cleaning [spugbrap’s blog]

January 3rd, 2008

Clorox 2 does NOT kill germs

When I see the name Clorox on a cleaning product, I automatically think “this kills germs”. Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, Clorox Toilet Bowl Cleaner, and the king of all germicides: Clorox Bleach. But what about Clorox 2?

They call it “Bleach for Colors”. I’ve been using it for years, and have always kind of assumed that it’s just like bleach, only somehow without the hardcore whitening power. Sometimes, if I know that some clothes (or, more often, towels or rags) have been in a particular nasty situation, I’ll throw in some Clorox 2, thinking it might help kill germs, along with washing out whatever scary stuff is present.

After years of wondering whether it actually does have germ killing properties, like most Clorox products have, I finally looked it up. I found the answer in the Clorox 2 Bleach For Colors FAQ:

Q. Can Clorox 2® Bleach for Colors be used to disinfect clothing?

A. No. Clorox 2® Bleach for Colors is not registered as a disinfectant with the E.P.A. Of course, Clorox® Regular-Bleach can be used as a disinfectant if the fabric is safe for sodium hypochlorite bleach.

Looking at a bottle of Clorox 2, this fact is not readily apparent, as you can see from the photos below:

However, I did find the answer to my original question (”Does Clorox 2 kill germs?”) in an unexpected place (after I’d already found the answer on their official website): on the back label of a bottle of regular Clorox Bleach (see photo below).

There it is, plain as day: “This product is not an EPA-registered disinfectant.” Now why couldn’t they just put that on the actual Clorox 2 bottle? Hmpf!

July 16th, 2007

Quick tip for erasing dry-erase marker

Tissues work very well for erasing dry-erase marker!

Specifically, I’ve tried it with Kleenex regular unscented ones, but I assume others probably work, too.

I used to get frustrated, sometimes, trying to erase dry-erase marker off a kids’ workbook that had laminated pages. The first method I used was using a dry paper towel. It worked fine, for a long time (but sometimes it didn’t). So, I tried a wet paper towel, and that would usually do the trick (but sometimes it wouldn’t). So, I tried a wet dishwashing sponge, which usually did pretty well (but not always). The last resort was a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (awesome product!), which always worked. But that seemed overkill, and I hated to waste it on something that should be easier to clean, so it wasn’t an everyday solution.

Lacey saw me struggling with this, one day, and told me about the tissue thing. I’m not sure where she learned about it, or if she figured it out, on her own. But I always use a tissue to erase it, now, and that works like a charm.

I also tried this on my whiteboard, at work, and it works on that, too. Much cleaner than using the whiteboard eraser, which just pushes the dust around and leaves a line of it wherever you stop erasing.

July 9th, 2007

How not to sanitize cork floors

If you need to clean up cork floors, don’t use Lysol disinfectant spray. I learned this the hard way, and have yet to actually adequately recover from it.

Early one morning, a couple months ago, one of the cats pooped at the top of our stairs, on the cork floor. Since they are not my cats (they are mainly Lacey’s and Matthew’s), I’m not usually the one to clean up such a mess. But everyone was still asleep (I go to work way early), and I didn’t want the mess to get worse by having someone (cat or human) step in it and track it around the house, so I dealt with it myself.

I thought I remembered Lacey telling me that the way she cleaned that stuff up was to pick up the poop with paper towels and dispose of it, then spray the area with Lysol and wipe it off. Well, it turns out, the floors didn’t like that. It turned the sprayed area a light color, and took off the shine. It looked bad.

So, I sprayed some Pledge wood polish on it, and wiped that on, and tried to wipe off the excess. The spot looked better (not perfect, but at least it was shiny again), but now the whole area was very slippery! I wiped and wiped, with paper towels and then with rags, but all it did was make the slippery area bigger. Wood floors are slippery enough, already, and the top of the stairs is a really bad place for floors to be extra slippery!

I needed to get to work, but I didn’t want the kids (or Lacey even!) to slip and fall down the stairs, so I grabbed a bathroom rug (the kind with nonslip rubber on the bottom, that you step on when you get out of the tub/shower), and covered the entire slippery area.

Lacey told me that this is *not* the way she cleans up cat poop, and she proceeded to tell me how she actually does it. But that was a couple months ago, and I’ve already forgotten. Luckily, the cats don’t tend to poop in the wrong place anymore, although their long hair does make the occasional cling-on get dropped here or there, sometimes. Eww.

The rug is still there, today, because I don’t really know what to do about the slippery floor problem, without risking damaging the floor worse than I did originally. I actually kind of like having a soft, non-slip surface up there. It does help me know where the top of the stairs are, when going up/down in the dark. I guess it’s probably kinda tacky, though, but I tend to care more about utility/safety than aesthetics.

The cats like it too. They sleep on it every night!

(Nermel sleeping on it earlier this evening)

spugbrap’s blog

January 3rd, 2008

Clorox 2 does NOT kill germs

July 16th, 2007

Quick tip for erasing dry-erase marker

July 9th, 2007

How not to sanitize cork floors

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