15 DIY Cleaning Products That Can Cause More Harm Than Good
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These days, cleaning hacks are all the rage. Whether you’re watching social media videos or reading blog posts, you’ll hear everyone’s ‘genius’ solution to a spotless home. Some homemade cleaning products are great but others can be more harmful than they’re worth. If you don’t mix the right ingredients or use them in the wrong way, your cleaning session might turn out to be a small disaster, causing you damage to your surfaces, and leaving you with chemical odors.
So before you reach for that vinegar or baking soda, let’s look a little closer at some of the most common DIY cleaning products that might be causing more damage than good.
Furniture Polish With Coconut Oil
Wood polish made from coconut oil is often recommended, but it can go rancid and leave a sticky residue and a bad smell. Instead, try to find a specific furniture polish that doesn’t leave behind a spoiled residue and is nonharmful to surface wood.
DIY Window Cleaner With Dish Soap
Dish soap is an easy cleaner, but when it’s used in homemade window cleaners, it often leaves streaks. If you’re using hard water, soap can build up on the windows, making them look dull rather than sparkling. It usually only takes a small amount of vinegar and water to get windows shining without leaving a soapy residue.
Washing Machine Detergent With Baking Soda
Baking soda can be terrific for making your laundry smell fresh, but too much of a good thing can cause problems in your washing machine. Residue can build up over time and result in clogs, or reduce the machine’s efficiency. Instead, clean your washing machine once in a while with a washing machine cleaner.
Vinegar and Baking Soda Cleaner
It is often recommended that vinegar and baking soda be mixed to create the ultimate all purpose cleaner. But here’s the thing: On the surface, all that fizz makes it look like it works, but really the two ingredients cancel each other out. Both vinegar and baking soda are acidic or base, so they cancel out each other’s cleaning power. This means you are left with salty water that won’t really tackle stubborn grime. Plus, if you’re using this on a delicate surface, it’s abrasive and can wear it down over time.
Marble Countertops and Lemon Juice
The fresh scent and natural power to clean is loved by many, but it’s a no go for marble surfaces. Marble does not ‘like’ lemon acidity and can literally begin to eat away at it, leaving dull spots that will be nearly impossible to restore. Acidic substances such as lemon juice can etch marble, a permanent change to the surface of the stone. To keep that countertop looking pristine, stick to pH neutral cleaners for marble instead.
Bleach and Ammonia Mix
If you’ve ever wondered if you should mix bleach with ammonia, you’re in the right place. Chloramine gas is produced when you mix these two chemicals and it can do serious harm to your respiratory system and even be deadly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the gas, known as chloramine, can irritate the eyes, throat and lungs and exposure at high concentrations can be fatal. Bleach and ammonia should never be kept near each other for your safety.
Disinfectant With Essential Oils
Natural disinfectants seem to be the essential oils, but they are not as powerful as they may seem. Some, like tea tree oil, have antimicrobial properties, but they aren’t strong enough to kill germs on surfaces. Essential oils aren’t a registered disinfectant, as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), meaning that essential oils don’t meet the standards of germs and viruses they kill. If you’re trying to sanitize, go with an EPA approved disinfectant.
Toothpaste as a Silver Polish
While a silverware hack might be to use toothpaste, toothpaste is far too abrasive for silver. If left alone, it can leave small scratches and will dull the shine overtime. Over time, toothpaste might wear your silver instead of making it shine. Do this instead, choose a specific silver polish for delicate metals.
Vinegar for Hardwood Floors
Vinegar is a great cleaning agent, but it’s not recommended for use on hardwood floors. Its acidic nature can strip away the floor’s protective finish allowing it to appear dull and vulnerable to further damage. A safer bet for keeping your floors in top shape is a pH neutral wood cleaner.
Dark Stone Hydrogen Peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is a powerful cleaner, but it’s not a good cleaner for dark stone surfaces like granite or slate. It can leave light spots that are hard to remove, causing discoloring. Cleaning dark stones with a mild dish soap and water mixture won’t harm their natural color or finish. Use the peroxide on surfaces where color fading won’t be an issue.
Cleaning Wood Furniture With Rubbing Alcohol
Rubbing alcohol may be a great disinfectant, but it will be hard on the wood furniture. If you do not remove the varnish, it can strip it away and leave dry, unsightly patches that are hard to repair. Alcohol-based cleaners are best used on glass or metal, as they won’t do lasting damage. Wood is best cleaned with an easy furniture cleaner designed especially for wood.
Baking Soda on Aluminum Pots and Pans
Baking soda is a cleaning superstar all around, but not with aluminum. Baking soda also turns aluminum pots and pans dark when the two are applied together. There are aluminum cleaners available that will do the job and won’t discolor.
Hydrogen Peroxide Mix and Vinegar
It sounds like a super disinfectant combo, mixing vinegar and hydrogen peroxide, but it’s actually risky. Together, these two ingredients form peracetic acid, a corrosive flammable substance which can irritate your skin and eyes and damage surfaces. Use one or the other, but never both at the same time.
Stainless Steel Lemon and Baking Soda Scrub
On its own, baking soda and lemon juice are both great cleaners, but together they can be a little too abrasive for stainless steel. Using this mixture will leave fine scratches on the stainless steel, and dull it. Stainless steel is often just a mild dish soap and water solution away from looking as fresh and new as the day it was installed.
Rust Removal Solution of Salt and Vinegar
Salt and vinegar can take the rust off of some metals, but they are too strong for other metals, particularly delicate or thin items. Pits or discoloration can be left behind by this combo. If you have fragile items, you should use a rust removal product that is safe for use on metal.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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