Cleaning with Ammonia

When I was growing up, Ammonia was one of the cleaning supplies you could readily find in my mother's cupboard where the cleaning supplies were kept.

I actually remember using it to clean with. I would wear rubber gloves and make the mixture of 1/4 cup with a bucket of warm water. I would use it for cleaning the bathroom floor and wiping down the outside of the toilet. However, at the time as a young teenager, I was unaware of the dangers or shall I say precautions we must take when using ammonia.

You should NEVER use ammonia with any type of product that includes chlorine. You will find yourself making a large batch of ammonium chloride, which can be lethal to be around.

So remember ammonia is cheap to buy and can be used to clean around your house with, in fact my mother even taught me to use it to clean my diamond ring with.

But the most important thing to remember is that you make sure that you are not using it alongside or near any product that has chlorine in it. This cannot be mentioned enough, as it forms a highly toxic gas which can be deadly.

With what I mentioned above and the fact that you must remember it is important to work in a ventilated area by opening the windows when using ammonia to clean with. I could see how an innocent mistake could be made by mixing clorox which is in so many of our cleaning products with ammonia....it's just not worth chancing it. For me, ammonia will stay on the shelf in the store.

My advice would be to stick with household products designed for specific cleaning. My personal favorites are Spic and Span or Mr. Clean for the floors. I also use 409 or lysol products.