I have a love/hate relationship with cleaning. I love making my home look great and take pride in a clean home. However, my family does a good job of making messes that make my house look like I never cleaned in the first place. This makes me hate cleaning! That being said I am always looking into new ways to clean. Ways to make it look like I cleaned…At least for a minute.
If I can find better, cheaper and quicker ways to clean I am all for it. Now today’s subject might surprise you. We all know you can clean with apple cider vinegar, I mean what can’t you do with it! But let’s talk about rubbing alcohol. Can you clean with rubbing alcohol?
Yes, you can! Rubbing alcohol is a disinfectant. It kills bacteria, fungi, and viruses, it leaves a streak-free shine on just about any surface, it works great as a degreaser and is extremely affordable.
For those of you who want to dive deeper into rubbing alcohol let’s keep going…
Is rubbing alcohol a good disinfectant?
So we just learned that rubbing alcohol is a disinfectant but just how good is it? What will it kill? Well I am not a scientist and I don’t have a lab to test these things for myself, but what I found from my research is that rubbing alcohol can kill certain bacteria in 10 seconds or less, including strep, Staph aureus, pyogenes, E. coli, Salmonella typhosa, and Pseudomonas species. For M. tuberculosis, it may take as long as five minutes of contact.
From what I have been reading using rubbing alcohol in your home around cold and flu season can stop the spread of germs immensely. You can wipe down doorknobs and light switches. Really anywhere people are always touching.
As I mentioned rubbing alcohol also leaves a streak-free shine. I have looked for years for a way to get a streak-free shine on my windows. And I was amazed at the outcome of using alcohol.
Is rubbing alcohol good for cleaning windows?
To be honest all the big companies window sprays really stink. I have never found one that really works and as you know I do not like chemicals in my home. I actually found norwex before I learned about rubbing alcohol.
So my go-to is the norwex enviro cloth for windows. But when I learned about the rubbing alcohol I had to give it a try. Because not everyone has a norwex cloth and I am always looking for alternative ways to clean and want to be able to share what I find.
Below are the pictures of my windows with my norwex cloth and rubbing alcohol. What do you think?
I was really impressed with the rubbing alcohol. It seems to do just as good as the norwex cloth. The only difference I would say is the smell. With the norwex cloth, you just use water so no alcohol smell. I know that this post is about rubbing alcohol but if you wanna learn more about my obsession with norwex you can read my article here. Anyway, back to rubbing alcohol for cleaning…
What is the best rubbing alcohol for cleaning?
Rubbing alcohol usually is sold 60% to 90% isopropyl alcohol. This should work great for everyday cleaning. If you have a really tough job you can always get a stronger percentage of alcohol. The brand really does not matter much. They all work the same. Here is some on amazon if you are interested…
When you clean with rubbing alcohol you will obviously need a cloth of some kind. Any cotton cloth should work just fine. But depending on the job you will want a certain type of cloth.
If you are cleaning a surface that can scratch easily such as a computer, mouse, car parts, electronics, etc. You will want to use a microfiber cloth. If you are cleaning hard to reach places a q-tip works great for those areas. For anything else, a good old cotton washcloth will work great.
I would suggest using white cloth just in case the colors of what you are cleaning transfer.
We now know that alcohol is good for cleaning and what kind to get. But is it okay to breathe in? Can I clean my kid’s toys with it? What about my phone screen? Let’s take a second and go over the do’s and don’t of cleaning with rubbing alcohol.
The health of rubbing alcohol…
If you have read any of my other articles you know that I don’t like chemicals and do my very best to keep them out of my home. I have small children and not only do I worry that they will get into the stuff I also want to teach them how to take care of a household and if I have products full of toxic junk I feel like they can’t help with the cleaning. So is breathing rubbing alcohol bad?
Inhaling large amounts of rubbing alcohol can cause throat irritation which can result in vomiting.
But if you are cleaning with very small amounts you should have no problems. My next question was is it toxic and bad for you? Or can it just cause that because it is strong? I mean there are healthy things that could make you cough because of the strong smell. Pepper for example! That being said is rubbing alcohol safe? Is it toxic in any way?
Rubbing alcohol is toxic to humans and absorbs into the skin very quickly.
After I learned this I assumed that I would not want to use it to clean anymore because I don’t want the toxins in my home. But it turns out that it is toxic in large amounts AND when it absorbs into your skin.
So when you clean something with it you will not be touching it because the rubbing alcohol will be on the cloth and once you clean the item it dries instantly so it is no longer a danger.
From what I have learned you can clean just about anything with rubbing alcohol. You do want to be careful though because it is flammable. So just be cautious if you decide to clean your stovetop or other flammable items.
I want to be a little more specific and share 11 ways that you can clean with rubbing alcohol. There are obviously more these are just a few of the best in my opinion.
Cleaning with rubbing alcohol
1.Hair spray
Whenever you use hair spray it seems to coat your mirrors and counter. Rubbing alcohol works great to remove the hair spray quickly. It will also leave your mirrors shiny and streak-free.
2. Car windows
I live in Michigan so this one excites me. Mix a 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol into a quart of water, transfer to a spray bottle and spray onto your car windows and polish. This will prevent frost from settling.
If you already have frost on your windows take the same mixture and spray on all your windows run back inside for a second grab a cup of coffee (That part is optional) and let it work. Come back off and the frost will wipe right off.
3. Clean your phone
First, let me tell you how gross your phone is. Did you know that your phone can carry up to 17,000 bacteria genes? And did you know that your phone has up to ten times more germs than a toilet seat? Yes, I am super grossed out as well. I let my baby play with my phone! That’s worse than letting him suck on the toilet seat!
Well rubbing alcohol is the best cleaner for your phone. Because unlike other cleaners is dries super fast so you don’t have to worry about water damage on your phone.
4. Permanent marker & ink stains
Believe it or not, rubbing alcohol will remove permanent marker from most surfaces. If you have kids this will defiantly come in handy.
As far as ink stains it works just as well. Soak your stained item in rubbing alcohol and throw in the wash.
5. Stainless Steel cleaner
As I mentioned rubbing alcohol works great on windows and mirrors for a streak-free shine. But little did I know it works the same on stainless steel. I got a stainless steel fridge and no commercial cleaners worked for me. Thank you for rubbing alcohol.
6. Microfiber stains
Again, do you have kids? Did they think it would be great fun to color on your microfiber furniture? Well rubbing alcohol to the rescue.
Rubbing alcohol works much better than water because the water will soak into the fibers and stain it even more. The rubbing alcohol does not soak into the fibers. Instead, it evaporates and draws the stains out.
All you will do is spray the microfiber where the stain is and scrub. I would suggest using a white or light-colored cloth so that no other color is transferred.
7. Computer and mouse
I don’t know about you but my mouse and keyboard get really dusty. And like a phone collects a lot of germs. The thing about computers is that they are hard to disinfect.
Because generally you have to spray a solution to disinfect and you can’t do that to a computer. But if you lightly spritz rubbing alcohol it works great! It will evaporate so fast there will be no water damage.
8. Kids toys
I know what your thinking…Is rubbing alcohol safe for cleaning toys?
The answer is yes.
Toys need to be cleaned often especially in a daycare or nursery. And usually, people clean them with Lysol or something to that degree. That freaks me out! Lysol is FULL of chemicals and you are seriously cleaning your babies toy and he will be sucking on all those chemicals!
With rubbing alcohol it dries so fast there is nothing left for the baby to get in his mouth. So you can disinfect the toys but not leave behind any harmful chemical.
It is best to clean the toys first by soaking them in dish soap. After that spray them with 1/2 water 1/2 rubbing alcohol solution and you will have clean and disinfected toys!
9. Degreaser
As I mentioned you want to be careful around flames do I would not get to close to your stovetop. But you can spray rubbing alcohol on your countertops to remove butter or oils etc. It also works well to loosen up sticky stuff on the outside of your oven doors or trash can etc.
10. Carpet cleaner
We have very little carpet in our house but I recently just purchased a new rug for our newly remodeled living room. I bought a rug with a crazy pattern hoping it would hide the stains from my kids. But they still somehow spill things on the white part of the rug.
But I found that if you spray full-strength rubbing alcohol onto the rug it will remove any type of stain! ANY! I’m serious! Pee, poop, crayons, markers, Etc. And It will not discolor the carpet or leave a big patch of soap on your carpet.
11. Jewelry Cleaner
I am really not a jewelry person but my husband got me a very nice engagement ring. I don’t ever get it cleaned and don’t ever take it off when I do messy work. So my ring gets pretty gross.
All you do is soak your jewelry in rubbing alcohol and let it sit for a few minutes. Dry off and you’re good to go.
What else is rubbing alcohol used for?
Well, there are lots of things that rubbing alcohol can be used for but since this post is supposed to be about cleaning I will just share my 3 favorite uses from rubbing alcohol.
1.Tick Removal
Last summer my daughter got a tick. I am usually calm but this totally freaked me out. First of all, it is so gross a bug literally crawled into my child’s head and secondly, the possibility of Lymes always worries me. My Dad got bite years ago and got Lymes disease and no way could I let my baby get that.
When you get a tick you don’t want to just rip it out because if the head sticks into your body your chance of being infected is much higher. So rubbing alcohol!
When my daughter had the tick we took a q-tip and just kept putting the alcohol around the tick. It took a while but eventually, the alcohol drew out the tick and we could remove the whole body.
This also works on dogs. If you can hold your dog and put alcohol as close to the tick as possible.
2. Firestarters
I love being outside but when it comes to starting fires I have no patience. I want to be able to light a match and have the first start. That’s not too much to ask right?
Well, it’s not with rubbing alcohol! All you do is put natural corks in a mason jar and fill the jar with rubbing alcohol! Boom! Fire starter!
3. Make an ice pack
Do you need an ice pack that you can re-use and won’t freeze into a solid clump? Put 1 part rubbing alcohol and 3 parts water into a Ziploc and freeze.
Rubbing alcohol substitute
Who else reads something online, gets super excited than goes to try whatever they just read just to find out they don’t have what they need to make it? That’s me! So if you don’t have rubbing alcohol is there a substitute?
The answer is yes. But it depends on what you are wanting to use it for.
The following list all work to substitute rubbing alcohol.
1.Vinegar
Vinegar is a not chemical liquid and is acetic acid. Because of the acid, it is similar to rubbing alcohol and it has the same disinfectant qualities. Vinegar is a great substitute for rubbing alcohol because is not toxic and will not hurt your skin whatsoever.
Vinegar has so many uses around the home and is always a good thing to have on hand. There are really no side effects to it. You just have to be careful not to use too much. But that is with anything!
2. Hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide has many of the same properties as rubbing alcohol. From what I have found it is just as effective and has hardly any side effects.
3. Witch hazel
Witch hazel has a chemical in it called tannins. This gives it its anti-viral and anti-inflammatory effects. Witch hazel is very mild and can be taken internally and topically.
Rubbing alcohol and Vinegar cleaner
You can totally clean with just rubbing alcohol but if you are not comfortable doing that than you can make a solution of rubbing alcohol, Vinegar and dish soap. Once you mix it up you will put it in a spray bottle and you now have an all-purpose cleaner.
All-purpose cleaner
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1-pint rubbing alcohol
- 1 teaspoon dishwasher soap
- 1 gallon of water
Conclusion
The whole point of this post was to answer the question “Can you clean with rubbing alcohol?” And we figured out that…
Yes, you can! Rubbing alcohol works as a disinfectant. It kills bacteria, fungi, and viruses, when used for cleaning it always leaves a streak-free shine and it works great as a degreaser and is extremely affordable.
We also learned other uses for rubbing alcohol and rubbing alcohol substitutes. Plus a recipe for an all-purpose cleaner! I hope I was able to answer your questions and that you can now use this new knowledge in your home!