Post updated with links to include cleaning items you can still get in stock on Amazon on April 7, 2020.
With the holidays fast-approaching it’s time to get the house in order for your family and guests. One of my secret tools is Clorox bleach. I know many of you have Clorox® in your home, but did you know it has tons of uses? Well, I’m here to help. And just as a caveat, make sure if you’re cleaning with bleach that you don’t wear your favorite shirt or evening gown and you always protect your hands. Some cheap and simple rubber gloves you can pick up from Amazon will be fine! Here’s my 10 favorite ways to clean with Clorox…
1. Sanitize toys.
With the holidays right around the corner, you’ll soon have a bunch of new toys around the house… just in time for cold and flu season. To clean and disinfect: Mix ½ cup of Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water. Soak pre-washed toys 5 minutes. Rinse and let air dry.
2. Get a cleaner bathroom.
To clean and disinfect a toilet bowl: Flush toilet. Pour ¾ cup of Clorox® Regular-Bleach into bowl. Brush bowl with scrub brush and let stand for 10 minutes. Flush. Clorox provides better value over the competition? One bottle disinfects 33 times more bathtubs than store brand bleach. You can also use Clorox safely on your sinks and faucets and for tougher messes, you can use my favorite sponges that are perfect for scrubbing or for soft surfaces.
3. Freshen your garbage disposal.
Around the holidays it seems I always have people shoving stuff down my sink that I don’t even know about. But later I always find out when I start to get a weird smell in the kitchen. To fix this pour ¾ cup of Clorox® Regular-Bleach into drain while running disposal and water.
4. Disinfect doorknobs.
With all of the cold and flu viruses spreading like crazy this time of year, sanitize your home by wiping down all of your doorknobs.
5. Sanitize your cutting boards.
Nothing freaks me out more than raw chicken on a cutting board, especially if you have a wood cutting board like my favorite one I like to use. To clean and sanitize: Mix 2 tbsp of Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water. Pour solution over pre-washed cutting board and let stand for 2 minutes. Rinse with 2 tsp of this product per gallon of water. Do not rinse or soak overnight.
6. Clean your kitchen.
There are a bunch of other places where you can use Clorox in your kitchen: your countertops (I use the Clorox® Anywhere® Hard Surface™ Daily Sanitizing Spray everyday), appliances, sink, faucet, floors and even the garbage can. This is your best tool for cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting your kitchen, plus it’s a lot cheaper than buying 15 different cleaning products! The best part is even if you have painted kitchen cabinets like ours, cleaning them with bleach won’t hurt the painted surface! Just use a microfiber cloth so you can make sure that you get rid of the dust as well that is so sneaky about accumulating.
7. Keep your flowers fresher longer.
Not even kidding. Did you know if you drop 1/4 teaspoon of clean in a quart of vase water you can ensure the water stays clear and free of that nasty smell that starts to brew after the flowers bloom? Try it!
8. Tackle the trash cans.
Trash cans can get pretty grimy and dirty, both outside and inside. To disinfect, spray Clorox® Clean-Up® Cleaner with Bleach until thoroughly wet. Let stand for 5 minutes. Then rinse and wipe clean. For heavily soiled areas, a pre-cleaning is required.
And a quick tip: Place a batch of extra garbage bags like these at the bottom of the trash can. Take out the trash, and you’ve got a replacement bag waiting for you!
9. Those everyday items you touch.
I wrote a whole separate post on 15 things you should be cleaning more often. It’s crazy to think some of the things we touch and handle every single day are the things we clean the least. I’m talking about cell phones, tablets, remote controls, handles to the fridge and microwave, and more.
10. Deep clean your washing machine.
I know you use Clorox to get brighter, fresher whites, but did you know you can also use it to clean your washing machine? Washing machines collect a lot of dirt and soil during the laundry load. Most debris is washed away with the water in each load, but over time a buildup of dirt can occur. That’s where Clorox® Washing Machine Cleaner comes in handy.
For HE Washers with a “Maintenance Cycle” or “Clean Out Cycle”:
- Select the “Maintenance Cycle” or “Clean Out Cycle”
- Fill the machine bleach dispenser to the maximum level with Clorox® Washing Machine Cleaner.
- Allow the washer to run a complete cycle on hot water to freshen the machine.
So, anything I forgot to add to this list?
Add it in the comment section below!
Sheryll says
These are really good ideas! Here is another thing we learned from our vet and pre school. Put a teaspoon in a spray bottle of water and shake. Spray this in the air to help disinfect for germs. My vet uses it whenever a contagious animal comes I to the vet they spray everything with it. The pre school uses it when ever children start getting sick. I use it at home to disinfect counters and bathrooms including those nasty rentals I clean. Or when I clean businesses because a lot of illness travel fast. Hope this is another notch in the Clorox belt!
howtonestforless says
Thank you so much for sharing!!
Hollie says
With respect, and as a person who uses Clorox regularly, you neglected to specify that Clorox in regular, fiber-gard, HE, SMART etc do not disinfect. Only Clorox Disinfecting Bleach does (there is a different bottle for this!) “Regular” bleach whitens, cleans, removes stains and deodorizes but does not disinfect.
howtonestforless says
As stated on their website, Clorox regular bleach “disinfects to kill 99.9% of germs and bacteria, which is kinda awesome”.
https://www.clorox.com/products/clorox-concentrated-regular-bleach/
Hollie says
Perhaps it is different in Canada. It says right on the labels “Cleans, Removes Stains, and Deodorizes.” On the back, in the small print it says, “To disinfect, purchase Clorox Disinfecting Bleach”.
I will try to get a photo of one for you.
rae says
Thanks for the great Clorox cleaning tips!
rae of love from berlin
howtonestforless says
You’re welcome!
Sarah says
Bleach is also critical in disasters and emergencies (hurricanes, etc). You should also keep a bottle of bleach in an emergency kit. 15 drops of bleach/gallon of water can be used to sanitize things. 2 drops of bleach/gallon of water can be used to treat water for drinking.
howtonestforless says
SO SMART!!! Thanks for the tip.
Laura says
I use full strength bleach in a spray bottle every morning to clean the litter box. First, I empty the litter ( 8 cups of inexpensive non-clumpable litter from the Dollar store is used daily because with five cats clump- able won’t stay well past one day ) then I spray all around inside the box and wait 5 minutes then wipe well with paper towels. I have five cats and the room used to smell terrible no matter what I did until I started doing this. Now I never smell the box until the next morning. I make sure the Bleach container says, ‘it kills virus’ and bacteria,’ because some bleach doesn’t have that on the bottle.