The Most Important Place To Use Bleach That You're Probably Missing

Bleach is a very useful chemical for a variety of everyday uses, including disinfecting and getting, and like Sonic Soak shows, getting your whites whiter in the washing machine. While every home likely has a bottle of bleach on hand, you might not be aware of some important uses that often go unnoticed. This rockstar ingredient can clean things you never imagined it could, as well as being an affordable solution for many things. 

Bleach tends to be a product we only use in the kitchen, bathroom, or in our laundry. It can be difficult to break with the tradition of what we were raised to know about this cleaning agent and expand its uses to other things. In fact, one of the most important places to use bleach that you're probably missing is outside. Bleach can actually be incredibly beneficial to your yard and garden in a plethora of ways. This might come as a surprise, but it's true nonetheless! So next time you purchase a bottle of bleach, consider bringing it outside when it's time for front or backyard chores.  

Bringing bleach into your garden and around the perimeter of your house is a very important way to utilize it. According to National Property Inspections, you can use bleach to kill weeds right where they are at. It's not a great idea to pour bleach directly into your garden, of course, but you can kill the ones that pop up in your sidewalk cracks, front stoop, or other areas with wood or concrete. To do this, pour the bleach directly into the cracks without diluting it. Take caution to avoid any plants, shrubs, grass, flowers, or anything else you want to protect from bleach's killing properties. Using bleach on weeds will make them wither away, and they can then be picked out or swept away. 

While bleach is usually associated with killing everything from bacteria to garden nuisances, it can actually help bring life to fresh-cut flowers. Add just a very small amount to your vase and fill it with water. You don't need a whole lot — just three drops per liter of water, plus a teaspoon or so of sugar. So how exactly does this work? The bleach is strong enough to block bacterial growth while also being diluted enough to not cause harm.

According to Clorox's website, there are other bleach uses around the yard that are useful beyond those mentioned above. You can walk around your yard with a bleach mixture and remove mold and mildew from your patio. Simply wash your patio with 3/4 of a cup of bleach combined with one gallon of water. After you pour it on, let it sit for five minutes and soak. Remove it with a scrub brush and rinse it completely using a garden hose or pressure washer. According to the website, the same formulation can be used to remove mold from flower pots living outside, as well as the area surrounding a swimming pool, pond, and fountain. You can also eliminate tree fungus by spraying a mixture up to three times per day until it disappears. 

Bleach products have been used by large forest organizations to protect valuable trees from disease, and now many people are catching on to these methods for their own yards. It's an affordable, reasonably safe option for any household.