use is insured by a company that does cover it...try Hiscox, though a quick google throws up others :)

You're not supposed to use bleach down the toilet though. It wrecks your pipes.

It has to be some sort of psychological thing with people thinking bleach = clean and nothing else will do

I’ve not read through the whole thread so not sure if anyone’s mentioned checking Nancy Birtwhistle on insta, she promotes all things green cleaning - Sodium Percarbonate is “Green Bleach” and is great for most things that you’d need bleach for but it’s a powder so not exactly the same. It does sound like you’re incompatible though she doesn’t sound like she wants an alternative!

I think I would have told a white lie and said that the fumes from bleach bring on asthma in the family so cant have it in the house. Nothing she can say about that.

Me too 🫣. Kitchen, bathroom and floors bleached daily.

my house only feel clean when my eyes burn from the chlorine smell 😂

Bleach can degrade the surface of porcelain over time

You dont need to buy bleach, it's up to you what products are used in your house. But you should find a new cleaner who is prepared to use your preferred products.
Eco friendly products don't clean as well, and dont get the same results so easily so your cleaner isn't being unreasonable either. If she's in demand I'm sure there are plenty of homes who will use her sevices with the products she wants to use.
If this is a deal breaker for you it's probably better to part ways.

Bleach has advantages. I think you are micromanaging her.