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Apr 21

Household Chemicals

So, the other day I came home and my apartment smelled weirdly of bleach. Which was really strange because I didn’t ask anyone to clean anything with bleach. I very specifically said “Please clean the stove with the rubbing alcohol” because I wanted to know how the thing that I had found on Pinterest (and regrettably didn’t re-pin) worked on our gross looking stove.

SwankyLuv: Household Chemicals

So, when I asked how it worked, I was told “not very well. But the Brillo pads you bought worked really well!” Except it’s still gross because it was my fiance who cleaned it, but I digress.

The rest of the conversation went a little like this:

K: So the rubbing alcohol didn’t work? Why does it smell like bleach?

C: I mixed it with bleach and a little bit of water.

K: That’s not what I told you to do. Did you look it up first?

C: You didn’t tell me to look it up

K: I also didn’t tell you to mix it with bleach!

And then I looked it up, and it turns out that when you mix bleach and rubbing alcohol, you make chloroform! So, after airing out the house for a few hours (did I mention it snowed the day before this happened?), I made a chart.

Disclaimer: I can’t guarantee that any of these will or won’t work as cleaning products. I also can’t guarantee that this is accurate. Most of the answers I got were from science website and product sites, and none of these (except for bleach and rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide and baking soda) have been tested by me.

 

Chemical Vinegar Bleach Ammonia Rubbing Alcohol Hydrogen Peroxide Baking Soda Borax
Vinegar No Waste Yes No Waste Yes
Bleach No No No No Yes No
Ammonia Waste No Yes No Yes? Yes
Rubbing Alcohol Yes No Yes Yes? Yes Yes
Hydrogen Peroxide No No No Yes? Yes Yes
Baking Soda Waste Yes Yes? Yes Yes Yes
Borax Yes No Yes Waste Yes Yes

And, so that I don’t leave you hanging, I found a couple of great-sounding mixtures of some of the above chemicals that are supposed to be fantastic cleaners:

bleach and baking soda

borax and hydrogen peroxide

What do you clean with? Have you accidentally mixed the wrong chemicals and made something that you totally weren’t supposed to make? Should I be killing my fiance right about now?

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