People Are Sharing the Most Terrible Cleaning Tips They've Ever Seen

Thanks to the savvy housekeepers, homeowners, and hygiene lovers over on Reddit, I’ve learned that keeping a few key cleaning products in the bathroom (and a dishwand in the shower) is a game-changer, been reminded to clean my cleaning tools, and developed the habit of always swapping in a fresh hand towel before guests come over.

But not all cleaning tips are wholesome and handy. At best, bad advice could have you wasting time and effort on “hacks” that don’t work. At worst, cleaning advice that’s not rooted in basic chemistry and an understanding of how active compounds react can be downright dangerous — and damage the finishes on your floors, furniture, and appliances. The r/Cleaningtips community has outed the most concerning cleaning advice members have encountered in a thread titled “Worst cleaning ‘tips’ you’ve seen recently” and some of the answers are alarming.

Using straight bleach

The original poster kicked things off by commenting that they had recently seen a video where someone was using straight, undiluted bleach to deodorize a trash can. The original poster correctly observed that “not only is it an incredibly strong chemical, but you [also] don’t want to be mixing it with anything.” They went on to say that “having it sit in an unvented area like a closed trash can” is probably not a great idea. Two tenets around cleaning with bleach are that leaving it to sit on surfaces can damage them and won’t achieve superior disinfection results.

Mixing cleaners

User Catlady515 probably stole the words out of more than one person’s mouth when they listed “mixing tons of different cleaners in your toilet” as the worst cleaning tip they’ve encountered. Coined #toiletoverload on TikTok, this trend involves filling toilet bowls (often near to the rim) with a cocktail of cleaning products. Not only is mixing cleaners unnecessary, but it can also be dangerous. Combining products like Lysol or Pine-Sol with bleach can create hazardous chloramine fumes that aren’t safe to inhale. These are just two examples of household cleaner combinations you should never mix.

Using vinegar for everything

Vinegar is often touted as one of the best all-around cleaners, but in reality, it’s not suited for a lot of surfaces, and it doesn’t have the wide-ranging, dirt-dislodging effect the internet would have you believe. Redditor egrf6880 rightly called out using “vinegar for everything” as bad cleaning advice, elaborating that “sure it has a couple uses, but it absolutely will ruin a lot of materials! And acid is a fixer for dye, so I cringe every time I read about a new stain that won’t budge after being ‘treated’ with hot water and vinegar.” Some things you should never clean with vinegar include natural stone countertops and hardwood floors. Besides being corrosive, vinegar also isn’t great for tackling oil or greasy residue.

Pouring too much laundry detergent

“It gets on my nerves when I see friends and family using excessive amounts of laundry detergent with the mindset that their clothes will be ‘cleaner’ and ‘smell better,’” commented  user maya_star444, and they’re not wrong. Excessive amounts of laundry detergent won’t get clothes cleaner; in fact, it can actually lead to buildup, both on your clothes and in your washer.

Not using gloves when cleaning with chemicals

Redditor bibbityboops said their pet peeve is “the amount of videos I see of people using wide varieties of chemicals with no gloves on.” One of the reasons why you should wear cleaning gloves is to protect your skin from harsh chemicals like bleach. Gloves are also a must if you’re sanitizing an area and can allow you to use hotter water (which equals a more thorough clean) when hand-washing dishes.

Mixing baking soda and vinegar

SalomeOttobourne74 named “the perennial mixing of baking soda and vinegar” as the worst cleaning tip, adding, “It makes me want to scream.” Bevies of blogs, cleaning guides, and recipes advise using a mixture of these household staples to tackle everything from hard water marks to moldy grout, rust stains, and general dirt. But this continuously-touted cleaning recipe goes against basic chemistry. 

The reason why you shouldn’t mix baking soda and vinegar is that the cleaning power of both substances comes from their respective high and low pH levels. When combined, they cancel each other out in a neutralizing reaction. If you’re planning to use baking soda and vinegar together though, you’ll want to use it while it’s still bubbling — because the fizzing action is what you want to use for cleaning, as it can help manually dislodge gunk from drains and other places. Other than that, baking soda and vinegar together is essentially “glorified water.”