Economic Crisis

I have a MS in Chemistry. Some days I am proud of that. Most of those days are laundry days. Like the day I got red Sharpie out of Goosie's shirt by soaking it in isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol . Or the day that I got acrylic paint out of her pants using pine-sol. But today....today I am ashamed of myself.

Recently, our bathtub has been succumbing to a thickening layer of nasty mildew. My current favorite bathroom cleaner wasn't touching it. Well, it would with scrubbing, but who has the time for scrubbing? So, when Jimmy John suggested Tilex, I ran out to our local Target and mindlessly grabbed the mildew and mold variety. When I sprayed it on our grimy tile, I thought, "This isn't what I remember Tilex smelling like, this smells like bleach." Active Ingredients of Mold and Mildew Tilex? 2.40% Sodium hypochlorite. Bleach. Diluted bleach for $3.11. ARGH! Well, at least I got a nice spray bottle out of it.

Almost as bad as the time I bought "laptop screen cleaning wipes", which were lint-free wipes soaked in rubbing alcohol. I think I paid $3 or $4 for about 10 wipes. Double ARGH!

I have found that bleach and rubbing alcohol are marketed again and again as different cool products. Be on the watch. For example: Clorox Anywhere Sanitizing Spray is duh-duh-duh-da! diluted bleach! So read the labels. (this is more advice for me, than you) Sodium Hypochlorite = bleach. Isopropyl Alcohol=Rubbing alcohol. Save yourself a little dough and dilute it yourself.

(FYI Regular bleach is 6% sodium hypoclorite, so a 3:1 dilution would be perfect for your bathroom needs. Sanitizing spray needs much less - 0.0095%, so a 500:1 dilution.)