Technically, coffee and tea have been known to keep dark clothes dark or even “dye” them; actually, using them in your washing machine has been proven to be pretty ineffective. The myth about adding one cup of black coffee to your laundry load is futile because of how much water your machine uses to wash your clothes.
In other words, for those coffee and tea drinkers out there, don’t waste your precious tea herbs and coffee grounds for laundry. It would be better to keep your delicious caffeinated drinks to satisfy you in the morning and keep you energized to do your chores around the house.
Should You Rub the Stains In?
Whether you’re hosting a birthday party or wine and cheese soirée, it’s always good to know how to handle any carpet stain. While drenching your carpet with a cleaning mixture and rubbing in the stain might work briefly, cleaning professionals advise against it. Why? Because you hazard pushing the stain further into the carpet and creating mold or odor issues.
To avoid this, they suggest spraying your cleaning solution on a dry cleaning cloth and then “dab” or “blot” with patience rather than trying to “rub” the stained area deeper into the carpet.
Using Glass Jars for Cleaning Products Can Do More Harm Than Good
There’s nothing like finding ways to be more eco-friendly and reusing your glass containers and jars. However, the best thing to do when it comes to cleaning solutions is to keep them in their own personal containers with proper labels. Why? Firstly, because with the original container, you have immediate access to the product’s warnings and how to deal with an accident caused by the cleaning solution.
Another safety issue is that cross-contamination between cleaning products can be fatal, too. Some diluted liquid bleach solutions are susceptible to degradation. High temperatures, contamination, and even exposure to sunlight can cause the liquid bleach active to degrade into salt and water.
Using Vinegar on Your Hardwood Floors
It’s always best to purchase and use the right cleaning products for your hardwood floors; if you’ve used a DIY vinegar-based solution already, then your surfaces should be fine if it was heavily diluted with water.
Still, though, you should stay away from using any kind of vinegar as a cleaning solution for your hardwood floors altogether. Why? Because the acid in the vinegar might damage the wood or the chemical varnish on them.
Using Bleach for Rust
We know that bleach's main purpose is to remove stains, but bleach may be the last thing you want to use when it comes to rust. The chemical reaction in bleach has an oxidizing effect when removing stains on your clothes that is similar to the one that causes rust on metal.
For many, this may be surprising, but for others, it's probably obvious that you'll need to use a rust remover product instead, which can usually be found at hardware stores.