Bleach, Definition, and a few Uses
February 20, 2012, Submitted by: Lauren (Mrs. MSB) Tweet
We bleach our clothes. We bleach our teeth. We bleach our bathroom sinks and toilets etc. But…what is bleach?
According to Dr. Laundry on the Clorox website:
“The active ingredient in household bleach is sodium hypochlorite, which is derived from salt. In fact, Clorox is headquartered in Oakland, California because we started making bleach here by running electricity through salt water from San Francisco Bay! So household bleach begins and ends as salt and water. During the laundering process, about 95 to 98 percent of household bleach quickly breaks down into oxidized salt and biodegradables, which is the primary reaction that makes it environmentally friendly.”
As a prepper/survivalist bleach should definitely become one of your new best friends because of all the things it can do for you.
We all know from a survival point of view it can create drinkable water for you and your family by mixing 8 to 10 drops of bleach to a gallon of water, if necessary. But let’s look at a few other uses for bleach that will also help you as a prepper and as someone trying to survive these terrible economic times as well.
Bleach disinfects many things. You can kill viruses in your bathroom and kitchen by cleaning with bleach and water. I mix the bleach and water this way. I take about 3/4 cup of bleach and mix with a gallon of water. You can also disinfect your trash pails by using the same process.
How will bleach help you with these terrible economic times? Bleach is a great household cleaner. This will save you money because you should be able to stop buying some of your consumer cleaning products and replace them with bleach. One thing I love using bleach to clean is my plastic shower curtain liner. I know it’s kind of a pain in the butt taking the liner off of your shower hooks, but it’ll be worth it when you step back in the shower with a sparkling clean liner. You’ll notice the difference! I always wash my liner as a separate load in the washing machine. I wash it in a ‘regular’ cycle and add about 1/4 of bleach. When it’s done, don’t worry about drying it, just hang it back up on the shower rod.
Bleach works very well to remove any mold or mildew from your bathtub or shower. The same goes for any of your tile grout too. Take your mixture of 3/4 cup bleach with a gallon of water and spray on or wipe it on your mold and mildew spots. Let it sit for about 15 minutes, then scrub and rinse with plain water. (Be aware that bleach will ‘whiten’ / stain clothes and fabrics of color – so be careful around such things, such as your carpets!)
Did you ever stain a plastic Rubbermaid or Tupperware container with something like spaghetti sauce? I have, but I also found that bleach is a great way to clean that mishap. In a situation like this I would start with a tablespoon of bleach mixed with a cup of water and pour into the plastic container. Make sure your bleach/water mixture comes up high enough in your container to cover the bad spot. If you need to add another cup of mixture, go ahead, it all depends on the size of your container. I would start with letting it soak for 20 minutes and see if the stain is gone, if not, let it soak longer or add a little more bleach.
These are just a few uses for bleach. It makes a great and inexpensive disinfectant and cleaner. Make sure you have plenty!
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You know what is really good for bleach is with humidifiers during the winter and swamp coolers during the summer. Bleach helps scum and algae from building up and makes them smell better and not so musky. I would not recommend this to others, but I have taken straight bleach with a toothbrush to remove extremely stubborn mold. One should always be careful with bleach fumes.
Be careful with bleach. I don’t allow it in the same room with ammonia. Should they combine you have chlorine gas. Not pretty.
i’m very much appreciating the different tack that a woman’s perspective brings to prepping. please keep writing.
@ Sam: Thank you! I will keep plugging away
Stay well, Lauren
Would the solution of 1 tablespoon of bleach per cup of water be a good substitute for the Chlorox Cleanup spray? I like to use Chlorox Cleanup a lot and it is expensive.
I had discovered some time ago that these cleaning sprays that are marketed in many different ways, and for many different purposes, can all be substituted for simple homemade solutions. Its not critical as to the homemade formula either. ‘They’ brainwash into believing that we can only buy expensive solutions for cleaning, whereas our grandparents were somehow able to clean their homes without these solutions
You can make common household cleaner sprays for pennies. Example: I make for Lauren (and myself) a mixture of water, a squirt of dishwashing liquid, a small quantity of Borax, and sometimes I add a bit of bleach for disinfection (be careful of colorfast materials with the bleach). I can clean and degrease things just as well or even better for pennies on the dollar.
I tablespoon of bleach per cup sounds like a reasonable amount to kill germs, etc.
Here’s an article that I wrote awhile ago regarding Borax and its many uses…
Unless you have had root canals, hydrogen peroxide is the “bleaching” system commonly used. It may be old thought to flash “Dioxins” when thinking Clorox as there have been many dismissals. Still you have to evaluate the what, where, and how you use and dispose of bleach solution. It’s the exposure to other organics that can and does create dioxins. This can even include introduction to your body depending on consumption of reactive organics. For survival you do what you have to. For general purpose use there is research to be done to make use of bleach with a zero foot print outcome. That includes vapors. Food for thought… Survive-All…
Greetings all,
Ted K. the “Off-grid guy” again. Some of the cleaning agents I used when living off grid were the following agents:
1. Bleach: standard, household chlorox bleach. Years of working with it to purify water and make cleaning solutions mean I am very comfortable having at least a gallon of it around. As Mortimer addresses above, bleach reacts in dangerous way with ammonia. For this reason, bleach is NEVER the primary cleanser to be used around an area that has lots of old or fresh urine. Urine breaks down to create ammonia.
2. To clean the bathroom commode area, I purchase and use the cleansers sold in Pet stores such as Nature’s Miracle. It is an alcohol based cleanser that can be used to clean up the urine without the creation of chorine gas. Nature’s Miracle is sold by the gallon. I use it in hardware store generic spray-bottles and I use a bunch of old cotton rags. Best prices on this can be found at the local ag supply store.
3. To wash hands,and other body parts, I use a dilution of Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap in peppermint. This soap can be hard on the skin so I dilute it. It is commonly found in the Natural Food stores and it can be found in both big and small containers. The Peppermint type soap has the added benefit of killing ants in a 50/50 solution with water. I will use this in liquid soap dispensers and in the ubiquitous hardware store spray bottles.
4. As a salute to Be Informed: Dawn Dishwashing detergent. It works the best as a degreasing agent (I used to use Ivory liquid soap). It is true that it is used to clean up aquatic birds and otters in the aftermath of an oil spill. A little known fact is we used it every night at a BBQ Rib Joint I used to work at to cut through the grease on the floor in the kitchen. Dawn placed on the greasy floor prevented us from falling on our asses while washing dishes and cooking ribs.
All of the above solutions work so well that I continue to keep them around and use them to this very day. If you were to keep track of costs over one year (cleaning solutions plus spray bottles and liquid soap dispensers) I think you will find that these items are very cost effective compared to many other commercially convenient items at the supermarket.
Oh, By the way: Do not place a lot of faith in the alcohol gel hand sanitizers. They do not kill Clostridium Difficile organisms but soap and water does. Clostridium Diff. is common in and around chronically sick people in Nursing homes and hospitals. To all, survive well.