June 22nd, 2022 by Sarah Miles

If you’re only using bleach for cleaning the toilet and removing stains, you’re missing a trick!

Bleach is a staple cleaning product in most people’s homes but many of us may not realise that it can be used for way more applications than toilet cleaning and pouring into sinks and drains. Here are just a few (and you will probably be surprised at several of them!).

In the home

As you can imagine, there are many uses for bleach in the home, but you may not have thought of these ones:

Prevent food contamination on your chopping board

Contaminating foodstuffs can be very serious. You can use the same board to chop raw meat and cooked meat but it must be sanitised in between and with a wooden board, this has to be more than a quick spray and a wipe over as wood is porous. Bleach does the job really well. A dilution of 1 teaspoon of bleach in 1 litre of water can be used to clean the surface. Work over in circular motions and then dry off with a clean cloth.

Make your glasses sparkle again

Glassware will dull over time with repeated washing, and this can really spoil its appearance. By adding a teaspoon of bleach to the dishwasher or washing up bowl, they will gleam once again.

Crystal clear windows

This trick also works with windows. Just add a drop of bleach to the water when you rinse the windows, and you will wonder how you could ever see out of them before!

Blitz the litter tray

Cat litter trays can smell, due to obvious reasons. If they continue to smell, even after changing the litter it’s because of the bacteria produced by the waste that is still lingering in the tray itself. Just wipe it over with a 1:3 bleach to water solution, leave for 5 minutes then rinse clean. Dry before refilling with clean litter.

Make flowers last longer

Fresh flowers in your home look and smell divine but they don’t always last very long. Cut stems on a diagonal and add a teaspoon of bleach to 1 litre of water and it will keep them fresh for much longer.

In the garden

Bleach is also a really useful product for a range of garden jobs:

Protect new plants

Obviously, plant pots and containers are meant to be reused but placing new plants straight into pots that have contained plants before risks passing on mould, disease, and pests from the old plant to the new one. Before planting up again, place the empty pots in a dilution of 1:3 bleach to water for a few minutes. Rinse with clean water and then allow to dry.

Kill weeds

A drop of bleach may be good for cut flowers, but neat bleach will most definitely kill plants. This makes it really useful as a weed killer. Pour, undiluted, onto weeds and just leave it (obviously, keep pets and children away until it’s dry). It will kill the weeds and the roots which help to prevent them from coming back.

Clean up fencing

Wooden fencing will start to look dirty and discoloured over time due to its exposure to weather conditions. This is a mixture of mould, mildew, dirt, and bacteria. To freshen it right up, just apply a bleach solution (1:2 bleach to water ratio) using a garden sprayer and leave it to work for 5 minutes, be careful not to use too much or to leave it on for too long as it may cause discolouration (you can scrub it with a brush if it’s particularly dirty). Then rinse off with clean water. Great just for cleaning it or as preparation for painting or staining.

Pro-Kleen Unbeatable Bleach 5L

Price: £14.99

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