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 use bleach products once every couple of months though and mainly on kitchen sink, toilet, bathroom sink and bath grouting. Daily bleach seems excessive

I wasn't aware it wrecked pipes. I put it down loo for keeping the toilet fresh and white.
I've got a friend who tries using it for blocked drains though and it really wont work for that. Thats what drain cleaner is for. It's something totally different.

You don't need to have bleach in your house if you don't want to.
She doesn't have to work for you using natural products if she doesn't want to.

Neither of you are wrong.

Every cleaner I've ever had has disliked eco-friendly products because the bottom line is that they're just not as effective. That said, there are some really good ones on the market now (and I haven't had a cleaner in years, can't afford one these days) so maybe you can win her round? But you probably won't. Depends how good she is and whether this is a hill you're prepared to die on (or at least clean yourself!).

Looking at it from her perspective, she has to work much harder to achieve not as good results in the allotted time. I can see why that wouldn’t sit well. You need to get a cleaner who is happy with this, and she needs someone else where she can do a good job in the allotted time without flogging herself. Neither of you are wrong, you just aren’t a match.

I'm not a domestic goddess by any means but my home is clean without the use of bleach. People mentioning dirty toilets - that's what a toilet brush is for.

It's your home, bit rude of her to insist on using something you don't want.

What is it she wants the bleach for? I would not want it used a regular product in my house and understand where you are coming from and only have a bottle around in case of disinfectant needs (e.g after norovirus).

But @Eastie77Returns, as other posters have asked, what in your house actually needs a full scale bleach every week/fortnight? (Or however frequently she cleans your house.)

This isn't an attempt to shame you, it's to understand what she's insisting will only respond to bleach?

Get a different cleaner.

I do have bleach but the same bottle has lasted five years. It's for last ditch situations only.

My cleaners won't use it, they use eco products only. My mother is still constantly bleaching everything, I've gone to visit her and found her sitting outside her house choking because she's used so much of it in the past.

Bad for everything. You employ her, she's not doing you a favour. No bleach is both perfectly reasonable and a good thing all round.

As for the person bleaching their sink every night - why on earth? 😳

I’d be getting another cleaner, we have one and she uses what I buy due to allergies. That said some brands are better than others. I dont use Ecover its owned by a huge corp. Try Bio D or Attitude products we prefer Bio D.

I have voted YABU because I work for a recently awarded B Certified company where cleaning is a huge component of their business and despite changing products and brands multiple times over the years eco-friendly non chemical cleaners are just shite. It They just doesn’t do the job to anywhere near the same standard as the stuff we use ourselves at home or did before. It’s a huge point of contention because we get so many more complaints from clients than we did before and we have to work to such tight time scales. It makes our far jobs more difficult, time poor and we have to take the flack because it’s not for the lack of hard-work but lack of adequate products.

I would just get a cleaner who uses the same products as you

Toilet brushes shudder
But how do you clean your toilet brush?

Absolute poppycock. Who sold you that lie? A non bleach cleaner company let me guess?
Bleach diluted in toilet water with plastic pipes will not corrode them. If you have copper pipes or septic tank possibly but that’s not the vast majority of houses in the uk.
What other disinfectant do you use to get poo bacteria killed above and below the waterline?

Squirt generously with antibac. Flush loo and hold brush under water stream to rinse. Repeat.

I generally use non-bleach products for every day use, but do have a bleach bathroom spray & toilet cleaner if the bathroom has stubborn dirt/needs something a bit more powerful. Can’t stand the smell of bleach generally.

Your cleaner should use the products you want her to use, it’s your house plus you are paying for the products.

I didn't think people used bleach anymore. I have never used it.

If that works for you, fair enough.
I have a visceral reaction to toilet brushes haha.

If you have a sink with poor enamelling it does get discoloured however much you scrub but bleach will sort it out (but only for a while until it builds up again).

Minimal vinegar products from Lakeland are great and the starter kit is only £5.White vinegar is a much more user friendly product.
Some of my bathroom fittings have been destroyed by bleach so I'd tend to agree with you.

Toilet brush. Good lord. I chucked mine in the 90’s when it suddenly occurred to me that I was sitting multiple times a day right next to flakes of the rest of the family’s turds. Foulest things ever.

This.

I don't like the thought of a toilet brush either but how on earth do you clean your toilet then (unless you use bleach)? I'd genuinely want to know.

She hasn’t said any specific areas need bleach, just “I prefer”. She doesn’t speak English very well.

I actually pre-clean the loo before she comes in case there is kind of embarrassing mess. Everywhere else just needs a general clean, nothing extreme.

I think the final straw for me came when one day I was bent down slightly with the toilet brush scrubbing trying to get under the rim etc when I accidentally pulled the brush back and got flicked / showered with a face full of toilet water droplets including on the lips. Yeah. That was it for me.