· Michael Blair
Cleaning products divide by chemistry rather than by marketing, and a small set covers nearly everything. Two combinations are genuinely hazardous and worth knowing before anything else.
Never mix these
Bleach and ammonia produce chloramine gas, which is seriously harmful. Many glass cleaners contain ammonia, so cleaning a shower with bleach and then glass cleaner is a realistic route to it.
Bleach and acid — including vinegar and many descalers and toilet cleaners — produce chlorine gas. Do not combine, and do not use one straight after the other on the same surface.
The short list
A pH-neutral all-purpose cleaner for most surfaces. An acid descaler for hard water. A degreaser for the kitchen. A stone-safe cleaner if you have natural stone. Microfibre cloths.
That covers the large majority of household cleaning without duplication.
- Never mix bleach with ammonia or with any acid
- pH-neutral all-purpose for most surfaces
- Acid descaler for Middle Tennessee hard water
- Degreaser for kitchen and extractor
- Stone-safe cleaner if you have marble or limestone
- Microfibre, washed without fabric softener
Where dwell time matters
Disinfectants have a stated contact time, often several minutes, and wiping immediately means they have not worked. Most household disinfecting fails on this rather than on product choice.
The same applies to descalers and degreasers — the chemistry needs time.
Microfibre
It works mechanically, trapping particles in the fibre, which is why a damp microfibre cloth outperforms a cloth and spray on dust.
Wash it without fabric softener, which coats the fibres and destroys the property that makes it work.