Bleach

[ChetMC]

Is there anything that you need chlorine bleach for, or is it a product that can be completely removed from the home?

Could stores stop selling it and we'd all be fine without it?

[redvlagrl]

I do have some at home and never used it until I had terrible, terrible yeasty rash problems. We tried everything natural until, after 13 mths of battling it, I bleached the c$%^ out of my dipes. Problem solved.

I was also going to toss my garbage bin until I used a dilute bleach slution and it came up like new. So in this case, a small amount of evil prevented massive waste (throwing out a perfectly good but dingy and stained bin).

[theresa1]

I never use it for cleaning, substituting hydrogen peroxide or vinegar.

[mattemma04]

I use it for mold,garbage can cleaning,and at times the septic(open sand pit).
I have used it in the toilet too. I have a friend whose lungs were damaged by bleach,so I am very cautious about the fumes.

I did not use it for a long time.Could probably find alternatives if I had too.

[Hedgehog Mtn]

I have not used it in 10+ years. I'd say it's totally doable

[goldenwillow]

Originally Posted by theresa1

I never use it for cleaning, substituting hydrogen peroxide or vinegar.

We have not had bleach in our home for 2+ years and I don't miss it one bit!

[Multimomma]

You could stop using it, but it's a fast and easy way to use sodium chloride to bleach stains.

Here's a list of other chemical cleaners and how they all work.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed....hose_germs.htm

Vinegar is an acid that easily cleans and is nontoxic. It doesn't cut grease, so you'd want hydrogen peroxide for that.

We mostly use vinegar, but i do keep bleach around for occasional bleaching.

[ChetMC]

Clarification

What I'm wondering is if there is a specific list things that bleach alternatives will not work for.

I'm sure that it's possible to live without chlorine bleach for years. However, since it's not chemically the same as baking soda, peroxide, vinegar, etc it makes sense that you might sometimes need bleach in more unusual or extreme circumstances.

Or, does somebody have an explanation of nobody would ever, ever need to use bleach for anything?

[Multimomma]

I'd say you don't NEED it, really. We didn't use it for years, but when I was pregnant with my last babe, my nesting desire made me want WHITEWHITEWHITE grout, and while I knew the vinegar/BS made it clean, it was getting yellower and yellower. And we had to replace part of the showerhead because the vinegar was slowly breaking it down, which bleach didn't do.

So now we use bleach sparingly, to give me white grout and sooth my nesty feelers.

[OkiMom]

Personally I CANT use bleach around the house, my daughter is allergic to it. We are going on 3 years (took me a while to figure out why she always had a terrible rash) without using it and I can't think of a thing I would think you would "need" it for. Although my whites could sure use some whitening .

[SquishyKitty]

I use it to clean the toilets, I also use it to clean the trash cans, and a cap full with some really hot water to clean floors and sinks and stuff that is touched a lot.

A small bottle lasts literally 1.5 years, we use so little, but it's the best for disinfecting things. It's great for the floors where my dogs like to track in all kinds of gross things, and handles and stuff that people touch after going to the bathroom or whatever.

[bezark]

I only use powdered bleach to clean my tub and kitchen sink.
They're both well over 100 years old and have completely lost their enamel. Until we can have the tub re-coated and the sink replaced, bleach is the only thing that gets rid of the awful stains that pop up daily.
Until we moved here, I hadn't used bleach at all for at least 2-3 years.

[calebsmommy25]

I don't think it is completely necessary for bleach to be used in normal every day cleaning. I haven't used in in 2+ years. Like all the pp's, vinegar, baking soda and peroxide work well.

The only extreme circumstance that I could imagine would be in a natural disaster or something? If a septic tank exploded or there was dirty contaminated water in our home, etc. I would use bleach. Other than that, I can't think of why it needs to be used.

[SquishyKitty]

I can't stand the smell of vinegar, I don't care how diluted it is, it makes me gag.

I use 1 capful of bleach to 2 gallons of hot water, so there is no smell, my floors get clean and there is no residue. Like I said, a small bottle lasts over a year for us, it's used sparingly but it gets things clean and I am happy with it.

[Turquesa]

Vinegar nauseates me, too. But I use it, quickly ventilate the room, and dash out of there.

[SquishyKitty]

I don't really feel like suffering through it when it's too cold to open windows here lol.