You Should Never Use Bleach To Clean These 9 Things

As much as bleach is a wonderful product for cleaning and sanitizing, there are plenty of mistakes people make when using bleach every day. For example, those new to hand-washing dishes may not know that if you use a bleach bath to sanitize them, they must air dry, not towel dry, so that any remaining product will evaporate. Bleach can also create air vapor, which is dangerous when inhaled and irritates skin and eyes alike, making it a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to safe cleaning. 

If messing up cleaning bleach-safe items is possible, it stands to reason that you may be misusing it in other areas — such as items that should never be bleached at all. There are some obvious ones that most people wouldn't miss, such as food, but other items may not be as obvious when needing an alternate cleaning product. Here are items you should never bleach, ensuring you keep you and your home safe.

You shouldn't bleach your wood floors and decks, countertops and tables, cutting boards, or any other wood accessories if you can avoid it. This is because bleach can shift the wood's pH, damaging its cells. This means it damages the material, weakening its composition and maybe even changing its color. Instead, you might want to use a wood-specific cleaner, such as PineSol, for wood floors. However, counters and other wood surfaces can be a little more tricky, especially when you want to sanitize them after cooking or eating; doubly in the case of having prepared raw meat or other bacteria-inviting ingredients. 

There are a handful of ways to clean your solid wood countertops, but to start with, you should be conditioning them with wax or oil to prevent damage during use and cleaning alike. Cleaning a conditioned wood surface is easier, and often times you should be fine to just use soap and water. For sanitation, instead of bleach, try food-safe concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, which can be diluted with water and applied on a cloth or used as a spray. Don't use abrasive materials to clean your wood, as you could scratch the finish or leave fine lines on the surface, which not only ruins the look but also gives germs and bacteria just another place to hide and grow. 

Phones may be our number one electronic, but there are plenty of other devices we can't seem to live without. Tablets, computers, gaming systems, security devices, and so many other gadgets make modern life what it is. And with so many devices, cleaning them can fall to the back of your mind. However, electronics are just as likely to have bacteria growing on them as anything else. More likely, in fact, in the case of your phone, which is one of the dirtiest objects you come into contact with throughout your day, according to StateFoodSafety. So why not use bleach? Every device is different, but many plastics can be damaged by harsh chemicals, and smart devices often have an oleophobic coating that bleach can degrade and ruin. 

So, how do you clean these devices without ruining them? Step one is to power them down to minimize the chances of shorting anything out due to liquid exposure. Then, you can use an alcohol solution cleaner to wipe down your devices. You should use a microfiber or non-abrasive cloth and put the liquid solution on the fabric instead of directly on the device. Be gentle and avoid ports, which should be kept dry and cleaned separately. 

Regardless of whether or not your gym is private or public, you'll want to clean it off before and after use, both to be polite for the future user and to take good care of the equipment. If you don't, it can easily spread germs or show leftover sweat. However, you may be surprised to find that many common disinfectants can destroy gym equipment. According to 2XL Clean Insights, ammonia, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and bleach should all be avoided when cleaning it down. There are many materials used in these items that will break down, corrode, or discolor when exposed to bleach, and some gym items shouldn't have liquid cleaners applied to them at all. Obviously, leaving them as is won't work, but with bleach and many other liquids out of the picture, it may be difficult to see an alternative.

So what to use instead? QUAT-based and phenol-free cleaners are best — specifically, wipes. Wipes are best to use on equipment since an overuse of spray can cause liquid damage. With wipes, there's no guesswork on how much solution to apply to a surface. If you do use a solution to clean your gym equipment, spray it onto your cloth and not the equipment itself, and be sure to use microfiber or non-abrasive cloths when doing so. 

Similar to bleaching toys comes the risks of bleaching children's furniture. The New Jersey Department of Health links cleaning children's objects with bleach to breathing issues and irritation to the skin and eyes, all three of which are more worrisome in children. Many children's items are also made of materials that bleach can break down, such as wood, soft plastics, cloth, and fabrics.

Disinfecting and sanitizing are important in kids' playrooms, though, so what do you use instead? While soap and water go a long way and should always be your first step, there are safer alternatives for disinfecting and cleaning the germ-heavy places in your children's rooms, too. NJ Health recommends hydrogen peroxide as the next best thing, as it rapidly breaks down when it contacts water and oxygen and does not leave any residue behind. Most importantly, though, it does not produce vapor like cleaning with bleach does, so it won't cause any breathing problems on its own. Just make sure to properly dilute it following its label before using it as a cleaning agent. In addition, ensure that children's items are completely dry and have no residue before returning any objects to areas where they are accessible to kids, even when working with hydrogen peroxide.