When we got this little guy I started becoming a lot more aware of the chemicals we were using in our home that could possibly hurt him, and have since been using plain white distilled vinegar to clean pretty much everything.
Today, however, I decided to do a deep clean in our bathroom and scrubbed our bathtub with bleach spray because the bottom of our tub has some weird texture that makes it nearly impossible for anything except bleach to get white, and even that sometimes doesn't do it. Anyway, I also used some toilet cleaner with bleach and then finished cleaning the rest of the toilet with vinegar. Well... here is your lesson for the day - do not mix vinegar and bleach!
My throat started burning and my eyes were watering so I opened the windows, let Toby out onto the balcony, and then googled mixing vinegar and bleach. Apparently, it mixes together to create chlorine gas that can be dangerous. Now it's 106 outside and Toby and I are sitting on the other side of the house with all of the windows open!
I started reading the labels on these products and sort of freaked out knowing that I've been using this stuff for so long without realizing how dangerous it is. For example, my toilet bowl cleaner recommends wearing goggles to prevent permanent eye damage. WHAT? And the spray I used in the bathtub says to wear gloves to prevent burns to your skin! I threw out that stuff and will be purchasing these natural, safer alternatives! It's better for us, the environment, and it helps that the packaging is so darn cute!
Happy (and safe) cleaning!