You may not realize this, but you likely have chemicals in your home that could make you sick or even kill you.  If you have bleach, ammonia, toilet cleaner, oven cleaner, drain cleaner, pesticide, dishwasher detergent, furniture polish, or window cleaner, you may be at risk. Some are more harmful than others and some combinations of these chemicals could cause deadly consequences.  For example, mixing bleach with ammonia creates a gas called chloramine that makes you sick and may kill you.

Common harmful cleaning chemicals

Bleach is one of the most harmful things you can use for cleaning.  It’s dangerous to breath or get on your skin.  Plus, bleach is harmful for most surfaces.  The funny thing is bleach is not really a good cleaning agent.  It’s an oxidizing agent that removes color and happens to be a disinfecting agent.  The disinfecting property of bleach kills bacteria quite well, but it doesn’t actually remove soil because it’s not a detergent. Many of these chemicals are harsh on your lungs and skin.   Some homeowners even try bleach for spot removal on carpet or rugs.  In most cases, it will cause carpet to lose color and damage is done to the carpet backing.

What’s safe for cleaning?

Mostly, we use a cleaning agent with no harmful additions.  In fact, our main cleaning agents are likely SAFER than the chemicals under your kitchen sink.  For example, butyl is a harsh main ingredient in most window cleaners, but we won’t use it.   Can’t you just clean with water?  Sure, water is safe.  But imagine cleaning your dirty refrigerator with plain water.  It wouldn’t clean up very well, nor would your carpet and floors.

Best carpet & rug cleaners?