5 Reasons You Should Buy Isopropyl Alcohol For Your Household

Isopropyl alcohol is the primary component in the most common rubbing alcohol antiseptics used today. You probably haven’t heard the term before but in 2020 you’ve no doubt used a fair bit of isopropyl alcohol unknowingly.

We’ve all got well-acquainted with hand sanitizer over the last few months and rightfully so because it helps greatly in dealing with this particular virus, and a lot of hand sanitizers are made using this alcohol.

For the most part, the alcohol is safe because you will mainly be getting it in a somewhat diluted form in the products that usually use it but it is not without its dangers. It’s flammable for one thing, and if ingested or inhaled in large doses it can cause a lot of harm.

Now, this is easy enough to avoid if you are just using something like sanitizer or a cleaning product that is not entirely isopropyl alcohol but you should still watch out for some of these potential issues when using it.

What you’ll come to realize as you read more about this stuff is that you can use it as a cheaper alternative to a lot of store-bought cleaning agents. Glass can be a bit of pain, it’s harder to keep clean than a lot of other surfaces.

This has a lot to do with the fact that water is naturally attracted to glass and when it makes contact it tends to spread and subsequently evaporate, leaving all of the minerals and bacteria on the surface.

Because there is generally so much glass in our homes, in the form of the windows, the mirrors and the shower enclosures among others, it’s important to have an effective glass cleaner to keep said bacteria to a minimum.

You can make one really cheap using just a little bit of isopropyl alcohol mixed with water, vinegar and then stored in a spray bottle. It’s a great solution because it works and it won’t be anywhere near as expensive as store-bought glass cleaner.

2.    Degreasing

Grease is such a huge problem and it can feel like it’s completely out of control a lot of the time. It’s such a tricky thing to clean, it requires a lot of effort and you have to do it so regularly that people often just end up neglecting it.

But grease shouldn’t be neglected because it traps bacteria, it’s flammable and it’s just a generally unhygienic thing to let build up on your countertops, your oven and your kitchen cabinets.

Isopropyl will deal with that problem very swiftly though. It’s such a quick and easy solution that I would suggest you actually just do it every evening after you’re done using the kitchen for the day.

Just soak a dishrag or a sponge in rubbing alcohol and then use that to rub down every surface in your kitchen where grease might build up. You could also give your pots and pans a bit of a once over with it too.

3.    Pest Control

Let me preface this one by saying that if you have a very serious pest problem, that this kind of rubbing alcohol shouldn’t be the solution that you go for because chances are you’re going to have disappointing results.

If you’ve got an infestation of rats or cockroaches or other very difficult to kill creatures which have basically taken over your home, then you need to seek professionals to come in and deal with that.

But if the problem is relatively small, then rubbing alcohol could be a good option for you to eliminate the pests while also preventing them from multiplying and causing an even larger issue.

It’s seen some positive results for people who have problems with ticks, bed bugs or fruit flies. So give this a try by using a fine mist spray bottle and just taking that to the affected areas. Just remember that if it doesn’t work, you shouldn’t wait around before bringing in the pros.

4.    Deodorant

Much like we discussed earlier with the glass cleaner, you can also use this as a cheap solution if you are in need of deodorant. Deodorant will usually serve to eliminate odours by both killing bacteria and also including a specific scent.

So if you want to make homemade deodorant, the rubbing alcohol can serve the purpose of dealing bacteria, but you will of course have to mix it with something else to ensure the extra scent.

An essential oil should do the trick, maybe something like tea tree, eucalyptus or lavender would work.

5.    Cleaning Electronics

We all tend to shirk a little bit when it comes to cleaning our electronics because we assume that if we get them wet then they’re done for and we’ve just ruined a perfectly functional, expensive piece of technology.

This is a valid concern of course but if you have the right cleaning materials then you don’t need to worry too much about it which is why rubbing alcohol is very beneficial in this regard. It will kill all of the bacteria and it also dissolves very quickly.

This means that there won’t be any lingering and potentially harmful moisture on your electronics. It’s important to keep these things clean. We touch our phones and our keyboards a lot so they can get really dirty.

So what you should do is wipe down your electronics with a cloth soaked in the alcohol and make sure it’s microfiber, the least likely material to be abrasive against your screens.

It should be pretty clear now that isopropyl alcohol will work absolute wonders in your home and has a number of sanitary applications. It’s always worth having some for cleanliness and cost-effective purposes.