You might put so much of your time and effort into ensuring your home or office is spick and span but, in doing so, you could potentially be doing more harm than good. 

This article will bring you 12 surprising facts about cleaning products that may leave you flabbergasted.

At ByPurify, I do my best to give you the most comprehensive and honest information when it comes to keeping your home clean. 

Let’s explore cleaning products further…

What Are Traditional Cleaning Products?

Traditional cleaning products are cleaning products you’d generally get from any local store. 

Window cleaners, disinfectants, and furniture polishes to brooms and mops are but just a few, and there's a wide range of these products under different brands and available at different stores. 

What’s more

These cleaning products allow us to effectively remove germs and stains from areas of my homes and personal possessions, and even spruce them up through a polish if needed. 

But while these products allow us to keep my spaces and belongings clean, their chemicals might hurt us and even damage what I try to leave spotless - especially when they’re not used correctly. 

Read on to find out more. 

12 Surprising Facts About Your Cleaning Products

My 12 facts about cleaning products include information about cleaning gloves, air fresheners, and green cleaners. 

Find all 12 surprising facts about your cleaning products right here below. 

Cleaning Gloves Are Unhygienic

This may be the most shocking of them all, especially to all the staunch, regular cleaners, but your latex or rubber gloves aren’t as hygienic as you think. 

Because many cleaning gloves are often thick, they technically can offer slight protection when you're using your hands to clean around the house. 

However, this can create a false sense of security - especially if you’re not careful about how you store and remove your cleaning gloves. 

Here’s why:

If you’re storing your gloves incorrectly and carelessly, or you're using methods to remove your gloves that defeat your purpose of keeping your hands and the inside of your gloves clean, this can cause germ transmission. 

Cleaning gloves, no matter how thick, are also known to tear easily, both visibly and on a microscopic level; again resulting in germ transmission. 

Overusing Disinfectants

Too much of anything isn’t a good thing, and the same can be said for disinfectant use.

The overuse of strong disinfectants and their chemicals, like quaternary ammonium compounds (quats), can not only damage your surfaces and furniture, but they can also prove to be dangerous to your health and well-being. 

In addition to this

Mixing your disinfectants and their chemicals when cleaning can lead to highly toxic, dangerous, and unpleasant results for your health and for your home.

Mild soap and warm water will most likely do just as good a job as any other harsh disinfectant.

Cleaning Chemicals & COPD

As briefly mentioned in the previous point, harsh cleaning chemicals have a strong link to the possibility of health degradation. 

Here, we’re specifically talking about chronic lung disease (COPD). 

According to a relatively recent study that looked at female nurses and their occupational exposure to disinfectants, a troubling 25% to 38% had an increased risk of developing COPD outside of asthma and smoking¹.

Air Fresheners & Lung Harm

They may smell quite pleasant, but the use of general air fresheners has been linked to general and respiratory illnesses. 

A 2016 study showed that because of fragranced fresheners and products, nearly 40% of the (US) population described facing issues relating to chest/breathing, headaches, and other related illnesses².

Fragrances Hiding Toxicity  

Regular cleaning products use their various scents to hide just how toxic they are.

Often, scented cleaning products will have the simple ingredient ‘fragrance’ listed on the back of their packaging. 

What you won’t know about this ingredient is that it contains several harmful chemicals, such as phthalates, musks, and allergens. 

Being exposed to these harmful ingredients can hurt your body’s ability to fight off toxins.

Antibacterial Cleaners Contact Time

Most antibacterial products claim to kill 99.9% of germs, but it may just be that you’re wiping the product off the surface too quickly for it to actually kill as many germs as promised! 

The correct way to clean with antibacterial products is to let the solution stay on the surface once it’s been applied, and let it sit on the surface for a minimum of 30 seconds before wiping away. 

Exposure to Harsh Chemicals & Risks

Both short and long-term exposure to harsh chemicals can prove dangerous to your health, and there are many ways to be exposed. 

Exposure can refer to breathing the chemicals in, or even absorbing them through the pores of your skin when in use. 

Whether short-term or long-term, unfavorable effects on your health because of exposure include respiratory issues and cancers, skin irritations such as eczema and, in acute cases, reproductive problems. 

Bad Cleaning Habits Exist

It’s one thing to create regular cleaning habits, but it’s another thing to know whether your cleaning habits are good. 

If you’re not careful, there are several bad cleaning habits you could easily fall into. 

Let’s take a look at a few of these:

• Using harsh products like bleach and ammonia whilst cleaning, but not keeping the space ventilated (open windows and doors) while you do.
• Mixing cleaning products or using more than one product at a time on a surface, leading to possible surface damage.
• Using more of a cleaning product on a certain surface with the belief that it’ll appear cleaner, when less is usually more and gives a better result.
• Using certain products on items they shouldn’t be used on, leading to corrosion, staining and other forms of damage.

Cleaning Products & Bacteria Resistance

There are rising concerns that antibacterial cleaners are contributing to bacteria resistance, and this may be due to the world’s urge to eradicate all kinds of germs. 

Some bacteria, now matter how much you clean, will remain behind - most likely because ‌of a mutation they have. 

Because of this, they’re able to multiply and become a populace of resistant bacteria that certain antibacterial cleaners may not work as well against. 

All-Purpose Cleaners & Their Efficacy

We’re all for convenience, but expecting one cleaning product to meet almost all your cleaning needs might just hurt your pocket rather than help it. 

All-purpose cleaners aren’t as effective as they’re made out to be, because certain areas around the house require certain dedicated products. 

What’s required for hardwood floors may not be the same for stainless steel surfaces, and while using an all-purpose cleaner for one surface could work, it could very well be damaging to another. 

Green Cleaners & Cleaning Power

There’s a running idea that if a cleaning product is ‘green’ or considered eco-friendly, then it won’t work as well as traditional cleaning products. 

This couldn’t be further from the truth!

These cleaning products opt for less harmful ingredients that are organic and friendlier to the environment. 

Not only does this make cleaning less of a hazardous task, but you don’t have to lose on cleaning power either.

Homemade Cleaning Hacks

The idea of using regular food and personal care products as cleaning products is not a new concept. 

There are ways to use foods like vinegar, lemons and even ketchup to aid in your cleaning, especially when you might’ve forgotten to take a trip to the store for fresh supplies!

Vinegar and lemon seem to be the most popular ones. 

But why’s that?

Because of their level of acidity, lemons can be used as a disinfectant or to clear stains on plastic surfaces. 

The same goes for vinegar; it’s great for those unpleasant smells and for pesky, stubborn grime and gunk on appliances and tools. 

Common Questions

In Conclusion

The ingredients and personal health effects of cleaning products aren’t always known, so I hope that these 12 surprising facts about cleaning products have prompted you to be more aware of and cautious with your choices.

Traditional cleaning products can be incredibly dangerous if you’re not careful about the products you’re using and how you use them. 

While it’s great to consider natural and green options, continue to practice safe cleaning habits if and when using traditional cleaners. 

Vacuums are fantastic cleaning machines, read our cleaner reviews to find out more.