Dear Home Ec 101, I love your site! Love the 50’s look! I want to mop with bleach once a month to help keep our grout white, but mopping with bleach and water does not seem to clean the floor well. Your site came up when I googled which cleaners/soaps can safely be mixed with … Read more
Dear Home-Ec 101, I have a Corningware tea pot that has hard water stains from too many times boiling dry. A friend suggested straight bleach and bringing it to a boil, removing it from the burner and letting it set overnight. No luck. Suggestions? Does sodium hypochlorite break down at a certain temperature? Can’t find … Read more
Heather says: I received a concerning email, yesterday, that made me realize it was time to send this post out again as a reminder. This is the first in our series on household chemicals. Over the past few years, I have gotten the impression that many people are using chlorine bleach in an unsafe manner. Chlorine … Read more
Dear Home-Ec 101, So I found your article looking for some ideas for dealing with our hard water issues here in Florida. I’m in school for biomed engineering so I appreciated the explanations you gave. I have a question and thought with your background you might know the answer, or know which direction to point … Read more
Chemical-based cleaners can be a big help with cleaning and disinfecting surfaces in your home. If used improperly, household chemicals can be dangerous. Below are articles about many common cleaners and how to use them safely. Click on the titles to read the entire articles. How to Use Chlorine Bleach Safely Chlorine bleach aka … Read more
Heather says: Welcome to the another installment of the series on Common Household Chemicals. I think I was a kid when Billy Mays first showed up on my radar. He pitched Oxyclean late into the night and I’d sit there fascinated watching the red swirl away and magically disappear. Oxyclean is just a brand name for … Read more
Heather says: This is another post in the series on household chemicals. Rubbing alcohol is frequently recommended by frugal and green bloggers for use as household cleaner, and needs to be used with care. Rubbing alcohol is a general term that most often refers to isopropanol, but can also refer to ethanol. It is very … Read more