Re: Why not bleach?
 

I'm jumping in a bit late, but Oxyclean is just hydrogen peroxide. Sodium percarbonate mixed with water makes hydrogen peroxide. Look for some of the generic oxycleans that are mostly or completely sodium percarbonate, with no other detergents or cleaners added. Those will bleach your mold and mildew stains the best, without the damage of chlorine.

Hydrogen peroxide turns to plain water when exposed to light, or left to sit out over time. Thus, mixing up your own fresh works better than using the relatively mild formulation you can buy in a brown bottle in the pharmacy section.

My cleaning cabinet: Vinegar, baking soda, oxyclean. Vinegar cleans aything at all. I cut it with water to save money on cleaning glass and counter tops. Baking soda adds a little scrubbing power when made into a paste with a tiny bit of water, and is just plain fun when mixed with vinegar. It scrubs fiberglass and delicate finishes without scratching, and helps wipe away grease fast. Oxyclean does the occasional grout bleaching, as well as the laundry. If I'm in a real hurry, I use my laundry detergent, BioKleen, on my bathtub. A little sprinkle does the tub and tile from floor to ceiling, but it can hurt my hands.

My husband and I both have asthma. Studies in the last year or two show that babies conceived in a home cleaned with chlorine have a much higher risk of developing asthma, even when those cleaners are banished after the baby is born. The University of Tennessee is working on a study now to see if there is a correlation between drinking city water with its chlorine and premature birth. Bleach is just vile stuff.

-Natalie

Re: Why not bleach?
 

Okay, I admit I didn't get to read all the posts in this thread so if this is repetitive, I'm sorry. I was just about to post about making a bleach and water solution for disinfecting the baby's toys when I stumbled upon this thread. What can I use instead to spray the toys so they will be clean? The baby obviously puts everything in her mouth and we've had our fair share of sickness this season with my 3yo bringing home every germ in town from her preschool. Help!!

Re: Why not bleach?
 

Soap and water work just fine for cleaning toys. If you just want to spray them, and not wipe them down, then diluted vinegar with maybe some tea tree oil and/or grapefruit seed extract in it, too, would work great. You can also put washable toys in mesh lingerie bags or pillow cases, and run them through the washing machine.

Re: Why not bleach?
 

:yes
or the dishwasher!

I would strongly caution anyone against using bleach (or any other chemical disinfectant) on anything your baby touches, especially if it will go in the mouth. :no2

Re: Why not bleach?
 

I do put the toys that are made of fabric in the washing machine and I sterilize some of the others in those microwave bags made for sterilizing breast pump parts...but some of the toys can't go in there. Some of the toys can't be immersed in water because they have parts that get water inside of them. That's why I like to spray them, let them dry and then rinse in water. So will vinegar really kill germs? I thought it was okay to dilute bleach in water and use as a disinfectant and then rinse after drying. We have chlorine in our water systems so I don't understand why it's not a good idea.

Re: Why not bleach?
 

I am loathe to use bleach, but we have some mould growing in the basement and in the bathroom window that needs to be eradicated before we put the house on the market (our dehumidifier didn't work for a bit). So I bought a small bottle, and hubby will wear gloves and a mask while using it, since I'm pregnant. And we'll vent the areas well.

Re: Why not bleach?
 

OK, I'll admit I haven't gone through the whole thread, but is there an alternative to those bleach tablets for your toilets? I am addicted, if we don't have one in the bowl gets NASTY in a day or two. I don't know if there's something up with our well or what. I never had this problem with city water, only since we moved to the county. I'd love to use something else but CANNOT live with the black spots all over the bowl. It's almost like an algae bloom or something :shrug HELP!!

Re: Why not bleach?
 

I just scrub 'em off - I put about a cup of baking soda in the toilet, then pour in maybe 2 cups of white vinegar (or rather, ds does - he loves it). :mrgreen The nI run the toilet brush and scrub, and the black spots come right off. I do it maybe once a week.

Re: Why not bleach?
 

Just a tidbit of info:

I used to work at a pet store. The animals are VERY sensitive to bleach (much like ourselves) so we would wash the tanks and cages in soapy bleach water to clean and disenfect, then spray everything down with vinegar water, because the vinegar neutralizes and washes off any residue that the bleach leaves behind. So for those gals who really want to use bleach on their whites but don't want the residue, I suppose you could run a vinegar rinse cycle afterwards and get all the residue off your clothing.

Re: Why not bleach?
 

I learned today that the very best way to salvage molded wood is to blast it with baking powder! It cleans the wood without damaging it, and everything, including the mold, gets vacuumed up as the cleaning goes. Bleach can bleach the color of the mold, while still leaving the dead spores behind, so not only does the bleach cause damage to the material under the mold, but it also hides the dead mold that can still cause allergic and other toxic reactions. (This Old House just did an article on Katrina restoration, and that's where I learned all this new stuff.)

Re: Why not bleach?
 

I wonder if baking powder would salvage moldy grout as well? I can't get H2O2 or anything to work on my mildew-y grout except the dreaded Tilex. :shifty

Re: Why not bleach?
 

A great alternative to bleach is this stuff http://www.melaleuca.com/ps/index.cf..._130&l1=1&l2=8

I watched my SIL take a black permanent marker to her countertops and floors and then tried using your average cleaner to clean it and it would do a thing. She dabbed some of this stuff on a rag and wiped and it DISAPPEARED within SECONDS!

Crazy stuff I tell you. And it's suppose to be totally natural. :shrug

Re: Why not bleach?
 

That sounds like amazing stuff! It doesn't say anything about mildew, though. :/

Re: Why not bleach?
 

I have a feeling it would work, because I know my SIL uses it to clean her tubs and showers instead of bleach. That stuff is miraculous stuff. :giggle

Re: Why not bleach?
 

I would sure be willing to try it!

My kitties like to get in the bathtub after I shower and lick up the water, so I really, really, really don't want to use any bleach stuff, even if I rinse it to bits. If I do use it again (and I hope not to), I will do the vinegar rinse thing. Thanks for that advice, whomever that was! :O